Does anybody here collect/play MtG? I do rather extensively and if anybody else on here does or is just interested in the cards/game I’d like to talk to them about it. My collection is mostly Modern staples and a few Legacy staples thrown in for good measure, though I have a working knowledge of most formats except for Vintage.
I collect some but very little after 2002.
I collect some of the vintage sets, and cards I like here are there.
There are multiple MTG players and collectors here. @djgigabyte plays a ton!
That’s really cool! I started about the time Not Zelda Gilroy dropped off, but still collected quite a bit during Mirrodin. And although I do have quite a few Legacy cards, most of them are the later reprints. The best combination of old/valuable I have are a couple of Revised edition Plateaus so I’m guessing smpratte has me beat by a long shot. I think they’re the only things I have on the Reserved list in general actually.
Sorry for all the confusing jargon if you aren’t familiar with the terms I’m using.
I buy/sell/collect MTG and only play legacy. I’m far deeper into MTG than pokemon, I’ve got probably minimum 5x value in MTG than I do in pokemon ATM. First started in ice age, and played on and off until khans and I’ve played almost weekly since then.
My collection covers all formats pretty extensively except standard, I’m slowly consolidating it into more reserved list and graded power though.
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I play competitively and frequent most Grand Prix’s on the east cost. I only collect Pokemon. Magic is the game I take the most seriously. I don’t collect it at all - just keep a bunch of staples on hand to change up decks. Mostly a standard player because it changes a lot and is the most competitive format. Play Modern too - but it isn’t nearly as fun to me.
I randomly buy sealed ‘vintage’ boosters. But I buy selectively only from Vintage MTG, and other high profile sellers, because I have less of a feeling I’m buying mapped packs etc.
And I try to open half a box every release, with exception of products like Conspiracy and the Master sets. This (sadly) not been the situation since for last 3 sets due to putting more funds into Pokemon and really strict on my cash flow.
The Core 2018 set though, I think I wanna stack a case of that.
I’m really excited they’re bringing back the Core Set too, it lets them print so many solid cards they wouldn’t otherwise due to block themes. Also I find them strangely fun in limited.
What I’m probably more excited for is returning to Dominiaria. I started near the tale end of Magic’s focus on Dominiaria plus, Time Spiral brought a lot of cool stuff along with it and I have fond memories of that era.
I do, way too much, however the current ongoing reserve list buyouts are kinda pissing me off since I play mostly Legacy and EDH which uses a lot of reserved list cards, so I’m constantly being forced to buy cards that I didn’t need at the moment before they spike to ludicrous prices and it doesn’t help that I like mostly foils, for example Yawgmoth’s Will judge foil, I had to frantically look out for one when it was being bought out and was able to snag a NM one for $70 about a month ago, right now it’s almost at $200 and it keeps rising, being so popular in EDH it’s likely to go to $500+
I stopped playing MtG in 2003, and was considering getting back into Legacy when I went back to the game in September.
Then I saw the buyouts.
I’ve got a lot of stuff (13 duals, a good chunk of the RL). Which I can’t use because Legacy is dead in my region due to said Reserve List. Every LGS where I live is saying the same thing: there will never be any supported Legacy tournaments in my region because of the prohibitive cost.
I was thinking of going to GP Birmingham, but then I heard about the thefts at GPs lately.
I don’t want to sell (I’ve even bought 2 Volcanics and was planning to grab USea to build Grixis Delver), but I also can’t play.
Thank you “investors” (more like hoarders at this point), and Reserved List proponents.
The thing I both love and hate about MTG is autos aren’t all that hard to obtain but God forbid you getting the card signed. Actually deciding if I should get back into Commander or save for a Alpha Demonic Tutor (my favorite card) and get it signed by the man himself
Jesus Christ, what else do you collect, just to save me the trouble of creating another thread 
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If you’re a player: Commander, the more you get to play, the more your money is well invested. But you might have to say goodbye to a decent price for Alpha Demonic Tutor depending on when you finally grab the card. Given that a buyout has already been tried on that card on September (it went back to its previous price), “investors” probably didn’t forget about that card, even though they’re busy with old frame foils at the moment.
If you’re a collector: prolly grab your Demonic Tutor while they’re still < 200€ in LP/good.
Haha … just MTG, pokemon and lego 
I collect other things casually like stamps, coins and nintendo stuff but those first three are where I’ve got substantial capital invested.
Theft at GPs isn’t a big deal, just be smart and don’t leave your bag unattended, any theft is usually opportunistic because some guys got their bag open on a table with a binder/deck box poking out while facing away talking to someone else.
Also investors and buyouts aren’t the reason these cards are so expensive and legacy isn’t supported, legacy was expensive and support was dropped before this practice began to be common place. While you were gone legacy started getting really popular around 2010, SCG had a successful weekly legacy series and because it was the main format besides standard heaps of people were buying these cards … and just like when buyouts happen, because these cards are old and limited supply went down as demand went up and cards like duals went to $300ea and the format became prohibitively expensive for people to play.
During this time in 2011 wizards announced the modern format, which over the following years replaced legacy as the dominant format besides standard due to the accessibility of the cards and ability to reprint any of the cards in the format. Legacy was slowly dropped as a supported format by many LGS and circuits like SCG because it wasn’t profitable to run or just didn’t fire due to low player numbers because of the expensive deck lists.
The buyouts started happening after all this and honestly they don’t really affect legacy decklists besides random cards like drop of honey, which is an exception in itself because it’s from arabian nights (one of the lowest print runs). If legacy was actually more popular like you want these cards would be even more unattainable as the demand would outweigh supply again and push up the prices.
Duals are probably the biggest barrier for people getting into legacy but they’re not expensive due to buyouts, it’s not economical for duals to be bought out because there are too many due to the revised printing. You would most likely lose money like Craig Berry did attempting to buy out lions eye diamond which has way more available copies than moat which he previously did buyout. Duals are expensive because they’re the best lands ever made, you generally need 4 of a copy for a deck, they’re limited in supply and they’re playable across multiple formats - that’s a good recipe for expensive cards.
Also wizards putting legacy on the pro tour next year for the 25th anniversary hasn’t helped prices as it’s meant pros need a legacy deck and also sparked some renewed interest in the format.
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I play and collect a little. I only collect cards that I enjoy the arts of, nothing more than $5-$10. I was really big into modern for a while and tried to get into legacy but I put $1,000 into lands and still needed a tabernacle but never got to play so I sold everything off. Now I just have GR Tron for modern in case i want to go to a tournament and a couple of commander decks to play with friends every now and then.
You don’t really need Tabernacle to enter Legacy (although not having it denies you Lands that you were trying to build, and a powerful sideboard card in Loam and Stax).
Choosing Lands to enter Legacy was a really bad choice imho. And it’s not only Tabernacle which is ridiculously expensive, other cards have a hard to justify price tag in that deck, like Drop of Honey which has taken a cool 900% price spike.
I’ve put some serious money in the duals I’m missing, but I’m a bit sick to my stomach having to play with such expensive cardboard and I still have to get 2 USeas. To be honest I would feel more comfortable about it if I had more opportunities to actually play the cards I have been buying, but having to spend time to run various tests to check that the cards I receive are real is especially tiring knowing that I won’t get to play these more than what, 5~6 times per year?
And quite a few people have been playing at the Eternal Weekend with counterfeits, as thourough deck checks take too much time to be done on a lot of players in a timely fashion. This is quite discouraging as well.
I’m still considering selling most of my cards, not quite sure what to do, not really wanting to sell (I’m not in a huge need of money), but having expensive paper sitting in my closet with no real use for it is kinda stressful.
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