Huge Snapcaster Mage spike
Economics forum
Posted on June 11, 2015, 2:25 p.m. by CookieJedi
He jumped almost $30 overnight. Sitting at $85 tcg mid currently. In a couple of months this card went from $30 a pop to tripling in price.
http://shop.tcgplayer.com/magic/innistrad/snapcaster-mage
ThisIsBullshit says... #3
I second that, Jay. Blood Moon spiked, now these spiked...what's next? Is Liliana going to jump up to $120 a piece?
June 11, 2015 2:31 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #5
Meanwhile I just sit back cheering its rise and watch everyone hate me.
June 11, 2015 2:36 p.m.
What is this? The third thread about Snapcaster's price increase?
June 11, 2015 2:36 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #8
I feel better about trading mine for 2 Blood Moons now :) feels more fair
June 11, 2015 2:41 p.m.
Yeah, all these threads about price spikes are getting a little ridiculous. Snappy is the most highly played card in blue, which is arguably the most commonly played color in Modern and Legacy. He's been under costed for a long time. It was really only a matter of time before he hit the $80-90 range. It's currently Modern season, get used to price spikes. It happens every year.
June 11, 2015 2:42 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #11
ThisIsBullshit I honestly would not be surprised.
June 11, 2015 2:45 p.m.
I bought my playset for $12 each. Around the same time i bought my playset of Cryptic Command for $18 each, and Noble Hierarch for $19 each :). Good times :p
June 11, 2015 3:05 p.m.
Congratulations to everybody telling us about how they bought cards X and Y back when they were $A and $B... do you want an award or something?
June 11, 2015 3:06 p.m.
I wouldn't call it a spike if 2-4 months ago everyone was saying "pick up your snapcasters now they're only going to rise, confirmed no reprint in MM15 means a reprint is at least 2 years down the road". Seems to me like you just didn't pay attention when it was time to and are just a little butthurt cause your mad at yourself for missing out.
June 11, 2015 3:13 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #17
Welcome to Modern season after a subpar Modern Masters reprint cycle.
June 11, 2015 3:14 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #18
I get why people are upset. These kinds of prices are exactly what MM15 was hopefully supposed to address. While it has mostly reduced the price of cards that it reprinted, anything NOT reprinted has surged. I expect that to come down over time, but yeah its disappointing.
I bought my 2 Snappys for my Jeskai Twin deck back in January at about $25 each. I am more sad that completing a playset is now ridiculously priced, than I am that my already obtained Snapcaster Mages have tripled in value.
With that said, patience. The season will end, and that price is unsustainable. Its a great card. It's usually only good once however.
June 11, 2015 3:15 p.m.
I'm not salty, I have my playsets, it just gets really annoying when that's all people have to say about the card on an economics forum. It's completely irrelevant, and nobody cares, but you'll still see it everywhere.
June 11, 2015 3:15 p.m.
Mixture of SCG GP which causes buyouts and other things, and then also the lack of reprint in MM2015 makes these surges particularly large.
June 11, 2015 3:21 p.m.
ChiefBell, while they may be large, they were still predictable. Modern season wasn't announced yesterday and they didn't release MM2015 without tons of spoilers and information coming out beforehand. I feel like because one person points out a possible buyout of one card, everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and blame every price rise on buyouts. I means sure there were shops scooping up as many snapcasters as they could, but that's simply because the price rise was so obvious to anyone paying attention that it would have been bad buisness not to. This isn't necessarily a buyout in the sense that everyone seems to be using it. This price isn't being artificially inflated because of it just so a couple people can make a quick buck. It's simply on the rise because the demand for modern staples goes up during modern season and it's a highly played card in both modern and legacy. I mean yeah it sucks if unforeseen circumstances prevented someone from getting them a couple of months ago when they wanted to, but for the most part the people that didn't get them before the price spike simply didn't pay attention and need something to blame it on, hence all the buyout threads.
June 11, 2015 3:47 p.m.
No this price rise is indicative of a buyout, plain and simple. Natural economic forces don't produce wild spikes.
June 11, 2015 3:50 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #23
I'd just like to point out that this must be the fourth of fifth time that this conversation is taking place in the last couple days. Now it's not to shoot it down, but what's probably going to happen is another argument like in the others and nothing good will come of it.
June 11, 2015 4:02 p.m.
Serendipitous_Hummingbird says... #24
Look, we all new snappy would be about $80. He sees much more play than bob did at his peak and bob used to be $70. And, unlike bob, you need a good reason to NOT run 2-4 of snappy if you have blue sources.
Still, I don't like that snappy is the only card that does what he does. I don't like that magic cards can cost that much.
I also don't like people who brag about getting cards back when they were cheaper. Cool. I'm glad for you bro. But how the hell does that help me?
Wizards needs to either commit to reprinting cards on a regular basis (I'm talking $50-80 staples in precon products) and say "If you want to make money, do something else. This is a game and games should be fun" OR they should commit to preserving value and straight up say "no, we won't. We respect collector value more than gameplay".
In other words, WotC needs to either explicitly state that they plan on running modern like legacy and preserving collector investment, OR they need to run it like standard+ and reprint staples that are getting pricey. Do you think Courser was in a clash back because wizards wanted a flashy rare? No. They didn't like a $15 price tag on a rare from a set that was still being opened every friday.
Do a LotV vs Venser duel deck and throw a few paths and a cryptic in with venser.
Sure, people who already bought those cards will raise hell, but will they really stop playing magic? I doubt it.
June 11, 2015 4:13 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #25
Yeah, unfortunately the value of collections needs to be preserved in order to maintain the LGS environment that has allowed the game to thrive and expand over the past few years.
I actually disagree with you completely, Serendipitous_Hummingbird. I think Wizards should and plans to make sure that it serves BOTH masters. It will continue to both support collector value, while also regularly reprint staples responsibly to allow windows for both new players to be exposed to the format, but also allow staples to be collected cheaper by more established players.
Also Snapcaster Mage isn't the only card that provides that effect. So does Eternal Witness.
June 11, 2015 4:20 p.m. Edited.
If you didn't see this happening, you're out of your mind. I picked Snappy up back when he hit $25 because this was inevitable. He easily passes $100 in the next few months.
June 11, 2015 5:04 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #28
I don't think snappy is good enough to warrant being over $100
June 11, 2015 5:34 p.m.
ThisIsBullshit says... #30
Goyf is blue's Goyf
Yes he's (Snappy) good, very much so, but is Snappy better than Lilana? Jace?
I'm probably just trying to convince myself that him going over $100 isn't going to happen
June 11, 2015 5:37 p.m. Edited.
VampireArmy says... #31
literally blue, not figuratively.
Also no, not better than. As good as is more what I'm saying.
Give it a few years. I'm sure it'll get there
June 11, 2015 5:39 p.m.
UrbanAnathema says... #32
I disagree. Goyf is good when he hits the board, and gains value the longer he remains on the board. Snappy is good when he comes into play, after that, unless you're breaking him, he's just a chump blocker.
He's an amazing card. He's not quite Goyf.
June 11, 2015 5:40 p.m.
Oh, to clarify, I wasn't bragging about getting Snaps cheap. I traded them away at $25 ea. I'm just publicly kicking myself. Never got around to getting more.
Fortunately I don't play much blue, but this just sorta ensures that.
June 11, 2015 5:40 p.m.
You guys realize you're comparing him to a $180 card with 3 different printings (albeit limited print runs) to try to argue that he shouldn't be worth $100 after just 1 printing? It doesn't matter if he's as good as Goyf. The fact that it's even a discussion just goes to reinforce how valuable Snappy is.
June 11, 2015 5:47 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #36
To be fair it's not like goyf was 180 At first either
June 11, 2015 6:03 p.m.
The thing with professor snapecaster is that he's only as good as the instant's and sorceries in your deck. Arguably, he's strictly a better card in legacy than he is in modern because you can flashback Dig Through Time, Brainstorm, Ponder, and Swords, amongst other spells, while in modern you're only flashing back serum visions, bolt and path (obviously there are more targets but hopefully i've made my point).
If snapcaster is reprinted in mod masters 2017, it will be printed at mythic. And yes, the card will drop in value a bit.... but not by much. And I do think that snapcaster will continue to rise over the next few years.
Yea, this price spike was probably due to a buyout of some sort. But cards never fully recover from buyouts.
June 11, 2015 6:10 p.m.
this is definitely a buy out. foil Olivia Voldaren spiked from $15-$16 to about $62 as of last night. Huntmaster of the Fells Flip is almost to his price that he was in standard, currently around $18. all modern staples are being bought out in anticipation for selling it in person this weekend. Thank you SCG, you have made magic more about pay to play rather than skill. I am not angry at this, as this is helping my shitty investments into good ones, but it sucks for the people that are trying to compete, but do not have means to a larger than average financial backing.
Jay says... #2
I hate magic
June 11, 2015 2:28 p.m.