Selling the Past to Create the Future

After many years of keeping my Magic cards, I’m finally selling all that I can sell. I am selling 430 cards to Card Kingdom for $563.  The Elder Dragon Highlander format has given life to cards that used to be worth nothing, so it’s a good time to sell.

For those that are thinking of selling their cards, here are some general categories I found to be moneymakers:

  • Rares (about 50% of them were worth something)
  • Nonbasic Lands
  • Library Searching
  • Reanimation
  • Goblins
  • Artifacts
  • Older Slivers
  • Elves
  • Rare Unglued

Here are some of my top moneymaking cards:

  • 3rd Edition: Scrubland $51.00
  • 5th Edition: Sylvan Library $9.00
  • 6th Edition: Vampiric Tutor $16.00
  • Judgment: Burning Wish $16.00
  • Mercadian Masques: Rishadan Port $24.50
  • Mirrodin: Tooth and Nail $9.00
  • Odyssey: Entomb $15.50
  • Onslaught: Goblin Piledriver $16.50
  • Onslaught: Windswept Heath $30.00
  • Scourge: Stifle $12.50 each (I had two)
  • Tempest: Wasteland $38.00
  • Urza’s Destiny: Academy Rector $11.50 each (I had four)
  • Urza’s Saga: Goblin Lackey $7.25 (this isn’t much, but… it’s just a Goblin Lackey!)

For as long as I played Magic, I never sold anything for as much as when I played Pokemon: I once sold a mint first edition Charizard for $350 on eBay. Those were the days! Anyway, I still have 5,000 Magic cards left that I’m not sure what I’ll do with. I played from Ice Age to Mirrodin.

So you may be wondering, why did I sell them? More than anything, I just want to keep making board games on my own for as long as I can. I’m not pressed for cash yet, but this is a good time to sell, so I wanted to do it for the future. Honestly, it’s hard to see these cards go because they are both my childhood and my early game design education, but I think it’s right. They’ve just been sitting around for a while :] I’ll still draft cards with friends and play casual games from time to time.

Thanks to my friend Pank for the recommendation to sell!