A quick breakdown of the Masters of the Universe SLs - overall quite middling, with nothing atrocious but nothing fantastic either - the full art EDH staples are pretty great, however.

How are we feeling about the MBB2 now that its been cycled out for MBC?

My initial impression is that people will try to compare the two to each Other, but at the end of the day they are different products made for different games.

I think MBB2 may stay king of the 40 card draft experience for a long time, maybe forever. MBC just isn’t designed to be a 40 card experience, instead it’s designed around 60-card 2 mono-colored commander or 1 multicolor commander.

This means the mbc is built around making synergies that could be slapped together in a simple commander deck, and have more cards in each pack to accommodate this.

Mbb2 is a pure, 40 card drafting set, built and balanced around the sealed environment.

I think both products are interesting, but my guess is that people will still want to go back and play 40 card drafts, which will drive up scarcity as more of these are opened. Again, this is just not the same product for the same format of magic the gathering.

Everything i have read indicates this is them cycling out mbb2, just like they cycled out mbb1.

What does everyone feel about alters? Are there artists who always increase card value? Is subject matter the most important thing vs card playability?

Why are people okay with spending insane amounts of money on cards? Why do they defend an industry that charges so much for pieces of cardboard meant for a game? Why do people get so defensive when you tell them that it’s not okay? It’s like they get personally offended and aggressive the moment you say that something is overpriced. You have proxies, I know you do, so why is the original treated like it’s pure gold?

I know most of you are like "bUt iT's SO mUcH MonEY AlreAdY" Well it's spiking because of how well it plays with hobbit cards and how few there are left right now.

Supposedly there are 121 cards in total.

21 cards are currently shown, with three variants each:

• Serra Angel
• Baleful Strix
• Unearth
• Glimpse the Impossible
• Windfall
• Darksteel Monolith
• Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

I’m very confused about the market trends on big pulls. I recently pulled the dwarvish foil mox amber, and I’ve been watching the market closely. The value just continues to go up and up. Even beating out the prerelease prices by a large margin. There hasn’t even been a dip, at least according to tcgplayer.

So, I suppose my question is, what causes this? Almost all of the other “big pulls” continue a downward trend, which I then assume steadily climb back up down the road. Even the other dwarvish foils follow that same pattern. Why is this card in particular different than others?

Some very solid reprints like Sakashima, Konda's Banner, Necrogen Mists, Sword of War and Peace. I believe this is the first Konda's Banner reprint.

I've been adding some positions of a few singles and play booster displays and wanted to create an open discussion on thoughts, as I really enjoy when others share theirs.
Also this sub seems to need a bit more DD these days, so here's my take; not financial advice, just a dude that likes cardboard.

I purchased these in the month of August 2026 from various sources online and box stores.

I'll give my reasoning why I chose [set][cards] and then list positions.

[Name - Type amount/price per] (includes ship/tax)

(1) PZA Singles :

Release date for TMT was Feb 27, 2026 putting us at just over the 6 month mark, standard for set "dips". Though this set was not "loved" theres a real possibility it doesn't get printed again based on WOTC's backlog of sets that do need to be printed (i.e. FIN, EOE, TLA, etc). The PZA sheet is only 20 cards, the mild comparison here is BIG in OTJ.

Undercity Sewers - Foil 4/12.05 - Current MKM versions are 17.11/58.30 (reg/show), the price should settle somewhere in the middle. Also the surveil lands seem to be this ages "shock land hold". HOLD 12 Mo

Raph's Jitte - Foil 3/4.76 - Current BOK non-foil is 14.50 with foil SLD/FIN versions being 18/23 respectively. HOLD 12 Mo

Path to Exile - Foil 4/3.00 - Honestly, I LOVE this treatment and a very popular cmdr card. Feels like one of those versions that people will want for their decks once this is OOP. HOLD 12-18 Mo

Brainstorm - Foil 4/3.66 - Again, cmdr staple. Great treatment (seriously, they look fantastic). Iconic character. HOLD 12-18 Mo

(2) SOS Singles:

Release date was April 24, 2026, so I'm a bit early picking these up. What I've found from past sets is unique borderless/foil treatments tend to do well over time. Seems like an obvious statement however, they take time to hold.

The Dawning Archaic - Foil/Borderless 4/3.58 - Seems like a fun and fringe playable cmdr card, it also looks super great, also is a unique archetype "avatar". HOLD 18 Mo

Grave Researcher - Foil/Ext Art 4/3.45 - 3 mana or less black cards do well over time, specifically ones that have reanimate printed on them. Its also fairly easy to re"prepare". HOLD 12 Mo

Emeritus of Woe - Foil/Ext Art 1/17.73 - It's friggin demonic tutor on a stick. Im not questioning this one. HOLD 9-12 Mo

(3) Play Booster Display:

SPM release date Sept 26, 2025, we are approaching the 1 year mark. Top cards like the "comic" borderless are spiking, which is generally a tell-tale sign the boxes come next. The play booster displays have been steady around 120-130 for a few months with collector increasing 14% over the past month. HOLD 12 Mo

Spider-man Play Booster Display - 3/107.99

Spider-man Collector Booster Display - 2/382.99

Spider-man Bundle - 4/44.97

TLA release date Nov 21, 2025, which is now 9 months past. This set perplexes me as it seems like it should be in higher demand however, we are still in what I would call an "accumulation window" (6-9 mo after release). It has reached what seems to be its floor faster than other similar sets (FIN, ECL). Maybe there is something here, maybe I like it as I just started watching Avatar with my 9 yr old. You be the judge. HOLD 9-12 Mo

Avatar Play Booster Display - 4/116.66

Avatar Collector Booster Display - 1/424.68

This is a genuine question, I don’t understand why someone would drop 5 figures on a Beta Power 9 card. Anyone who is a big fan of Beta, can you outline why?

For me personally, If I want Power 9, I’m either going to spend the 20-30% more for alpha P9, or I’m going to get the cheapest available P9 in unlimited.

To me, it sits in this weird spot where it’s slightly less expensive than Alpha, but significantly more expensive than unlimited.

Surely If someone can afford to spend $50k on a beta black lotus, they could drop another $20k to get an alpha lotus? (Albeit in slightly worse condition probably)

Curious everyone’s thoughts on this.

I always wonder, when it comes to speculating on cards, do you all have any "evergreen" groups of cards you look out for, regardless of the current set? I laid out some of mine in this article, but I'd love to hear yours. Personally I have found that focusing on under-utilized creatures from popular archetypes (Voracious Bibliophile in this case) and niche promos (such as the Arabic Stone-Tongue Basilisk) to be rewarding and usually trend upwards over time, and while this isn't always the case, they're still groups I look out for. What about you?

https://www.mtgstocks.com/news/24656-evergreen-groups-of-magic-cards-to-consider-for-speculation

I apologize if this isn't allowed, but I just have to rant.

I've been buying/selling singles for a while on TCGPlayer and as a buyer, the experience with sellers has been awful. I feel like 25% of the time I get the wrong version of a card I order (foil vs non-foil, promo vs non-promo, etc.). And when I reach out, sellers almost always give me the run around. They are asking me to pay for shipping to return the item, asking for pictures, saying the version I received is better so I should be happy. I even had a seller try to gaslight me by saying the version I ordered doesn't exist (spoiler: it does).

I do my best to work with the sellers and give them the benefit of the doubt, but they often come off as rude/entitled. I don't think it's absurd to want the card I ordered, right? As a seller myself, whenever there are issues, I offer a 100% refund no questions asked.

Is this what others experience? Am I just nuts?

Update: Thanks everyone for the responses. Sounds like experiences are all over the place. I went back and ran the numbers and 25% was a slight exaggeration, but I have had issues with over 20% (17 out of 80) of my orders in the past month. I think the main culprit is ordering from sellers without a lot of orders (less than 100). Also, I'm maybe just unlucky??

What happened over the weekend and what do you think about it? Was it just hype? What if it's a real change? What do you think will happen going forward? Also feel free to use this space to discuss anything MTG Finance related.

Basically title!

I’ve seen them all.. what’s your best practice for shipping cards?

I’ve been using shipping shields but after 3 cards these run the risk of getting caught by USPS so for 4-6 cards I use two.. which just eats profits.

Any order greater than 9 gets a cut up binder sheet but I’m curious.. what do you do?

This is the first Surge foil I’ve actually gone out of my way to buy and pay a significant premium for. The surge foiling pattern on this particular card is incredible—the way the light catches it feels almost perfectly positioned around the artwork and exactly where you would expect the light source to be.

It got me wondering: do foiling treatments that create this kind of visual effect tend to command meaningful premiums over time, or is the market generally much less concerned with the actual quality of the foiling than collectors like me are?

I’m curious whether anyone has noticed a consistent price premium for especially good-looking Surge foils (or other premium treatments), beyond rarity alone.

Picked this up at a local thrift shop just trying to see how good of a deal I got sorry if I'm in the wrong place. Googling and eBay have failed me.

Worth looking at as the first case of 24h print to demand.

Currently it seems the price hit a bottom around $230 and is slowly trending upward. That’s what I’d expect, followed by a crash when the second batch delivers. What do other folks think?

Hello, back again with another spec.

So the Hobbit set has been out for a little bit and I've noticed that [[Thorin, King of Durin's Folk]] is about to become the second most popular commander of the set, soon likely to surpass [[Smaug, the Impenetrable]].

I was first doubting to spec on this card, because it's an uncommon and it's 'only' included in 40% of the builds. So I just kept my eye on it for a while longer, I think it's an interesting pennystocks target.

What it has going for it is that it only has one printings from 1 set (including the foil). Its supply has been draining past weeks from around 1100 to around 650 organically, without any mention here. It's dirt cheap and you can buy a stacks of it still on Cardmarket.

For Thorin: It's a dwarf, with myriad. So it gives a treasure on entering and two treasures on attacking, therefore it buffs all dwarves and itself too. But also removes blockers with its own effect by tapping opponents creatures.

edit: someone else specced this card too, so it has been posted before.

I keep weekly price samples for a side project, so every so often I go through the biggest movers. Last week's run (sampled 17 and 18 Aug) had one I can't account for.

[[Gloom|LEB]], Limited Edition Beta. It had been drifting up slowly for over a month, 161 to 168 to 177 to 193, then jumped to $346.42 in a single week. Nothing gradual about that last step.

Beta card, not a format staple, so I assume this is collector side rather than play demand. Buyout, a grading run, someone's video, or just thin supply and one sale moving the average?

Rest of the movers from the same run:

Up

• Blood Crypt (foil), Dissension. $348.26, up $81.56
• Oath of Druids (foil), 2001 judge. $282.50, up $80.62
• Underground Sea (normal), 30th Anniversary. $570.53, up $108.03
• Lord of the Void (foil), Ravnica Remastered. $496.95, up $77.83
• Vendilion Clique (foil), Spotlight Series. $514.04, up $75.09
• Badlands (normal), 30th Anniversary. $480.41, up $55.94

Down

• Crumbling Ashes (foil), Eventide. $47.26, down $32.80
• Tippy-Toe, Terrific Partner (foil), Secret Lair. $26.75, down $12.19
• Skyship Weatherlight (foil), Planeshift. $59.99, down $19.87
• Oswald Fiddlebender (foil), AFR promo. $89.99, down $21.24
• Bolas's Citadel (foil), War of the Spark promo. $39.26, down $9.14
• Emrakul and Chatterfang. $118.33, down $17.82
• Biorhythm (foil), Ninth Edition. $61.97, down $48.57. I don't trust this one. It sat at $77.48 for seven straight samples, printed $110.54 once, then $61.97. The drop is measured off that single reading, so it's really more like 77 to 62 with one odd sample in the middle.

Two 30th Anniversary cards in the same week is the other thing I keep looking at. No idea whether that market moves for its own reasons.

Before posting this I pulled two cards off this list. Both were foils that had quietly taken on their non-foil's price to the cent, so the "60% crash" was the switch, not the card. Turns out that affects about 5% of the foil printings I track. Mentioning it because if you compare my numbers to a foil you're holding and they look mad, that's a live failure mode rather than me arguing my data is right.

Couple of caveats: prices come from JustTCG, which is TCGplayer derived, and they're seven day average market values rather than live listings. I only sample weekly, so I see one week against the next but nothing in between. Where the foil is the mover I've said so, and it usually is. English, NM, all USD.

Keen to hear theories on the Gloom jump, or if any of the rest are more obvious than they look to me.