Buying your Magic the Gathering Card collections

[Enderw24]

For the past year now I've been dabbling a little in eBay selling whatever I could around the house. Dolls, magazines, electronics, coin collections. But what I enjoyed the most was Magic the Gathering. I've been playing, collecting, and trading M:TG cards off and on since I got into the game back in 1995. I love looking through collections, sorting cards. I've made a few dollars here and there. Nothing major. But it's good to have a hobby that brings in money rather than the reverse.

So my post here is to ask all past Magic the Gathering players who are interested in selling off their collection (or even just a portion of their collection) to sell to me. Basically what I'd want is
a) the (approximate) total number of cards you'd be selling.
b) Any highlights about the collection you'd care to point out.
c) What years you played/collected so I have a general sense of what I'll be getting.
d) card condition across the collection

For a general collection, I'll pay at a rate of 1 cent per card (or $10.00 per thousand). I find this tends to even itself out over the long run of commons that aren't worth anything and some of the "crap" rares that might generously be worth a quarter.
I'll pay your shipping too! If nothing else, it'll get some clutter out of your house and into mine!

Now if you feel you have a better collection than my bulk rate would suggest, I'll be glad to work on an individual basis to strike a fair deal.

You can reply here, or PM me, or we can work through private e-mail. Whatever you prefer. To let you all know, in order to protect myself I'm going to request that you ship first and I pay when the cards are received. After a decade of posting on this message board, I'm not about to ruin my reputation over a few dollars so I hope that you can trust me to keep to our agreement.

Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks for your interest!

[Meeko]

I'm no where near ready to sell, if I'm even considering it.

I have Complete Sets - Sealed [5th Dawn] and even a sealed Anthologies. Would you take those?

Foil Rares?

Vangaurd / Plane Chase?

[Enderw24]

Complete sets, yes. Prices would be on a set by set basis.
Foils (rares and otherwise) absolutely. Again if there are particular ones we need to work out a price on, we can. Otherwise, we can do it by a separate bulk rate depending on how many there are in the collection.
I'm probably going to have to pass on the Vanguard/Plane chase ones. Never really collected them and I'm honestly not sure yet about their general collectibility.

Thanks for asking!

[Ogre]

A couple thousand cards, I'd imagine. Will count more accurately once we've started talking about it. I played from Alpha to, oh, Dark, I guess, with some other crap thrown in there occasionally. Quite a few Alpha, Beta, Arabian, Unlimited, Dark.

I've pared down most of the good, good stuff over the years, but I still have in my sideboard ( ):

Beta Demonic Tutor
Alpha Bayou
Maze of Ith
Mishra's Factory (were there different versions?)
Beta Clone
Unlimited Chaos Orb
Beta Ice Storm

All are in played condition. Not mint, but not beat to hell.

No interest at all in the game anymore. Need money.

[Ogre]

Mishra's Factory is the Spring card.

[Enderw24]

Ogre,

I'm going to send you a PM. I think the next step is to really nail down the condition of some of these cards and then we can work out a price. Thanks for your interest!

[Ogre]

Okey doke.

[Gary "Wombat" Robson]

I'll be happy to send you a list of what I've got, but the bulk rate wouldn't interest me much. The last time I looked through an issue of Scrye, even the cheapest cards were 10 to 20 cents, and when my bookstore used to sell Magic: the Gathering cards, random lands went for a dime. So even if wholesale is half of retail, a penny a card sounds low by a factor of five.

I don't play anymore, and I know there aren't any $10 rares sitting in the random collection (the stuff that isn't in the decks), but there are some really good cards in my decks (all of my decks have protective sleeves).

[Enderw24]

Gary,

I can understand where you're coming from, but your assessment isn't accurate. The prices you find in Scrye are going to be representative of low and high prices you'd find if you were buying that individual card at a card shop. A card store that has extensive overhead and needs a substantial profit margin to stay afloat. So a card like Gray Ogre may go for 10 cents or 25 cents in the price guide but no one would pay for that because the card isn't collectible or desirable to anyone outside the one guy in a thousand putting together a jank deck and wants to throw in a silly useless common. There's no possible way that I could sell that card for a quarter. Even cards that are legitimately worth a quarter are really difficult to sell as is.
And the point of all that is there are tons and tons of "gray ogres" in everyone's collections. Hundreds and thousands of cards worth zippity doo dah, price guide be damned. So what I'm offering, what I'm paying, is for the right to buy up everything of yours in one fell swoop, crap and good cards alike, and get them all out of your hair.
If I'm lucky, I'll find a few cards here and there I can piece together to make some money. That takes a considerable amount of time.
I guess the bottom line is that my prices are actually in line with bulk lots you'll see auctioned off online.
And none of this procludes negotiation if you know your collection is worth more than the minimum buy rate.

[MHaye]

Also, Scrye ceased publication some time ago. There is no market for a print magazine providing price data, when prices can change radically.

I could do with the money but I suspect that transatlantic shipping costs would be prohibitive, at least for the full collection. (Besides, it includes a complete Beta set.) What I do have are three old folders (if I can locate them), and some foils including a batch of rares from Urza's Legacy. They'll need flattening first though. Let me know if you might be interested and I'll try and trace the folders.

[shiftless]

Originally Posted by Enderw24

I'll pay your shipping too! If nothing else, it'll get some clutter out of your house and into mine!

I like the sound of that. Most of the rare treasures I have collected over the years have left my house in this way.

I have a couple of original packs from when the game first came out plus some assorted booster packs. None of my friends play but I can't bring myself to pitch them in the trash. You may be my only hope. I'll check the treasure chest tonight and see if there are enough to be worth the trouble.

[Enderw24]

Well if it includes a complete Beta set, I can guarantee that shipping across the ocean wouldn't be prohibitive. But I also know that I almost wouldn't have the available cash on hand to make you a serious offer. Well maybe anyway.
If you're serious about selling that collection, I've got a good friend who's a dealer and he would be interested in the Beta set. I think it's possible to work something out.

[NinetyWt]

How about electronic cards, Enderw24?

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by NinetyWt

How about electronic cards, Enderw24?

Thank you, but no. I've never played Magic Online and don't have an account. I wouldn't know where to begin on that marketfront.

[JSexton]

Ender's assessment of bulk rates is spot on, FYI. He's not ripping anyone off with that price. I recently bought a bunch of bulk commons/uncommons from a dealer for proxy purposes and paid $15 per thousand. That store would certainly not buy them back from me at $10 per thousand.

[NinetyWt]

Originally Posted by Enderw24

Thank you, but no. I've never played Magic Online and don't have an account. I wouldn't know where to begin on that marketfront.

Fair enough. We've got a box of physical cards around here somewhere ... someone even had made a list of them. I'll have to see if I can scare them up.

[Mtgman]

Yea, if anything a penny per card, no matter what the card is, is fairly generous. Most dealers won't touch commons at all, and the bulk rare rate is 10-15 cents per. If I were in his shoes I probably wouldn't offer that at all because 99.9% of commons have no value. Commons from long out of print sets and a handful of staple commons are the exception.

Planechase/Archenemy are virtually worthless because they're in print. The older Vanguard cards I've seen go for anywhere from $2-$10.

I've been considering eBaying a bunch of stuff recently, but eBay is such a huge pain to deal with. I'll put together a list of some stuff I was going to get rid of that I don't care about. Probably not much of my older stuff, but I have some newer stuff I can unload because I won't play with it. Plus I haven't popped my boxes of Scars of Mirrodin yet. If I get some hot cards that I don't see myself ever using, I could offload those.

Enjoy,
Steven

[BlackKnight]

Are you at all interested in a 1996 World Championship box set? It's not sealed, but I believe only two of the decks have been played with, and they're all in great condition.

[Enderw24]

There are eight decks in that set right? And you're saying that six are still sealed?
Are the other two fully intact? Yes I'd be interested in purchasing it. Pm me and we can work the details out. Thanks!

[Mtgman]

Originally Posted by BlackKnight

Are you at all interested in a 1996 World Championship box set? It's not sealed, but I believe only two of the decks have been played with, and they're all in great condition.

There wasn't a 1996 world championship box set. There was a 1996 pro tour collector set(8 decks which were considered a sampling of the dominant archetypes of the tour), but the world championships didn't start having their decks collected and printed until 1997. The world championship box sets are all the top 4 decks from each year from 1997-2004(2005? I've seen conflicting sources) when they stopped printing the wold championship decks.

I remember this because I used to play with George Baxter and he carried his deck of the day around in the box which had his name and signature on it, which was from the 1996 pro tour collector's set. I always thought it was a waste of money to buy those non-legal sets, but the shoe is on the other foot now youbetcha.

Enjoy,
Steven

[Swords to Plowshares]

Will you buy bulk commons and uncommons, then?

[Gedd]

I'll have to check around the house, I know I have some. I think when I started playing Ice Age had just come out. Skeletons with snow-covered swampwalk don't do a whole lot right now. I know I have some nice uncommon and rares:

Swords to Plowshares
Balance
Armageddon (Playing that made me the first target for the next 5 games I played with that group, but it was worth it)
Goblin Recruiter (a few)
City of Brass

I'll check around

[BlackKnight]

Originally Posted by Mtgman

There wasn't a 1996 world championship box set. There was a 1996 pro tour collector set(8 decks which were considered a sampling of the dominant archetypes of the tour), but the world championships didn't start having their decks collected and printed until 1997.

Oops - you're right! It's actually the 1996 "Pro Tour Collector Set Inaugural Edition". I got it in a huge lot of cards and it's been sitting in the back of my closet for a year or so.

I also have an entire set of "Unglued", but I doubt that's worth anything.

Enderw24, I'll PM you the details of the Pro Tour set.

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by Swords to Plowshares

Will you buy bulk commons and uncommons, then?

Yes I will. I prefer whole collections, but cards are cards. I've found some unique ways of repackaging them and selling them off to newer players looking for some variety packs. I'm not going to go wild and splurge on 100,000 cards so let me know what number you're looking at and we can make a deal.

[Anaamika]

I'll send you everything I have if you just pay me for the shipping. You don't even have to pay me for the cards. I've been wanting to get them off my hands, anyway.

I'll check tonight and see if I can figure out what I have.

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by Anaamika

I'll send you everything I have if you just pay me for the shipping. You don't even have to pay me for the cards. I've been wanting to get them off my hands, anyway.

I'll check tonight and see if I can figure out what I have.

I don't know how in the world I can say no to that. Thanks! I'll PM you

[Autolycus]

I played from Ice-Age to Apocalypse pretty heavy and dabbled for a few years after that. Sadly I'm in Japan while my cards are still in America....I'll keep your offer in mind for the future.

Now if you happened to play Yu-gi-oh, we'd be in business

[sachertorte]

Out of curiosity, are there circa 1994 cards that are worth something that breaks a buck?
What are they and what are the chances that I'm in possession of one?

[Tom Scud]

Circa 1994 - if you somehow have unopened packs from those days, you're looking at a pretty good amount of money. Even if not, there are a number of rare and uncommon cards that could be worth a fair deal, either from the main sets (either Unlimited (December 93) or Revised (April 94)) that would have been in the stores at the time, or from the expansion sets (Arabian Nights (especially) and Antiquities).

[sachertorte]

I think most of mine are Revised and "The Dark." A friend gave me a few Arabian Nights and Antiquities, just to have so I don't think they are valuable.
Anything I should look for? Rare ones aren't exactly labeled as such.

BTW, I hardly played at all. These cards probably qualify as mint.
I'll check to see if I have any unopened packages. At least I know, not to open them if I find one.

[Tom Scud]

I've been out of the game long enough I don't really know what still has value; I'm sure others will be able to fill in better. I don't recall there being any killer cards from the Dark, so those cards' value would be strictly from collectibility, about which I know zero; from the Revised set look for multilands (lands that are both a forest and a mountain, or whatever), Sol Ring, Demonic Tutor, Fork, Balance, and probably some others that I'm forgetting about. Multilands, Fork, and Balance are rares; Sol Ring and Demonic Tutor are uncommons.

[Swords to Plowshares]

All Arabian Nights cards are valuable to some extent.

Revised dual lands (Volcanic Island, Bayou, etc) are valuable and worth $25-80 each. There are a few other valuable ones, but not very many.

Few cards from Antiquities or The Dark are valuable.

[sachertorte]

Originally Posted by Tom Scud

I've been out of the game long enough I don't really know what still has value; I'm sure others will be able to fill in better. I don't recall there being any killer cards from the Dark, so those cards' value would be strictly from collectibility, about which I know zero; from the Revised set look for multilands (lands that are both a forest and a mountain, or whatever), Sol Ring, Demonic Tutor, Fork, Balance, and probably some others that I'm forgetting about. Multilands, Fork, and Balance are rares; Sol Ring and Demonic Tutor are uncommons.

Originally Posted by Swords to Plowshares

All Arabian Nights cards are valuable to some extent.

Revised dual lands (Volcanic Island, Bayou, etc) are valuable and worth $25-80 each. There are a few other valuable ones, but not very many.

Few cards from Antiquities or The Dark are valuable.

Thanks.

I love the dual land cards. I found them much more interesting. I know I have at least a couple.
I know I have a couple Sol Ring.
Demonic Tutor at least sounds familiar, but I have no idea if I have one. It's like a treasure hunt! Now I just have to remember to look through the cards while I'm actually at home.

I remember Swords to Plowshares too. I have that one .

[HeadNinja]

Originally Posted by Ogre

Beta Demonic Tutor
Alpha Bayou
Maze of Ith
Mishra's Factory (were there different versions?)
Beta Clone
Unlimited Chaos Orb
Beta Ice Storm

http://sales.starcitygames.com/searc...g=Bayou&auto=Y Bayou is going to get you a big stack of bills. Beta Demonic is 60ish.

If you have antiquities look out for Mishra's workshop
If you have arabians look out for Bazarr of Bagdad, library of alexandria, diamond valley, juzzam etc.
If you have alliances look out for force of will.
If you have legends many of the non creature rares are worth a fair bit.
If you have the Dark...Well, geez. I don't know.
Any unlimited/beta/alpha has a premium on it.

This search shows all the > 50 dollar cards in the early sets except a/b/u, because most every card worth playing from a\b\u costs a fortune. even vanilla land.

http://sales.starcitygames.com//spoi...rmatch=EXACT&s[ear12]=1004&s[ear13]=1005&s[ear14]=1006&s[ear15]=1007&s[ear16]=1008&s[ice20]=1011&s[por56]=1059&s[por57]=1060&format=&c_all=All&colormatch=OR&ccl=0&ccu=99&t_all=All&z[]=&critter[]=&crittermatch=OR&pwrop=%3D&pwr=&pwrcc=&tghop=%3D&tgh=-&tghcc=-&mincost=50&maxcost=9999.99&minavail=0&maxavail=9999&r_all=All&g_all=All&foil=nofoil&for=no&sort1=4& sort2=1&sort3=10&sort4=0&display=1&numpage=25&showart=1&action=Show+Results

[robardin]

I definitely have cases of old (opened) MtG cards that are sitting around doing nothing much. Through 4th Edition. A lot of cards from The Dark, Ice Age, FE and whatnot. Used to have a full sets of 3E, 4E and The Dark but my binders got damanged in a basement flood so they're of no use any more, but also have lots of old decks featuring dual lands, Sol Rings, Demonic Tutors, Balance, Stasis, Counterspell, etc., which I understand are not part of the standard rotation any more.

Of course most of them are Commons and may not be worth the cost of shipping... Where are you located, anyway? (ZIP code is fine for estimation)

[Enderw24]

Honestly, I've found that cards can be placed in one of four categories:

Old school: Cards from way back when. For the most part they're collectible as they're in demand. Even the ones that normally wouldn't garner that much attention tend to here just because they're black bordered. There can still be crap worthless cards, but there's a higher proportion of good or even amazingly valuable cards.

Standard: These are the latest cards. They've come out in the last two years' worth of cycles and are really hot right now because everyone's playing with them. But each year that goes by brings another year's worth of cards rotating out of standard.

Staples: These are cards that have rotated out of standard but manage to maintain their value because they either find their place in another type of tournament deck or still have high demand in fun decks you play with your friends. Usually half a dozen cards from a set of 300 manage to make the jump from standard to staple and retain their value.

Everything else: These are cards, hot cards, not hot cards, whatever, that have rotated out of current sets and just fall off the face of the planet. No one plays with them in tournament decks anymore. Or there are better cards that have been printed in the years after they came out that they're irrelevant. What it means is that someone's collection becomes, for all intents and purposes...well, bulk. And this is such a hard concept for people to understand. How can cards I purchased 10 years ago for $300 not be worth $300 now? Are you telling me that awesome card for $25 when I was playing can't be given away now? Yes. It sucks but yes.

[robardin]

Any interest in Mythos (a relatively short-lived, HP Lovecraft based CCG from the late 1990s)? I have or had a couple of boxes of those cards, several still shrink wrapped and unopened I think.

[Mtgman]

There are generally two dimensions of pricing for M:tG cards. Playablity, and rarity. Cards which were highly playable and in hot decks, both current and yesteryear, are valuable because people want to play with them. People will do things like overlook things like gold borders, black backs, foreign languages, etc. if that's what it takes to get a hot card. Even commons can become good sellers if they're a good card(Lightning Bolt, Disenchant, Maze of Ith, etc)

The very early days of Magic included a time when Wizards of the Coast published info on the size of print runs. So we know there are only a certain number of some cards out there. The introduction of premium(foil) cards added a new set of rare(in the number-printed sense) cards which make them desirable. The old cards are pretty much the ones which have the edge here, with the average card from an old expansion having more value than today's foil cards.

The zenith of value is occupied by the cards which score high on both scales(for normal cards). The real zenith of prices for Magic cards comes with the ultra-rare cards like Proposal, the 1996 World Champion, or the Blue Hurricane.

There is another scale, which is a prestige-based scale. It's not factored into the normal prices of everyday cards, but is almost like a whole different market. It's not really separate though because it can add a premium to other prices. A Bird of Paradise is very playable, but not very rare(they've been in print pretty much continuously since the start of the game) but they command higher prices than most similarly playable cards. Part of the reason is because you can play with the older versions and get prestige from having older cards even though an identical card is currently in print. This is why even the basic land from Beta is expensive. It's playable, but technically probably less rare than modern Mythic Rares, nothing explains the price boost until you factor in the prestige factor.

Enjoy,
Steven

[iamthewalrus(:3=]

Originally Posted by JSexton

Ender's assessment of bulk rates is spot on, FYI. He's not ripping anyone off with that price. I recently bought a bunch of bulk commons/uncommons from a dealer for proxy purposes and paid $15 per thousand. That store would certainly not buy them back from me at $10 per thousand.

Yeah, $0.01 per card is actually quite generous.

I regularly sell off my bulk commons and uncommons from drafts for $3-4/thousand. There are a lot of magic cards out there, and while some are worth a lot, most are worth basically nothing.

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by robardin

Of course most of them are Commons and may not be worth the cost of shipping... Where are you located, anyway? (ZIP code is fine for estimation)

I'm in KCMO. 64137 to be specific.

[robardin]

OK thanks. Though I see you specified that you'd pick up the shipping, so that's a bit less of a concern from my end, it still could be from yours.

Per your suggestion I measured the thickness of a stack of 100 MtG cards (islands). For the record, it's pretty much exactly 1-1/4" for 100 unsleeved cards. Now to estimate how many of these suckers I've got not in sleeved decks...

[Kolga]

Completely, 100% off-topic - every SINGLE time I see the title of this thread, I read it as "Burning your Magic the Gather Card collections," and think that I should get my best friend to read it so he can get rid of the vast piles of cards he has

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by Kolga

Completely, 100% off-topic - every SINGLE time I see the title of this thread, I read it as "Burning your Magic the Gather Card collections," and think that I should get my best friend to read it so he can get rid of the vast piles of cards he has

Burn then, give them to me...whatever he wants to do

[sachertorte]

I found my cards this weekend, which is nice, since I didn't know where they were last week.

Sifting through them is another issue. So far I've found a Sol Ring and a Fork. So that what? Like 2 bucks right there? .

[Mtgman]

If they're in good shape, they're worth about $5 cash each. They go from $9-$10 at a shop. Most shops will buy them for $3-$7.

Enderw24, check your PMs. I shot you a list of stuff I could live without.

Enjoy,
Steven

[sachertorte]

Originally Posted by Mtgman

If they're in good shape

And this is where my anal-retentiveness comes to good use.

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by Mtgman

If they're in good shape, they're worth about $5 cash each. They go from $9-$10 at a shop. Most shops will buy them for $3-$7.

Enderw24, check your PMs. I shot you a list of stuff I could live without.

Enjoy,
Steven

I got it. Still sorting through some messages. I'll have an answer to you by this afternoon.
Thanks!

[Trom]

Any interest in German language cards? It's been so long that I can't remember names of the sets. They probably from the mid to late 90s. I'm in Chicago.

[Enderw24]

Originally Posted by Trom

Any interest in German language cards? It's been so long that I can't remember names of the sets. They probably from the mid to late 90s. I'm in Chicago.

I'd be interested in them, but I'm uncertain at this point how much I'd be able to offer for them. Desirability of cards in Romantic/European Languages tends to fluctuate on a card by card basis. In general it's at, or below, the value of an English language card. But sometimes there's the rare card where the value shoots up just because it's foreign.

We can work through some basic info to determine a bit more about the cards. Approximately how many are there? Are they black bordered or white bordered? Are there any symbols to signify sets in the middle of the cards on the righthand side? What's the copyright at the bottom say?

If you like, you can PM me with more details and we can work through the figures together. Thanks

[sachertorte]

Score!
Savannah
Volcanic Island x2
Badlands
Demonic Tutor
Sol Ring x3

Anything else I should look for? I swear I had other cards. I remember my friend giving me a weird card with super round corners, but I can't find it anymore. I can't find other cards that I remember having either, Birds of Paradise, Blue Doppleganger. I must have a stash tucked away somewhere else... or I threw them away