Wizards of the Coast are trying to take the gold from store variant retailers for the money grab sucker racket event:
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Yup this is the most disgusting move by WotC yet trying to milk mtg fans
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So they’re reprinting Beta but it’s not tournament legal. I wonder if the cards will hold value. They certainly didn’t on Magic Online.
117 Beta rares - 4 taken out = 113
4 packs = 4 rares
3/10 rares for vintage slot = 1.2 additional rares
113/ power 9 = 12.6
12.6/ 5.2 rares = one power nine every 2.4 boxes
$2400 per power 9 card and it’s not tournament legal
Can someone explain this to a person who doesn’t know, “Magic,” AKA me?
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There really is no WOTC since they sold to Hasbro. It was just a matter of time until Hasbro starting picking away at the no reprint cards and changing what qualifies as a no reprint. We sold everything off when they announced reprinting Force Of Will. Then they reprinted Mana Drain and Mana Crypt and it was just a matter of time before they rereleased the power 9 or dual lands. Your money is not safe when invested in MTG Hasbro will come for it.
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Back in the day (early 90s), Wizards of the Coast promised to never reprint certain cards, protecting their collectible value for those who bought them.
This created the “Reserve List.” Some of the earliest Reserve List cards were in Beta, the second set to come out. Which was basically a reprint of Alpha.
The problem has been that there are some incredibly useful cards on that list. Some cards that would greatly help players in a bunch of different formats of the game, including the most prominent current format- Commander.
If they were to reprint them in a standard retail price product (who knows what that is now, but doing away with MSRP is entirely separate tangent), that would open up the availability of the cards to those who want to play with them. Right now, there is a huge market for “proxies” that some call bootlegs so that people can use these incredibly helpful cards in casual games.
So, what they did here was reprint Beta, which contains cards they said they would not reprint. They did it in a non-tournament-legal way (with a different back). So, basically the same thing as a proxy or bootleg in terms of its tournament treatment. All of this would be fine if it were retail price (like $2.99-8.99) per 15-card booster. However, it is $999 for 4 15-card boosters.
So, you are paying $250 a pack, or $16 a card to maybe, possibly, but unlikely, get a rare card (you have 4 real chances at the rare cards people would want). Of those 4 rare cards, they could all be non-reserve list, not sought after cards. So, you could pay $999 for 60 cards that were all reprinted back in the late 90s and currently cost $0.79-$4.00.
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Just keep buying alpha cards (I can only afford basic lands and commons). To heck with this marketing scheme. It makes me fearful of buying more reserved list. Seems like WOTC doesn’t care any more. Hasbro gets thumbs down
Thanks for the explanation, but you make them sound like official bootlegs that are insanely expensive? What is the point?
To make a buck.