I Need Help With Magic The Gathering Card Edition Identification And Pricing

The Game Room
1

As I like to mention, I recently sold a Volcanic Island (Unlimited edition) for $500. I am sad to admit that I needed help knowing it was Unlimited. I have several other cards that may be worth a couple hundred dollars- depending on the edition. I’ve looked at Card Kingdom and a few other sites and I still don’t know how to tell. I throw myself on the mercy of the food court!

Thanks in advance for your help.

2

I can tell you if you point me to high-res photos.

3

Thanks. But I have a LOT of old cards (the bulk of my MTG is from 93-96). Some cards (like Mana Vault) have enough differences so that I can figure out what edition they are. Others, like Balance https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/a151/doccathode/Balance01.JPG?width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds I have no clue. Is it a $50 card or a $1500 card. I cannot tell. Oh and let me know please whether the link works for other people.

4

That’s an Unlimited balance. I can tell from the border style.

Are you looking for a guide on how to identify them?

If you go to gatherer.wizards.com, you can search for a card name, and the page that comes up will have links to (smallish) pictures from each printing. In this case, you can also differentiate Unlimited from Revised Balance because they used slightly different wording.

5

Thank you very much! D’oh! I forgot to look at the border! Card Kingdom does have pictures (and they can be zoomed to slightly larger than life size), but very often the identifying details are so minor I miss them.

I’m less looking for a guide than I am information. For example, from what you just said I gather Unlimited edition cards have white borders. That’s the kind of thing I need to know.

6

Yeah, for ABUR cards:

Alpha and Beta have black outer borders
Unlimited and Revised have white outer borders.

Between Alpha and Beta, Alpha cards have slightly more rounded (larger radius) corners than Beta ones.

Unlimited cards have slightly darker colors than Revised and just inside the black line between the outer white border and the art border, there’s another thin black line.

All later core-set cards have a date on them somewhere.