The Numbers on the Reserved List buyouts
The last weeks I have been a bit fascinated by the buyouts that are happening all across the board, where mainly cards from the notorious Reserved List seem to be targeted. Cards that aren't played like, anywhere, which were only a few dollars are jumping into the hundreds, solely based on speculation.
So what makes these cards so wanted? Just the fact that Wizards isn't going to reprint them. Ever. There's a finite amount of these cards in circulation, while there is a growing userbase. The reserved list came into existence when collectors protested that their cards were rapidly devaluating because of
We've seen some quite explainable price corrections on dual lands, since they're heavily played in Legacy in Vintage, but also spikes like
Let's have a quick look at the financial implications these recent buyouts have on Magic finance. Let's pull out some numbers from the sets that include reserved list cards and let's look at all reserved cards as a whole. Below is a table of the average prices of the sets and the reserved list, based on 1 year ago and today. I also included some categories of reserved list where we filter out the lower segment.
| All cards | Reserved only | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Set | 1 year ago | Today | 1 year ago | Today |
| $192.99 | $304.55 | $922.45 | $1464.07 | |
| $213.01 | $232.97 | $1178.26 | $1256.20 | |
| $80.54 | $78.76 | $452.64 | $464.35 | |
| $6.38 | $6.76 | $62.88 | $69.95 | |
| $41.15 | $62.67 | $154.48 | $234.06 | |
| $20.98 | $24.92 | $93.57 | $110.11 | |
| $15.88 | $21.42 | $56.38 | $79.27 | |
| $1.31 | $2.30 | $1.59 | $6.81 | |
| $0.27 | $0.28 | $0.44 | $0.48 | |
| $0.46 | $0.48 | $0.68 | $0.68 | |
| $0.47 | $0.45 | $0.77 | $0.85 | |
| $1.04 | $1.04 | $2.02 | $2.28 | |
| $0.97 | $0.93 | $2.94 | $2.64 | |
| $1.00 | $0.99 | $1.58 | $1.68 | |
| $0.96 | $0.92 | $2.97 | $2.69 | |
| $1.36 | $1.34 | $9.41 | $8.53 | |
| $2.19 | $2.11 | $23.93 | $23.81 | |
| $2.39 | $2.25 | $27.51 | $24.36 | |
| $2.39 | $2.33 | $26.09 | $25.90 | |
| $1.39 | $1.37 | $11.33 | $10.94 | |
| $1.57 | $1.74 | $10.70 | $11.08 | |
| Reserved List | $179.04 | $225.14 | ||
| Reserved List With average above $5 | $443.89 | $463.96 | ||
| Reserved List With average above $50 | $853.41 | $879.49 | ||
More from Arjen:
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Of course cards are moving because of Lord of the Rings, but we have some interesting cards from several constructed formats as well.
One winner from Lord of the Rings, but the rest are moving because of Commander Masters.
Lord of the Rings keeps shaking up prices! The set is proving to be powerful, and we're seeing plenty of interactions with a lot of other cards.
