Christopher,

Thanks for commenting and adding some more data. It sounds like your observations are very consistent with my own. Now the question becomes: do players eventually buy in at the new plateau, or do vendors eventually accept losses and drop prices again to move inventory? I suspect the former happens before the latter, and thus the new price sticks. If it didn’t happen this way, these buyouts wouldn’t be nearly so profitable. My two cents on the matter.

Thanks again!

Sig

Some more anecedotal personal experience relevant (I think) to your article. I attended GP Seattle last month. Mox Diamonds were being bought (highest vender) for $120 and sold for $120-$160 except none were really moving at those prices. So, the recent spike really can’t be from limited supply. It’s all about groups/money/etc buying enough of the available pool to notch a higher price plateau. Same thing with Cradles. I’ve been to a few GPs recently (last 6 months) and I’ve seen lots of them sitting in vender cases at $200-$300 without hardly moving. So this 400+ price is weird to me.

It’s like the only movement is from the finacially backed spec guys and then moving them back to the highest buylist price after spiking. Then, rinse wash repeat b/c I’ve seen very little demand come from people actually using these cards in actual decks. Anyway, just some of my thoughts.

Hi David,

Thanks for the kind words. I understand your ranking of writers ;-).

It’s really interesting to hear my observations were not isolated. The fact that many shops are practicing this pricing procedure tells me they’re really playing the MTG Finance game. It’s so baffling, since the name of the game for these retailers should be selling cards. But maybe they don’t mind sitting on inventory? Makes little sense…

Thanks for the comment!

Sig

Thank you SO much Brian. That really means a lot to me, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Don’t forget to engage in the QS Discord where I stop by frequently to chat on topics in real time!

Excellent article Sig (though more like my 2nd favorite writer on the site). I noticed the same pricing issues at SCG Atl. Vendors were trying to unload Mox Diamond’s at $300 on Saturday morning (but none seemed to move). Also dissapointed that SCG’s HP section had limited “good deals” and a lot of cards that were 10-15% off SCG prices (putting them inline with what you could buy them for at TCGplayer)