Questions for collectors...

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squt
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Questions for collectors...

Post by squt » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:04 pm

Hey all,

I've noticed that things have slowed down quite a bit on this site lately. There's a new set out, but it's been almost a week since anyone posted anything in the Information section!

I've got some questions that I hope will provoke disscussion, I'd love to hear from everyone:

1. Are you less interested in collecting lately? If so, why?

2. Are any of you MORE interested in collecting lately? If so, why?

3. Is there another site out there that you are haunting in favor of this one?

4. Do you think that any players that pick up the game now (in 2007) set a goal of collecting every set?

5. If not, what do you think 'collecting' magic will mean in the future?

I'll start the discussion by answering the questions myself:

1. Yes. It's a combo of things - one of the biggest is that I just secured a Cardz Silver Drake and a T-Chinese Carrion wall, two of the last rarities from magic's past that I've been searching for.

Another part of it is that I have given up on collecting promo foils, especially Japanese ones. They come out too frequently for me to keep up, and the judge foils are just outrageously priced. I don't want to spend $400-$600 a year to pick up 4-6 cards that (although VERY cool), are reprints.

2. (see one). I am still collecting a lot of foreign product, and buying foreign packs and boxes, which i can usually pick up for less than their english equivalent.

3. No - mostly because i don't know of any other web page that specializes in discussions about misprints and other rarities. I think this is still one of the premier forums where people go to get their questions answered about weird cards in their collections.

4. I honestly don't think so. I came back into magic in 1997 and it took me almost 6 years to complete my alpha to current collection. There have been almost 30 sets released since then, and I really don't know how anyone starting the game today could go back and realistically expect to be able to collect the 45 or so sets that are out there now.

5. I think a lot more people are going to pick a favorite artist, or a favorite card type, or creature, and try to create 'global' sets of these cards. Or maybe they'll try to get one foil of each kind of a creature type. Or maybe collecting will become a less important part of the game.

A lot of you folks on this forum are a lot smarter than I am, and I'd love to hear what you have to say about this stuff.

Squt

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Post by johnstown713 » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:17 pm

All I can say at this point...

Real life > MTG

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Post by Gryfalia » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:42 pm

I'm running a bricks and mortar store...I have no time..;-) That's running a store as well as my normal Full Time job. Wheeeeeeee.

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Post by Royal Ass. » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:49 pm

I used to play type one periodically, but the type one scene in my city died. I like to play in a pre-release every now and then, but didnt play in this one becaue I'm studying for finals. Now that I'm in law school I dont have a lot of time to play or many friends my age who play anymore so I do a little collecting.

I'm currently working on an Arabian Nights set. I'm 9 cards away from completion. Most of it I'm picking up on ebay. I don't have a lot to add to misprint discussions, but I enjoy reading about it. It's also a good way to procrastinate for school.

Direct Answers:

1. No

2. Yes. I don't have time to play anymore (lawschool) plus the type one scene in my community died down a few years ago. Collecting is a way for me to stay involved with magic without a huge time committment.

3. I have always checked Manadrain, but now that I don't play anymore I only read the community forum. I also follow the pimp thread over at star city games.

4. Probably. Collecting is an individual thing and everyone had different aspirations. I have no desire to collect every set, but I like to pick up old cards and am working on an arabian set and when I finish that I might try antiquities.

5. Probably the same as it is now. I think the old cards might start to get more expensive because card players who started back in the day are getting older and have more money and will want to puy up the old cards for nostalgia. It seems like the new players are more into foils, japanese cards and promo stuff. That does nothing for me. But thy are from a new era of the game and the old cards dont have the same appeal to them as someone who started in 94.
Last edited by Royal Ass. on Wed Apr 25, 2007 5:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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squt
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Post by squt » Mon Apr 23, 2007 4:52 pm

I really appreciate all of the feedback (Especially so quickly), but i would like it even more if everyone would answer each of the questions, even if it's just to say yes/no...there's a method to my madness.

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Post by hammr7 » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:18 pm

I only collect older English sets (I'm still cleaning up sets from 8th edition and mirrodin block back), so I'm not too helpful for input on the latest sets and promos. And I was never into most misprints, crimps and printing errors, although I worked in the print industry for years. So I can contribute to discussions related to print oddities.

I am still interested in collecting, but my goals, including uncut sheets, oversized promos, alt. 4th, resaurus prototype Magic stautues (anyone have any for sale?), old Crazy Clown tokens, and old metal counters, aren't active interests in terms of discussion or availability on this site. I also collect old Magic promotional items, but these aren't active or documented here either.

I get some items through private transactions and others on eBay. I know of no other site that has better (or any) coverage of my items of interest.

I don't think many new players will try to collect old sets. My experience with players is they want only the playable and tradable cards. If they get a set they are likely to break it up. I think collecting back would be almost overwhelming for a novice collector.

I do think that ex-players who get into collecting are more likely to go after older sets, since the sets will have meaning to them. The golden age of Baseball card collecting occured in the 1980's. It was fueled by adults who had money and wanted to regain a piece of their 1960's youth.

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Post by agzz » Mon Apr 23, 2007 5:21 pm

1. yea, Its becoming to much work for to little result. Most of the time i reach out to find new sorces its dead ends or i recieve cards clearly not in condition described and often so overpriced to begin with. Thanks to Alexis the french part is always moving forward! :)

2. nah.

3. i go to motl 4 times a year...

4. no. i have play and collected on and off since 96 and never aimed at even any single set.

5. think there will be even smaller part collecting and those that do will aim for quantity of a specific card or global sets.


Glad to hear you found that carrion wall!

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Post by squt » Mon Apr 23, 2007 6:02 pm

This is great. I'm glad to hear from everyone. I'm really looking for opinions - you don't have to be an 'expert', although many of you are!

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Post by me-and_we » Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:09 pm

1. Are you less interested in collecting lately? If so, why?

Well, tons of work + I've got to go to study from time to time and write the tests so I will finish this part sometime...


2. Are any of you MORE interested in collecting lately? If so, why?

Nah, not really...


3. Is there another site out there that you are haunting in favor of this one?

Hmm, I'm mainly here for news, infos and stuff... So yeah...

4. Do you think that any players that pick up the game now (in 2007) set a goal of collecting every set?

Probably there are 1 or 2 of them, but it's not the same for them, like it's not this "remember when we played this crap back in the days?"... I think most of you know what I mean, like I played Sea Serpent and Twiddle in my first Deck... It was fun though...


5. If not, what do you think 'collecting' magic will mean in the future?


I think it's more about the rarities like Misprints, foreign stuff etc, I never finished a single set myself, and I'm concentrating more on fwb japo stuff atm, well atm I'm more into work and my studies but there's a plan to finish at least one deck until end of this year -.- (yeah, sounds ridiculous, I know...)

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Magic Library Forum

Post by victorcamp » Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:16 pm

1. I'm going through a severely stressful income crunch. It's depressing organizing for things I want but can't get. I'm still, however, very interested in collecting!

2. See #1.

3. Nope.

4. I'm sure there are some new players who set that goal. Collecting is like an addiction (or compulsion), so it will always be present. And I don't mind at all having that addiction, it's just hard to feed at the moment!

5. Collecting Magic has waxed and waned over the last 10 years. It's competing with lots of other popular culture. As new generations embrace the web, physical "things" take a back seat. Once the newness of the web settles down, I expect things you can actually touch will once again become popular.

I, too, noticed the dearth of new posts. I'm not sure why that is. I know Ralph is working hard to complete Magic Library, though there's been few updates recently. Whether or not the main site feeds the Forum, I can't say. But it's possible many who check in to the main site see no changes, and so don't proceed to our Forum.

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Re: Magic Library Forum

Post by bigfatkitty » Mon Apr 23, 2007 7:49 pm

victorcamp wrote:I, too, noticed the dearth of new posts. I'm not sure why that is. I know Ralph is working hard to complete Magic Library, though there's been few updates recently. Whether or not the main site feeds the Forum, I can't say. But it's possible many who check in to the main site see no changes, and so don't proceed to our Forum.
Ralph hasn't updated the site since January and hasn't made a posting to the forum for more than a month. This contributes to my lack of interest in this place.

I'd be happy to just see the monthly released promos updated as I used to use this site as a reference. Anymore, its just out of date.
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Post by Dr. Doom » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:01 pm

saving up on money to go to the Us within a month, so no time...
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Re: Questions for collectors...

Post by psrex » Mon Apr 23, 2007 8:23 pm

> 1. Are you less interested in collecting lately? If so, why?

I'm not less interested, but I'm less active in collecting lately. Part of it is that I have most of my easy collecting done, and part is that I've gotten a good balance in place where I still collect and look for things, but I'm not spending more time that I can really afford on tracking down Magic cards.

> 2. Are any of you MORE interested in collecting lately? If so, why?

No.

> 3. Is there another site out there that you are haunting in favor of this one?

I spend more time conversing on MOTL. Magic Library much more focused than MOTL, and it just feels more formal here. As far as trades I use MOTL much more than here, but that's largely because the only rarities collecting that I did was Vanguard, and I've completed that now.

> 4. Do you think that any players that pick up the game now (in 2007) set a goal of collecting every set?

Sure, there will always be some people that will want to do that. It's not going to be a casual collector that's going to set out to do this and I would guess that you're not going to meet that person until they've been going for a couple years. People will start out collecting the more recent sets and then start going back in time as their finances and time allow.

> 5. If not, what do you think 'collecting' magic will mean in the future?

Collecting is too varied to define one way of collecting cards. I think that collecting will continue as it has and people will set goals for themselves.

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Post by Mr. Nightmare » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:19 pm

1. I was mostly here for lurking purposes to begin with, as I'm barely dabbling in collecting as is. That said, my global Tiger collection is coming along well thanks greatly to the benevolence of patrons of this site.

2. See #1

3. For collecting, no. For magic, pretty much every site that isn't blocked by my work firewall.

4. Not at all. There is far too much expense in achieving such an ambitious goal, and little recompensation for it.

5. Collecting is basically the least relevant part of this game. It's unfortunate for sites like this, but true. There will always be collectors of anything collectible, but that isn't the driving force behind Magic - the gameplay is. I don't think this is detrimental to the collectors market, though. If anything, rare cards and mint collections will increase in scarcity as time goes on.

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Post by berkumps » Mon Apr 23, 2007 9:30 pm

Thanks for the post Mark, like you, I'm interested in people's response to your questions. I'll try to give them a go:

1. Are you less interested in collecting lately? If so, why?

That depends. I think my collecting habits have become more focused. I use to collect all the sets, and promo's, and even started to collect foil sets at one point. However now I mainly collect promotional cards, with the odd global set or weird project in the works. Recently I've sold off all of my complete sets (Beta U/C + 50%rare, Unlimited - Time Spiral) to help pay for an upcoming wedding. The only sets I would've liked to keep would've been Beta, Unlimited, Arabians, Antiquities, Legends. They are the only sets that have increased/maintained their value over the years. With a few exceptions, most other sets from The Dark until Time Spiral have barely increased in value (or have even dropped). It's this lack of increase in value that has caused me to lose interest in collecting sets. In fact, if I wasn't such a completionist, there'd be ALOT of promo's that I wouldn't bother with either as they've held steady at $0 for a while.

2. Are any of you MORE interested in collecting lately? If so, why?

I would say I'm still as interested in collecting, just my focus has just shifted.

3. Is there another site out there that you are haunting in favor of this one?

The only other site I really visit is MOTL, and mostly for trading. And of course, ebay (I spend too much time/money there).

4. Do you think that any players that pick up the game now (in 2007) set a goal of collecting every set?

Collecting every set at this point is a lofty goal, considering the sheer number of sets out today (63 I believe). That being said, I'm sure some new to this game will still attempt this feat (and be successful too). I think that those that have the funding to collect every set, however, are more interested in collecting rarities and hard to find items. If one is going to spend all that money to get every set, why not spend that money on something that might actually increase in value over time as opposed to complete sets of say, Ice Age or Mirage, that you can still find selling on ebay for <$80 a decade or more after it's release.

5. If not, what do you think 'collecting' magic will mean in the future?

I can't said definitively what collecting MTG will mean in the future, but I have noticed alot of new players tend to collect pimped out playsets of playables for their decks or cube, and that's all. The mentality I get from alot of people I meet at tournaments is that they would rather spend their money on a card they'll play, as opposed to something that will just sit in their binder or box free from sunlight. That being said, I have ALOT of cards that haven't seen the light of day in a long time (but I take comfort in knowing that it's there ;-)).

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