Send me a pic!

Good luck with the upgrade! I completed this quest about 2 years ago and just recently got everything graded. Too bad the Emerald came back a 6 (don’t know how) so I’m in the market to upgrade that one.

Especially to this market, where so few copies are readily available on the market at any given time. I am certainly motivated to pick up a couple pieces of Power now simply out of fear that these get even more expensive and price me out altogether. I won’t be able to play with them, but I still think they are smart investments and I am happy to have Vintage be a part of my portfolio.

Sam,

Thanks for the kind words! So far I have picked up all of 1 MP Mox Pearl. My bankroll is not as large as others, and I have a bunch of funds tied up in sealed Booster Boxes right now. Hoping to get a move on those soon though, and I hope to pick up a couple more Moxen. That should be enough exposure for now.

Yeah, maybe someone with rather deep pockets (>100k) looking to corner the market bought most of the available power and then players picked up the rest. I wonder how much power was on the market at any one time during the last year. Also, the price of power was pretty much stagnant for the past several years, which likely contributes to the unwillingness of those holding extra power to sell it right now.

I would have bought some power myself, but I don’t have anywhere to play vintage, nor have the bankroll to pick up a full set. Re your article, great read.

I had a P9 playset of Unlimited and have been slowly trying to upgrade to Beta. I suspect others are doing similar. Also with such a small volume available I wonder if a slightly higher percentage was sent for grading or some sellers just pulled cards waiting to see if they would go up. All factors ever how small or few could contribute.

And Aregand is right, I am also looking at Time Vault, Workshop, Bazaar, Library, Mana Drain, and Mana Crypt as other major pieces that will see a bump sooner or later.

Sam,

I think your argument is absolutely true. I firmly believe in the trickle up effect, driving prices of power and the like significantly higher. As Aregand said, even Pseudo-Power cards like Tabernacle, Bazaar, Library etc. have all been on a rapid incline too. Surely the rising tide is raising all ships.

I only speculate on the conspiracy portion because of some conversations I’ve had/seen over the past couple months. I hear about a massive buyout of Power from SCG at a recent event, then I hear consistent rumors on Twitter, then I notice SCG has virtually no Power in stock (though I’ve been alerted that ABU Games has a decent stock). After hearing a rumor three or four times from different sources, one starts to believe said rumors know what I mean? By no means am I stepping out and calling shenanigans and conspiracy, but I could easily believe the possibility.

Vintage Masters driving up interest in Paper Vintage could also be a culprit here. But savvy speculators could be hoarding a few extra pieces of Power in anticipation of further increases – perhaps not a concerted effort to control the market but a group of wise investors hoping to make significant returns on their investment?

This is very true and a terrific add! I think there’s always something to be said about the icon-status of Power. But anything in the triple digits on the Reserved List could easily qualify. Tabernacle, Moat, and Candelabra have the added advantage of being Legacy playable.

Thanks for the comment!

Many members on this site (and other sites) have discussed buylisting into multiple pieces of power. This was made possible by the huge increase in the ‘value’ of the secondary market over the past couple years when fetches went from $30 to $100. Many players jumped when they realized that they could sell one or two modern re-printable fetches and buy an ABUR dual. This triggered the rise in duals that we saw last month. At the same time, the more savvy investors were able to unload their fetches for moxes. It is crazy to think about, but you could have sold a playset of misties and tarns for ~$600 and bought a decent condition Mox. My theory is that whenever you have a market which grows in value significantly, as did the MTG secondary market thanks to the increase in the value of Modern cards, you’ll see a trickle-up effect where the expensive cards get more expensive.

Regarding the availability of power, has it ever been widely available online? Have there been ~500+ pieces of power available at one time? If not, then >50 people looking to purchase full sets of power would deplete the available supply. Also, there it little to no incentive to sell any power now, save a financial emergency, as waiting a month will allow you to list and sell your cards for a lot more money. Perhaps there was a conspiracy, but it could also have been a lot of people who had the same good idea at the same time and were a bit ahead of the curve. I would argue that the depletion of power is a direct effect of the modern price explosion. The addition of so much value to the secondary market lowered the effective cost of luxury goods (power) for those who were already heavily invested in the secondary market.

It’s very possible that both markets are approaching a natural equilibrium. But with Modern PTQ season just around the corner, I know Modern cards will go higher – especially since all the reprints in advance of the season are a known entity.

Good to know! You think this is a long term trend of sorts? I may do the same. Or how sweet would a collection be? 1 of each foil!

my theory is that both markets have now time to reach a balance.

Locally, Modern is very hot, and people are trading all they can for their modern cards!