Subject: Re: WOTC & Price Guides
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 14:31:26 -0500 (EST)
From: INGALSNS@RoseVC.Rose-Hulman.Edu
To: FKUSUMOT@IX.NETCOM.COM

Hello, Frank!  Another two cents, if you will...

Seems to me that the people running these card singles businesses have
problems setting card prices.  This has been reiterated by some of the
previous comments.  The bottom line is that a good card has a higher
price, and a bad card has a lower price.  Why?  Demand for good/broken
cards is obviously higher, because serious competitors feel the need
to have these cards to compete.  Then there are terrible cards, like
the Laces, that no one wants because they would never play with them.
Outside of trying to complete a set, these cards have no secondary
value.

The hardest part of trying to figure out the price to set for a card
is "guessing" what people will pay for it.  What is it worth to a
serious player to have a Stroke of Genius or a Tolarian Academy?  But
determining prices doesn't have to be a guessing game.  I follow the
secondary market of cards very closely, and I find it very interesting.
What's a good indication of what a card is worth?  Here are a few
things the common web-user can check out to see what a going price is.

To find out the ceiling price of a card (i.e. The most you should ever
pay for a single) check out Iguana's Comic Book Cafe website.
(www.iguanas-cbc.com)  They have all the cards, they are well-stocked,
they offer great service, and they have the highest prices.  These
prices are somewhat close to Scrye prices, and are a good indication
of what you can expect some people to be paying for cards.  In terms
of relative pricing (what one card is worth compared to another) this
company is the best.

To find out what the semi-serious players are willing to spend, check
out the magic cards section at Ebay auctioning.
(http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/list/category218/index.html)
This is the most widely used auctioning service on the net, although
there are some problems with bidders using unethical bidding practices
that make the site a little less than premium, but is still an
excellent indication of card prices.  Obviously, people are not going
to bid what they are not willing to pay, so you get a good indication
of what certain cards are worth.

A another good company that sells singles is New Wave Mail Order.
(www.newwave.org)  The reason I like them is because they seem to
have a close affiliation with The Dojo, meaning that they have a close
link to the players themselves.  They are a mail-order company
catering to the serious gamer, and adjust their prices as such.

Now, let's take a few sample cases and compare going prices of three
cards:  Stroke of Genius, Undiscovered Paradise, and Tolarian Academy.
On Ebay, the median price of a Stroke is about $17.00 right now. Not
cheap.  Undiscovereds 6 months ago were going strong around $10.00
a piece, but now are down to about $5.00.  Why?  Demand shot down
when they left type II a couple of days ago.  Tolarian Academies on
Ebay have a median price of about $15.00.  Another hot card.

What about Iguanas?  Undiscovereds are still $16.00, a testimony to
their high prices.  Their web page seems to cut the price list off
at around the Songstitcher in alphabetical order (another testimony
to their so-so website), but the Serra Avatar is currently listed
at $16.00 if that tells you anything.

New wave currently lists Stroke of Genius at $19.50 (ouch),
Undiscovereds at $10.00, and Academies at $14.

What we'll see, if history is to repeat itself, is that as people
keep bidding higher and higher on the auctions, Iguana's and
New Wave will keep pushing their prices slightly higher than that.
Stroke of Genius has been a great indication of that.  I seem
to recall New Wave selling them for $10 a piece at one time.  It
doubled before it entered type II.

As a side note, I predict that WOTC will restrict Stroke of Genius
in Type II, until the last set in the Urza's Saga cycle is released,
at which time it will be banned.  (Can anyone remember Zuran Orb?)
What were they smoking?  Braingeyser wasn't bad enough, that had
to introduce an instant costing only 1 blue instead of 2 in the
casting cost making it entirely splashable.  Who knows?  Also, for
those people that keep insisting that R&D be ousted and replaced at
WOTC, who would you replace them with?  Yourselves?!?  *tsk* *tsk*
Yeah right.

-Nate Ingalsbe