A couple of years ago now, I wrote a post detailing my History of Magic, and in it I included the iconic card that is the face of magic to me, Sol Ring. I included a whole bunch of pictures of various versions as it has been re-released with new sets, as special editions and as promotional releases for special events. One such version was the Masterpiece Series: Kaladesh Inventions Foil version.
This particular masterpiece series was very limited and some cards in it went sky high in price while others stayed more reasonable ($40-80 being what I call reasonable). There were 54 cards in total and about 40 of them all stayed under the $200 mark. That’s actually pretty surprising. But those remaining 14 cards. The top card was one called Mana Crypt and it has been running around $950 on average at a place called TCG. So on a lark, I looked up the Sol Ring version, just to see if maybe I could pick one up for the sake of simply having a shiny.
Holy smokes! There were only 9 copies available that were under $1000! A typical magic card weighs about 0.06oz. So with the foiling, lets just go wild and say this particular Sol Ring weighs 0.1oz. For $1000. To put that in perspective, 0.1oz of gold is worth about $180 currently. Is that insane or what?!? We’re not talking about artistic treasures from history here folks. The Kaladesh Inventions cards were released in 2016.
A Sol Ring as pictured immediately above costs about $15. So I could buy about 60 (I’m giving myself leeway for shipping, jerks who don’t actually send near mind condition ones, etc) regular versions for my Sol Ring Collection OR I could buy 1 Super Duper Special Version that I’ll never play with, never use but simply put it behind plastic and let it sit there, knowing I own it. I’m not going to do either of those options, but it’s fun to think about. If I win the lottery some day, you know?
Just for the record, I bought that group of Sol Ring’s when the price was almost half of what it is now.
Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road 
There’s actually a whole YouTube channel just about Magic card collectors going into this stuff. It’s a whole subculture that’s really turned into something else beyond the initial popularity of the game. But I collect bookmarks so I can’t really say anything.
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Yeah, collectors are destroying the game. Because Hasbro realizes they, the collectors spend money like there’s no tomorrow, and so they put out products that only collectors can afford. And the people who actually want to play the game realize they can’t afford X and so they either leave the game or end up proxy’ing the cards and either option isn’t good for the long term health of the game.
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Are you still interested in my limited edition NFT of cards showing me as a cowboy, insurrectionist, or superhero? Would look great in your collection!
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I thought you were all green and stuff? NFT’s are evil according to woke ads I hear on the radio. And I’m talking Hitler levels of evil here, not just Hunter Biden levels of evilness.
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Do you wear a sporran in them?
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👍
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I don’t understand any of these things. And why so expensive?? It’s not like they produce real magic is it? They’re just bits of cardboard with a pretty picture and some writing. 🤷🏼♀️
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It’s expensive ONLY because they produced a very limited number and there are more people who want them than there are cards.
Yep, at the end of the day, it is just a little piece of cardboard. That “value” is only in peoples’ minds.
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Like Bitcoins then I think.
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You know, that is almost exactly what it is like.
I hope you weren’t invested in bitcoin, because maaaaaaan, people are losing money left and right over that….
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Not me, I like my readys!
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I avoided it too, because I won’t deal with anything that isn’t tangibly real…
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I find it insane how the internet made things so much more expensive for collectors today… Prices are jacked the rarer the product and rarity seem so much more common today than ever before because of low production…
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Insane is a good word to use. A piece of cardboard should not be more expensive than gold…
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