Subject: Re: WOTC & Price Guides
Date: Sun, 01 Nov 1998 22:57:29 -0500
From: Rick Lay <rlay@ici.net>
To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com

When a dealer affixes a price to a card, that price is the price at
which he will sell the card. It may have absolutely nothing to do with
the actual value of the card. Thus, when an Aeolpile is priced at $2.00,
that is merely the dealers selling price.

To a collector or player, a more realistic price is the amount a dealer
would be willing to pay for a card. This is more closely related to
supply and demand. With a collection of thousands of cards, I'm all too
aware of the difference betwen these two values. Over 90% of the cards
that I own have no value whatsoever. No dealer would buy them. There is
no demand.

Thus we can see that publishing a price list that does not reflect the
actual value of cards perpetuates the myth of collectability and
secondary market value that serves only the dealers and WoTC.

I'm not surprise that WoTC would publish a price guide. I'm surprised it
took them so long.
--
Rick Lay
M:TG Homepage http://home.ici.net/~rlay/mtgmain.html