So, a few years back I purchased a Pokemon Collection and the seller threw-in some MTG Cards as a free-gift. I don’t know ANYTHING about MTG; so I just tossed these cards aside and forgot about them for awhile. I’ve been trying to re-organize my inventory these past few weeks and stumbled across the MTG Collection - I was actually debating to just throw-out these cards as they’re all Damaged / Played / E.X. However, I decided I’d just throw the lot on eBay Auction for $0.99 and see what kind of interest I got - I was SHOCKED!!!
I ended-up selling the collection for $51.00 - I was honestly expecting it would sell for a couple bucks! LOL What’s the deal here, is there something of value in this collection, or did I just get lucky?
I’m by no means an expert, I just have a couple of friends that play so I recognized the art on Tendrils of Agony. That card by itself is a $15-$20 foil. It appears a decent amount of that stuff was from the early 2000s. I imagine there are a couple ~$5 cards in that lot, but there are also a fair amount that can’t be seen.
I just did a quick scan through the cards and noticed a few. Please double check my prices for accuracy as I didn’t take the time to look them up.
foil undead warchief might be like 5-10 bucks. unglued forest is 5 or so. gold border survival of the fittest is probably worth a few bucks. Tendrils of agony sees play as a wincon in storm decks and has value (as youngbambino already pointed out.)
From what I can see you probably did OK selling as lot. You may have made more money breaking it down all the way, but that’s significantly more work for sure. Older foils can be very popular for commander players looking to pimp out their decks.
Again, those are just the cards I caught with a quick scan of the pictures.
Download the tcgplayer scan app, ‘scan’ the cards with your phone and the app will fling back recent prices.
My only mtg knowledge these days is that basically every card is worth just or less then the paper it is printer on.
Yeah, I probably should have done a better job photographing everything - so that all cards were visible. I was rushing through photographing this collection though; as I honestly wasn’t expecting much action on these cards! Haha O Well… I’ll take it as a learning experience!
It sounds like the buyer did well for himself on this collection. It’s actually one of my regular customers who purchases A LOT - glad it went to someone like that at least!
I’m gonna have to start paying more attention to MTG Finds at Flea-Markets and Yard Sales. Usually, I’m just focusing on Pokemon and Coins!
Just downloaded that TCGPlayer Scan App. I had never heard of that before; that’ll come in very useful! I tried scanning a few Pokemon Cards and the pricing was on the low-side; however, that will be GREAT for any MTG Cards I come-across where I have zero idea as to the value and am just looking for a rough estimate as to whether it’s something to purchase or pass.
And Yeah, that was the assumption I was going-off myself! LOL You see these people selling 1,000 Card MTG Lots for dirt-cheap - so I wasn’t sure if anyone would even bid on this collection.
People have already pointed out the majority of the value but when it comes to old MTG cards especially foils it’s worth checking values … even commons can be worth nearly $200 in foil (eg. crop rotation, brainstorm from mercadian masques)
Have 1990s foils gone up in the last 15 years? I have a 3" binder stuffed with them but haven’t even looked at them in the last decade and a half when they weren’t worth a lot,
Gary, I’d highly recommend that TCGPlayer Scan App! The pricing provided is fairly accurate for MTG Cards - least it seemed that way for the few cards I doubled-checked with eBay Pricing. However, it’s really user-friendly and WICKED QUICK! I was able to “scan” all 90+ foil cards I recently sold-off in 10-15 Minutes - gave me a list of everything with individual pricing and also kept a running-total for me.
One thing I did not realize at first; the App doesn’t automatically recognize foil vs. non-foil - you have to go into the settings and change the card-type to foil (can also change the language and condition).
For all the price increases of Pokemon cards over the last few years, MTG cards are where there can be ridiculous value. Most of Pokemon value resides in the holos of base shadowless and base 1st edition, and then in pretty high grade. For mTG cards there are numerous cards and numerous sets that maintain extremely high value. And the way MTG cards are priced, a somewhat played card (think PSA 4 or 5) can be worth 70% to 80% of a PSA 9. The sheer number of different Magic cards ensures quite a number that have values greater than $50 (or $100 or $500 or $1,000) each.
Your lot had enough decent cards that it was worth the final bid at the worst. Even the foil 7th edition lands have value, as they are black bordered when most land cards are white bordered. They can easily be used to pimp a deck.
There are a ton, you should get that scanning app that @oldskoolpokemon mentioned and have a quick look through. Have a look at these prices for foils from urza’s destiny, urza’s legacy, mercadian masques and 7th edition …
I only know about the scan app thanks to the OpenBoosters YouTube channel. He opens vintage MtG all year round and uses the app to see how much he lost. Althought he pulled a few Power 9s last year.
The app takes its prices straight out of the database of tcgplayer, so it’s a very good reflection of current market.
As many say, the old foils, especially lands and any foil tribe (eg Merfolk) do very well.
I was really surprised by the value of those Land Cards when I started scanning everything! I originally figured Land Cards could be compared to Energy Cards - even in Reverse Holo Energy Cards don’t have much value. Those Land Cards though - WOW! They were all showing-up as being worth $1.50-$2.00 / Ea.
Few years ago I sold a lot of 250 holo basic lands for 400eur, thanks to the EDM/Commander format alot of older cards are really playable and thus keeping value.
