Commander Collections and Signature Spellbooks - What Happened?
Tucked in between the fall of the From the Vault series and the rise of Secret Lair, Magic experimented with two different attempts at revitalizing their lineup for premium box sets: small connections of individual cards tied together by some overarching thing, marketed towards Magic’s more enfranchised players. These two attempts – the Signature Spellbook series and the Commander Collection series – are not remembered fondly by the market, to say the least.
It’s been many years – and many Secret Lair Drops – since these proto-Secret Lairs first came out, though. So what exactly happened with each product line, and what are they up to now?
Signature Spellbook
In 2017, Wizards of the Coast released the last of the From the Vault series, capping things off with From the Vault: Transform. While popular with collectors, the From the Vault series was mired with problems with both production and accessibility. Foil curling was especially prevalent, as were printer lines and miscuts. On the accessibility end, stores were granted such limited allocations (if any at all) that purchasers were often left irate with retailers; either prices would be gouged through the roof, or the product would sell off instantaneously.
Facing these problems, Wizards pivoted to the Signature Spellbook series in 2018, moving away from an all-foil collection of fifteen cards to a nonfoil collection of eight, plus one additional duplicate card selected from among those eight which would appear in traditional foil. Additionally, the MSRP of these products dropped from From the Vault’s $39.99 to $19.99, a gesture reflective of the significant cut in card count. Following this model, three Signature Spellbooks were released: Jace (in 2018), Gideon (in 2019), and Chandra (in 2020).
Of these three products, only one has appreciated since release date: Signature Spellbook: Jace, which displays an impressive gain of 35% since its release. Gideon and Chandra, however, are in much more dire straits; Gideon is down by 10%, while Chandra is down by 25%. Why? Simply put, Jace just has the singularly most valuable card in it – Mystical Tutor – which is an even more impressive hit to find off of the foil insert slot.
However, focusing on the big hits from these Spellbooks is a bit misleading, as turning to Gideon’s Spellbook shows. In that, there are two cards worth more than $5, serving as a bit of a counterbalance to Jace’s singular $10 hit. Finding either of these cards (or Blackblade Reforged) in the foil slot bumps that up to $7, providing even more opportunity here, something which the market is starting to notice.
Gideon and Chandra might not be the most expensive of the Signature Spellbooks, but they are on an upwards trend, just like Jace. Checking with TCGPlayer’s recent moving averages, we see that both Gideon and Chandra have moved upwards by about 15% in the past six months, while Jace is on track for an impressive 25% gain.
What does this mean? Although Jace is the best performer, don’t count out the rest of this product line. Signature Spellbooks are moving across the market day by day, regardless of installment, and the price floor on the whole series is moving up as a result.
Commander Collection: Standard and Premium
In late 2020, Magic moved away from the Signature Spellbook series and replaced it with something eerily similar, but a lot more expensive: the Commander Collection.
While not themed around a single character like the Signature Spellbook series, the contents were nonetheless nearly identical in structure; eight cards themed around a singular color, although now with the Commander audience expressly in mind. As such, each came with a uniquely styled
Additionally, gone was the random-foil slot. Instead, each Commander Collection came in two versions: the base version and the premium (or foil) version.
By this point Wizards of the Coast had abolished manufacturer suggested retail price, but broad reporting from release date shows that the most common price for the base version (regardless of color) was near $80, while the premium version often commanded $120+. Since then, like Chandra and Gideon, things have taken quite a tumble.
Commander Collection only had two installments – Green and Black – and the contents of those two box sets have been hit hard by the ferocious pace of reprints since their initial releases. A significant draw to the Commander Collection series (the main reason that Wizards raised the price) was the appeal of the potent and valuable cards contained within. Since their release, however, many of these cards have been reprinted multiple times, demolishing the price floor for the singles within.
This stands in stark contrast with the Signature Spellbook series which, although cheaper in absolute terms than even the least expensive Commander Collection, has been able to recover since its earlier price collapse due to the initial lack of value in the singles within. Signature Spellbooks weren’t marketed as having expensive cards; they were marketed as having particularly cool and flavorful treatment of primarily cheap cards. Commander Collection, however, was a baseline approach to at-the-time valuable staples.
This leaves us in an interesting situation. The cheaper product, which was looked on with disdain at release, has been able to recover – if not appreciate – substantially in the past six months precisely because of the low stakes of the cards within. Commander Collection, meanwhile, is almost universally negative these past few months, with one exception: the base version of Commander Collection: Green is starting to move upwards.
Looking at the singles within, this is again strictly a case of one box set being better than the other. Nothing in Commander Collection: Black holds a candle to what Green contains, and that has put serious negative pressure on both the base and premium versions of it. Green, however, is slowly starting to inch back upwards from its long-term history of continued price erosion.
Interestingly, this is only true of the base release. Normal foils aren’t nearly as special as they used to be, and as such there is no longer a price premium for the premium version. Instead, Green’s base printing has been able to weather the reprints much better than its shiny counterpart, which has lost luster both against the forces of reprints and more interesting borderless treatments being released beyond just basic foil.
Wrap Up
Commander Collection and Signature Spellbook may not be fondly remembered products, and they certainly don’t have the financial track record of some of Magic’s better releases, but don’t forget about their existences. Signature Spellbooks are moving up across the board, and Commander Collection is starting to show the briefest glimmers of positivity.
Toxic assets aren’t always toxic forever, and it may finally be the time for these proto-Secret Lairs to shine.
Further Reading
The Value of the Hatsune Miku Secret Lair Drops
Harvey McGuinness
Harvey McGuinness is a student at Johns Hopkins University who has been playing Magic since the release of Return to Ravnica. After spending a few years in the Legacy arena bouncing between Miracles and other blue-white control shells, he now spends his time enjoying Magic through CEDH games and understanding the finance perspective. He also writes for the Commander's Herald.