The Red Commons from Alpha (and some rambling)
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- Опубліковано 10 вер 2024
- Today I have a quick market update, but mostly: lots or red cards. Let's spend a little time enjoying the old art, the old set, and the charm the game once had. At the very end, I make a final comment on M30, further to my previous video.
#MagicTheGathering #LimitedEditionAlpha #RedCards
0:39 Market Update
8:00 Alpha Red Commons
19:14 Final comments on M30
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I'm Mike, the Alpha Hoarder, and I'm sharing/documenting my wild collection here on YT. Join me while I ramble about old cards and MTG finance, and look at cool stuff.
hello@alphahoarder.com
Mike the AlphaHoarder @ 375 Carlls Path #73, Deer Park NY 11729
1992 MTG Artwork
Here's some brief history.
Richard Garfield created an unpublished game named Five Magics all the way back in 1982.
In the fall of 1991, Richard met with WotC, created the concept of Collectible Card Games, and reworked Five Magics into a single 120 card playtest deck as a proof of concept.
Through 1992, Richard assembled a couple teams of playtesters and had a couple subsequent generations of playtest cards. Jesper Myrfors became the MTG art director, and started rounding up artists to create art for cards they were pretty sure would be in the final version of the game. In the fall of 1992, his assistant Sandra Everingham was scanning the original artwork, color correcting it as needed, and cropping it to fit in the colored card frames. Supposedly Ironroot Treefolk is the first piece of artwork created for MTG, done by Jesper himself. I've heard that Chaos Orb artwork was repurposed into MTG after being rejected from an older project, so it might be the oldest MTG artwork.
Richard then had each of his playtest teams create their own set of cards, to see if they came up with any ideas that he wanted to use (they did). Those two sets later became the roots of Ice Age and Mirage / Visions. The 1992 WotC winter holiday getaway, was mostly people in a cabin playing with MTG playtest cards. On the way home from that, at the very end of 1992, brainstorming began for Legends.
In early 1993, work continued with the artwork, all the prepress work, finding investors to pay for the print run, and finalizing the name of the game. Playtesting continued on Ice Age, which at that point was going to be the next Magic product, and playtesting continued less formally on the other sets.
In May of 1993, prepress on Alpha was completed, and it was shipped to Belgium for printing, in hopes of having the finished product back in time for Gen Con.
Also in May of 1993, playtesting of Ice Age was pretty much done, artwork was commissioned for the set, and that's what WotC worked on while waiting for Alpha to be printed. At the time, Ice Age was expected to be released at Gen Con 1994 with a different card back, but that didn't happen. The Plateau artwork seen in Revised was originally created for this early version of Ice Age.
May of 1993 would also be about the time that Richard graduated in Pennsylvania, moved to Washington state to be a math professor, and eventually started working on Arabian Nights.
In August 1993, MTG sales were WAY better than expected, and WotC wanted more card designs ASAP. They gave the green light to everyone who already had a partially developed set, shelved Ice Age for having too many reprints, and reassigned that team to create Antiquities.
Nice info!! Thanks as always. I was hoping that you might come by and have some insight on that. It’s pretty cool that some of these had a life before magic was magic.
This is amazing history and context - you should really consider writing a book on this time period, since ive seen some of your insights on other YT channels as well
I can only imagine the knowledge you have of this game. Thank you for your rambling and sharing bits of it with us.
Thank you for tolerating the rambling 🙂
Always a pleasure to watch.
Appreciate you dropping by 🤜🤛
The red cards in alpha fits the black frame so good, they are amazing. Thanks for sharing this gold 🎉
Thanks for watching 👍
First! Here for the ramble
Awesome collection! Thanks man! Glad I found your channel 👍
Thanks! Glad you checked out the channel 🙂
Great info! Jurgen suggested to watch your videos for more info on the market state. "In-Organic" I like that description, the whole thing feels off as it is all interconnected. I want to buy older cards and build several decks but keep putting it off fearing all things will continue lowering in value essentially. Not sure what to do, but I feel like I need to just hold, I know things are available so no pressure there. Now that is some Fireball!!! I more the Disintegrate fan :-) burn stuff out of the game Swords Status, I play white / black with lots of removal Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust.
Jurgen is a solid dude! Appreciate you dropping by. Disintegrate is pretty epic 😆
@@AlphaHoarder Added the Sub Broski! I got my tax money for some card spending (4 horseman cards) but am being patient to see what happens in the next few months. I think things will get cheaper for a while. August is my guess at a low point maybe September. I am Retail oriented, people are cheap and do not spend money in August LOL, like a counter to Christmas.
I always appreciate a ramble and a flip through a binder. Thanks for that.
I like to dive into human emotions from time to time and this situation is quite interesting. In order for someone to have such strong negative feelings towards a product and company like what's happening now, they initially had to have a strong emotional connection to the game or collecting it first. Those emotions are very slow to fade, similar to a lost loved one. I expect many that leave the hobby will return once the negative feelings fade or if they feel the wrong has been righted.
Insightful framing. This might also contribute to the confusion I feel around the product. I really despise what wizards did, and yet I can’t quite get myself past how cool it is to see the art on the cards again. There are definitely strange emotions entangled in this.
New AH video, it's gonna be a good morning!
Dang Jeff beat me!
Back to basics dang good dubfx song!
Love these red cards!
Keep these videos coming!
I love me signed mtg cards!
You rock bro! I'd sell to you over Rudy! If I needed to 😂
Immediately clicked on this video!! Keep it up Mike!!!!!! Great content
Thumbnail full of 🔥 😂
Own very small positions in Alpha/Beta. Own lots of playable RL.
Currently the market is very soft across the board. Some great opportunities for positions to be obtained.
Cash is not longer trash. Huge factor.
Definitely some opportunities!
🌩️🌩️🌩️🌩️🌩️🌩️
alpha's a bit beyond my reach price wise, but i've been picking up old reserve list cards, some Dark, and Arabian Nights
Nice!
Good deals to be had on eBay auctions right now. Between it being summer, and ppl not liking CGC, I’m seeing some things I think are big opportunities for long term positions to be formed. If this stuff keeps getting cheaper, I will continue buying on the way down, but I don’t really think it has that much room to fall further in the medium term
Agreed- Def a lot of cgc appearing!
Was waiting for another video :)
Beautiful additions to the collection!
I like those binder holders 👌
Wonderful seeing more of your collection!
Thanks for watching!
I always thought that that rock in the foreground on fireball, looked like a dinosaur. Maybe it is. :D
Oh man, I see it!
I enjoy your videos and have been watching since the original "Hello UA-cam..." video. During that time, I don't know if I've once really disagreed with anything you've said, until now... I fail to understand how purchasing any M30 product, currently or in the future, won't be taken as greenlighting the whole thing by WOTC.
My perspective is that purchasing M30 products is telling WOTC their plan is working... condition their consumer base so in another year or two when they do something along the same vein as M30, the reaction will be diminished. Even more so by the investor types now having precedent that after the "hype" dies down, people will buy the product.
It's very late where I am so I hope that made sense. Thanks for the video!
Yes, it definitely makes sense. It’s an insightful take. I am starting to think that I too easily separated the cards from Hasbro 🤔
It always blows my mind to see these commons lined up in groups of 18. Nice to get back to basics. I've purchased quite a few gaps in my Alpha Commons collection over the last month. I'm at 80% now, with 14 commons + 1 basic land still to pick up. My last batch was a little regrettable though, which the seller not really quite capturing the condition of the cards, so 4 cards I expected to get in LP+ to NM- came in with a lot more table wear than described. Oh well. Still a few pretty heavy hitters to check off though (Lightning Bolt and Llanowar Elves).
Nice! That’s a beautiful set when it’s all put together. There’s actually someone selling a full common set on eBay right now for $7500 starting bid 🤔 Not the sort of listing one usually sees! That’s a bummer about the condition … it’s been happening more and more to me as well, where the labels just don’t match what they used to mean. Good luck on the quest to complete it!
@@AlphaHoarder Yeah I saw that. It just ended with no bids. Conditions on a lot of those looked pretty ok though
🔥 I’m here for the Fireballs 🔥
That page looks like an apocalypse lol!
More wotc shenanigans are incoming for sure
Cant wait till chatgpt gets updatet and can tell me what to think about MtG 30 t and I can talk about it and I can talk shop about it all day. I have a bunch of contradicting thoughts about it.
The site with the bolts was so beautiful, it brought a tear to my eye.
That we think 1 1/2 % is a lot on the market actually makes me pretty bullish. I am not sure how many of those listed are more a "look-at-my-collection-I have-listed-for-3x-market-to-show-off" or for earthbind moments which I would actually deduct from the real listings. Prices seem to stabilize and volume seems good. But I thought that a couple of times already just to see PSA 10 Juzams coming to auction. As a collector as well as an investor I am pretty happy atm and just wished I had more purchasing power.
Oh GPT-4, how disappointed you’ll be when they update your training….
“Since my knowledge is up to September 2021, I cannot provide details on this specific set. However, Magic: The Gathering sets that celebrate important milestones, such as anniversaries, tend to generate excitement and nostalgia among players. Anniversary sets often include reprints of popular and iconic cards from the game's history, as well as new cards that pay homage to past mechanics and themes.
Magic: The Gathering's 30th Anniversary set would likely be received with enthusiasm by the player community, especially if it features fan-favorite cards and mechanics, as well as cards that represent the game's rich history and evolution. It could also serve as a great entry point for newer players to experience the game's storied past.
Overall, the 30th Anniversary set would probably be celebrated by the Magic: The Gathering community, but without more details, I cannot provide a specific analysis or opinion on the set.”
Next, I asked it what they should charge. If only they’d consulted this thing ahead of time 😡
Me:
Should they reprint reserved list cards in that set?
ChatGPT:
The Reserved List is a list of Magic: The Gathering cards that Wizards of the Coast has pledged never to reprint in order to preserve their collectibility and value. This policy was established in 1996 in response to player concerns about the potential devaluation of cards due to reprints. As a result, reprinting Reserved List cards in the 30th Anniversary set would go against the longstanding policy and promises made by Wizards of the Coast.
While reprinting Reserved List cards could generate excitement among players and increase the accessibility of some of the game's most iconic and powerful cards, it could also undermine trust in the company and significantly impact the secondary market. Many collectors and investors have purchased Reserved List cards with the expectation that their value will be preserved, and reprinting these cards could lead to a significant loss of value for those individuals.
Given these considerations, it's unlikely that Wizards of the Coast would choose to reprint Reserved List cards in the 30th Anniversary set or any other future set. Instead, they may opt to include highly sought-after cards not on the Reserved List, as well as new cards that pay homage to the game's history and past mechanics, to generate excitement and appeal among players.
@@AlphaHoarder Well...then there is only Autogpt to save us
More excellent analysis and honesty. These videos are really great.
I think what the core of my issue is with M30 is, I agree they wanted to tap into the secondary market but not with sealed boxes of M30. I think they wanted to test if reserved list reprints would be accepted and in what volume. Wotc knows that they can print reserved list singles (in some capacity ie proxies) and they'll be accepted by collectors. I don't necessarily agree that wotc was punished for M30 (but I haven't really thought past their recent success with 2023 sets), I just think they will be more clever about it next time. I do really think they try this again maybe at the end of 2023 and maybe something closer to a secret lair.
I'm almost positive I'm just being a grumpy old dude about this but I have to imagine the hobby is forever changed for the worse with wotc's recent decisions. Geez that sounds dramatic but I believe it 😂
Dramatic, perhaps, but likely true
I'm disappointed you preached about not buying M30, and then changed your mind. This is the only example of something you have ever said or done on your channel that I haven't loved.
That’s fair. My main concern when I asked people not to buy was I didn’t want Hasbro to make any money off this. It wasn’t until after that was all said and done that I started seeing how tangled the product itself had become with Hasbro (something I’d not anticipated). I’m still not sure if I’m navigating it properly, but that was the motivation for making my previous video and prompting for feedback, which I tried to process and summarize at the end of this video as fairly as I could. In any case, I’m hoping M30 doesn’t have to come up on my channel anymore (nor M31, M35, etc)🤞 As a topic, it remains a big part of the cloud I feel over the hobby…
Custom-built binder holders, interesting. Needless to say, we old folks are here to enjoy the classic art and simple style of the old cards, one clear version of each card, nothing weird, just straight goodies.
About the rambling part, yes.. ABU holds the highest of values for cards thanks to P9 and Duals, yet the overall depth of the RL by cumulative value of the RL cards in a given set lays elsewhere. I think it was Urza's block, I forgot it. Must have been at Unhinged, OB, Tavis, Saint... any of their channels had a list of all RL cards with value per card and (estimated) population laid out. However, for obvious reasons the nostalgia is strongest for ABU as those are the first and will always be the first.
That’s a very good point, the market capitalization of each card is more important than the individual card selling value. I need to revisit that thought process 🧐
Yes, I could try and send a few $100,000 but my current cult leader demands all gifts be sent to them instead. So that is not going to work for me.
🤣
It's seems always weird to me to hear how you pronounce Mark Tedin's name. Is there a reason, why you pronounce it that way?
I have no idea 😅 I switch between Tee-din and Ted-in at random in the hope of being right at least half of the time
That’s a grand or two fork
Where are all the charizards?
I imagine them off frame, spitting out those fireballs!
I think you are ignoring the fact that the sales failure (and accompanying PR blowback) could have been largely avoided with better pricing and product design. For example, if WotC had just made Magic 30 a reprinting of Beta, with some small changes to art/borders, and only included RL cards as the only non playable proxies (all non-RL cards would be playable, normal backs), and charged $500 a booster box (~36 packs), they would have broken sales records.
Ironically, a successful product like this probably would have posed more of a threat to RL equity in the long run, because it would have had been a better and much smoother approach to normalizing RL rent capture (over time). Instead, WotC tried to push everyone in the deep end with a set everyone hated for a variety of reasons, and so if normalization was a secondary goal, they completely failed in that regard.
So in the end, I think you are underestimating the incentives (and overestimating costs) for WotC to try to extract RL equity in other forms of products
Insightful points, and I agree with almost all of it. Thanks for breaking that all down. I do still think the fact that the first time did play out with a giant PR blow back necessarily raises the stakes for them. It is ironic that in their race to be greedy, they sabotaged their ability to be even greedier down the road. You are definitely right, though, if this product had been organized and priced differently, they may still have infuriated the collectors, but it would have excited and engaged enough players, that it would’ve been an overwhelming net win for them (though I’d maintain, not the hobby). Appreciate the comment!