The Magic Librarities

I wonder why in the case of Portal Three Kingdoms English cards have noticeable higher prices than Japanese ones.

Is the English print run much smaller than the Japanese one? If I look at Ebay or Magic Card Market, English doesn't seem to be much rarer.

In the rest of sets, Japanese cards are worth at least the same as English ones.

You guessed right. English had a much smaller print run than Japanese or Chinese. This is because P3K was only sold in Asia/Pacific region, where English is not the most common language

How you guys know the amount of the print run of each language ?
Thought I think english is most expansive because english is the most common version in the world, everyone can read and use it.
But in my opinion that the most rarest language might be Traditional Chinese. Japanese version sell only in Japan, S-Chinese sell only in China, English version sell in the whole APAC area, and the T-Chinese sell in Taiwan and Hong Kong ... maybe Singapore?
So... according to the amount of player in these area. I made the conclusion.

Although the majority of the Asian inhabitants of Singapore can trace their ancestry to China, they choose to get/buy/play Japanese cards "because they are worth more."

I thought when I visited Singapore I'd be able to find some Chinese cards I was wanting. I was wrong.

FYI for everyone else.

bugking326 wrote:How you guys know the amount of the print run of each language ?
Thought I think english is most expansive because english is the most common version in the world, everyone can read and use it.
But in my opinion that the most rarest language might be Traditional Chinese. Japanese version sell only in Japan, S-Chinese sell only in China, English version sell in the whole APAC area, and the T-Chinese sell in Taiwan and Hong Kong ... maybe Singapore?
So... according to the amount of player in these area. I made the conclusion.

Hi

No one knows the amount of the Print Run of P3K not even sure that WOTC knows. Point is that P3K English was not distributed in the US, so P3K that was sent to Australia and New Zealand, was the only way for MTG shops in the US, to get some, and as so many people collects in English, that's why it's the most asked one. Now, as a Collector, that bought a lot of P3K in all the languages, in order to complete my 4 sets, I went through Hell to finish my P3K Traditional Chinese Set, people don't realize how Traditional Chinese is hard to get, and that to have a complete P3K set, you need to open a Minimum of 3 Booster Boxes. As mentioned Bugking326, that help me in the past, back in the years, he was already telling me that English MTG products were easier to find than Traditional Chinese in Taïwan and Hong-Kong, now Hong-Kong belongs to China, so Only place to get Traditional Chinese cards is the lonely Taïwan, as a reminder only 24 millions population there, that gives you an idea of how many MTG shops might exist. So to resume, when it comes to Asiatic languages, the hardest one to get is Traditional Chinese, and that's reality.

l0qii wrote:You guessed right. English had a much smaller print run than Japanese or Chinese. This is because P3K was only sold in Asia/Pacific region, where English is not the most common language

Is there any evidence of that? If I take a look at Ebay or Magic Card Market, there's about the same number of Japanese copies than English ones.

bugking326 wrote:Thought I think english is most expansive because english is the most common version in the world, everyone can read and use it.

That reminds me of something that I forgot to write in the first post. In the case of casual cards, like cards played only in Commander (like Rolling Earthquake, Ravages of War, Capture of Jingzhou, etc.), which seems to be mainly played in the US, I can understand that English cards are more valuable as they are more desired, because everybody understands them.

But, in the case of cards played in other formats, more "serious" formats, why is English still more expensive? I'm thinking about cards like Imperial Seal, Imperial Recruiter, Loyal Retainers, etc. In those formats, not only people are more familiar with the cards (so they don't need to read them), but there are also players that are willing to pay more for Japanese (or foil, Korean, Russian) than for English.

So why are English prices higher in the case of non-casual cards?

So perhaps Chinese has a lower print run, and the price of English is more effected by demand. I just remember when putting my sets together that English was the hardest for me to find. Japanese was the easiest.

l0qii wrote:So perhaps Chinese has a lower print run, and the price of English is more effected by demand. I just remember when putting my sets together that English was the hardest for me to find. Japanese was the easiest.

Hi Tim

Was it easy to complete the Simplified and Traditional Chinese one ?

S-Chinese was easier for me but a had a friend in Bejing at the time who could get me S-Chinese cards. T-Chinese I didn't do.

dragsamou wrote:

l0qii wrote:So perhaps Chinese has a lower print run, and the price of English is more effected by demand. I just remember when putting my sets together that English was the hardest for me to find. Japanese was the easiest.

Hi Tim

Was it easy to complete the Simplified and Traditional Chinese one ?

I also had problems finding several T-chinese cards for my P3K sets. The worst part is that most people cannot tell the languages apart even with explicit instructions. On MCM it wasn't even possible to note which chinese the card was before last year, as there was just one chinese as an option.

I'm still looking for a few T-chinese upgrades and have been unwilling to shell out 70 € for T-chinese Warrior's Oath, when English is 20 €... and even that is too much for the effect.

Most cards listed as chinese are simplified chinese in my experience. Some of the T-chinese P3K uncommons have been the hardest cards for me to find from any regular set. And T-chinese Mountains... There's such a small difference betwen the versions that I've received several wrong versions over the years.

So in my experience T-chinese is much harder to find than S-chinese, but as most people don't really cansider it more desireable, T-chinese can be found at pretty low prices, if one is willing to search a bit more.