Summer Magic Mountain
Economics forum
Posted on Aug. 12, 2015, 2:32 a.m. by MADMatt7777
I really want a Summer Magic Mountain. At it's current price, is it an okay buy. It is a part of Magic history, and with such a limited number of copies floating around, it'll only go up... right? Does the same apply to Guru Lands?
Gidgetimer says... #4
8 minutes of rambling for what could have been a 30 second explanation. A distillation of what the video said for those that just want to know what it is without all the rambling:
Wizards was not satisfied with how washed out revised was and so did a print run with higher saturation. Saturation was too high and some major mistakes were made so they didn't release it. A very limited number of packs from the run did make it out into the public. Because of severely limited supply the price tag is high.
August 12, 2015 8:28 a.m.
Thanks for the summary. So, cards with higher color saturation basically? Couldn't an alter achieve virtually the same thing?
"The print run was recalled and destroyed; however, about 40 booster boxes that were shipped to England and Tennessee survived. No more than 11 or 12 of each rare exists.".
Aside from blue Hurricane (one went for 7k just a couple of years ago or about a Black Lotus), all the cards have a fairly high value. Unfortunately, I would say that the value is deceptive - there are very few people who actually want this collector-exclusive magic item. If you buy for speculation purposes, don't.
It will take years for it to climb significantly and will probably not outpace even inflation, since there will never be an increase in demand for it.
August 12, 2015 8:52 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #6
An alter could achieve the same thing. The thing is that they are not expensive because they are pretty or powerful. That particular set is expensive because of collectors and rarity. It is the same reason that strictly worse Vampiric Tutor is worth 30 times as much. People want to have what few others have and are willing to pay ridiculous amounts to do so.
August 12, 2015 9:05 a.m.
Well, Imperial Seal is used when a format does not allow you to play a second copy of Vampiric Tutor - aka Commander and Vintage, the only two formats where the card is actually legal. So, Portal cards are rare, functional reprints of older cards for which there is actual demand. There are perfectly valid gameplay reasons behind the price.
Summer magic prices seems to be only based on scarcity. Blue hurricane is an apt example of 0 gameplay vs price. There is next to zero demand because of exclusivity and most of the rare cards from this have 0 circulation, so price in most cases will be determined by two people agreeing on it, rather than any market forces.
August 12, 2015 9:13 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #8
Maybe Imperial Seal was a bad example since it can be rationalized in some small way. I will instead use Burning of Xinye. The price of Summer cards is like the price of it. The P3K printing is 40 times as much as the from the vault because people want to have what few others have and are willing to pay ridiculous amounts to do so.
August 12, 2015 11:12 a.m.
Well, that is an issue with the whole portal set. VERY limited print run, functional reprints of tons of cards (Wildfire) and Commander appeal are all contributing to that.
August 13, 2015 2:26 a.m.
Gidgetimer says... #10
That is my whole point. Summer is an even more limited set. In the Burning of Xinye example I used 2 different printings of the exact same card, not the card and the reprint that is worth 300 times the price. Think of the P3K printing as the summer printing and the FTV printing as the revised printing. One of them is expensive because of being limited and the other is cheap because the cards aren't actually anything special in and of themselves.
Boza says... #2
Aren't they basically revised mountains? What is so special for them to be worth more than an underground sea?
August 12, 2015 4:14 a.m.