[ericcholis]

I work in this industry. We recently listed a set of Magic the Gathering Alpha on eBay, all in excellent condition. No takers, but it was impressive nonetheless.

There is quite a bit of money to be made in "vintage" Magic cards. Also, I can't remember the last time that a new Magic the Gathering product was released and it didn't go up in value well beyond the suggested retail price.

Side Note, for those unfamiliar "GEM MINT BGS 9.5" means that a third party has evaluated this card and assigned it a grade based on it's condition. For BGS (Beckett Grading Services), they use a 10 point scale with half points. 9.5 is almost fresh out of pack the day it was made. There is another reputable company called PSA that does grading as well. CGC is a big one too, for comics.

[mherdeg]

Sounds like there's plenty of value to be extracted here! If only there were some kind of niche market where people could trade just these items, perhaps some kind of Magic: the Gathering Online Exchange.

[junto]

Hey @mherdeg. I thought this was a really good idea.

I just checked to see if the domain name was available mtgox.com, but some weird fake money site is using it for what looks like a pyramid scheme.

Considering these pyramid schemes always come crashing down at some point, maybe we can grab the domain after them?

[ericcholis]

Also worth noting, one of the largest players in this space is Star City Games. I wouldn't be surprised if they spent a few million dollars per year buying cards from consumers. That doesn't count the money spend purchasing new product from the manufacturer.

[Kiro]

Ever heard of MtGox, the bitcoin exchange? Guess what the name stands for.

[FBT]

To be pedantic, MtGox doesn't actually stand for "`Magic the Gathering` online exchange" like mherdeg was suggesting, but rather for "`Magic the Gathering online` exchange". A subtle difference,perhaps, but MtGox was never intended for trading cards like these (Alpha Black Lotuses and suchlike). Rather, it was intended for trading MTGO cards.

In other words, not an online exchange for Magic: The Gathering cards, but rather an exchange for Magic: The Gathering Online cards.

[n09n]

thatsthejoke

[Kiro]

Except that it wasn't a joke.

[mushroomhead]

speculators.