Purchase shocklands or fetchlands?
Economics forum
Posted on Oct. 14, 2014, 10:11 a.m. by Abubroki
Hi all,
I need a playset of both Breeding Pool and Wooded Foothills for my modern decks. I can acquire right now the former for +/- 48 USD and the latter for +/- 70 USD, but I can only purchase one of those 2 playsets for some weeks.
The shockland was supposed to maybe go down in price in the weeks following rotation, before climbing steadily due to its ever interest in non-rotating formats, yet it has kept going up even before rotation! Are Standard players dumping their shocks in the next weeks or is it never going to happen?
The fetches could go down from their current price, as more boosters are opened in the next months, but demand for fetches seems unlimited (for standard multicolor decks, or for modern decks, or just as a future investment), so supply might never be surpassing demand and they might not go down in the next months... On top of that, if they retain their current value around 15-20 USD, one could think it might be better to buy them directly instead of buying boosters, assuming one is not interested in KTK, and if many people act accordingly, it will lead to less boosters opened and less fetches around...
Any ideas?
Many thanks in advance.
Thanks, ChiefBell. Indeed, the 4x fetchlands I want are just to be reasonably sure I have 2 shocklands in play by turn 2-3 (I also have 2 Polluted Delta I intend to use for that, and later on purchase the remaining 2). I have not purchased the shocklands in the past weeks waiting for them to go down (not plummet, but go slightly down); now I see it is becoming unlikely... let's hope fetchlands will not climb up before KTK stops being sold...
October 14, 2014 10:45 a.m.
Both of those prices look high to me; TCGplayer is your best bet. You can get the Breeding Pool s for just under $40 there (Wooded Foothills around $55).
I would buy the shocklands first. The fetches seem likely to fall as more KTK is opened, whereas the shocks are likely at their floor until the next reprint.
October 14, 2014 10:48 a.m.
I agree the shocks at least definitely look high in price, you can get em cheaper from SCG even! I just finished my full playset of shocks (only needed one of each, exc steam vents, of which I had 4) and I think the most I paid was approx $10. It being slightly more difficult to source cards in the UK, might have made them very slightly more expensive. I will be picking up 2 of each fetches in the coming months, Just keep a general eye on the prices and buy when you are happy too is my advice. I really can't see them increasing, and if you get em, and they drop a couple of dollars, it really won't matter, as they will only ever climb after that. And alot
October 14, 2014 10:56 a.m.
Grab the shocks and 1 or 2 fetches since you seem to be able to spend the higher price. Both Will go up but shocks first because they are not being printed right now
October 14, 2014 12:11 p.m.
Cobthecobbler says... #7
Shocklands aren't in print right now, fetches are. Go with the shocklands because you can be sure they won't be that price for much longer. Get the fetch lands later when you can because they're more likely to retain their price rather than go up (unless r/g decks start to dominate)
October 14, 2014 12:38 p.m.
Seraphicate says... #8
Definitely go with shock-lands, supply and demand demands it. Supply of shocks will dwindle sooner or later, and probably go the same way as zendikar fetches.
October 14, 2014 1:14 p.m.
shocks will never be that price, they have been printed twice, and Return to Ravnica Block was printed and opened massively, so I doubt they would ever even approach the cost of the much rarer fetches. once the Zen fetches are reprinted, all of the fetches and shocks will be a nice reasonable price, at least for quite some time, making modern much more accessible for the most part. Now they just need to make sure modern masters 2 has a much higher print run lol
October 14, 2014 1:22 p.m.
At one point certain shocklands approached $40 each.......
October 14, 2014 1:35 p.m.
@ jr92_2000 and maiden77: Sadly, I live in Southern Europe. Best place you can find as far as I know is magiccardmarket.eu... I just checked it, and the lowest reputable sellers sell 4x Breeding Pool good to near mint at ~ 45 usd (35,5 eur) without shipping (cheapest insured shipping is another 4 usd, but at least no customs... ). If the euro wasn't plummeting vs the dollar, that price could easily be 56 usd...
Also to the rest, thanks to all! Very useful insight indeed.
ChiefBell says... #2
Many people think that stanbdard players wont dump their shocklands because modern is a pretty massive format now.
Get the shocklands now before the definitely go up in price (because that's certainly going to happen eventually). The fetchlands might stabilise or go down, it's unlikely that they'll go up.
Also shocklands are better than fetchlands if you can only have one. Fetchlands are only good because they can fetch shocklands.
October 14, 2014 10:13 a.m.