MTG 30th anniversary $1K Proxies

Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum

Posted on Oct. 4, 2022, 8:21 p.m. by Icbrgr

So who is pumped about the announcement of gold back boarded cards like Black Lotus that isn't tournament playable?

Is this just the best "Un" set ever or something? Is this meant to be as funny as it is?

Like is it just me or should this just have been something that took the place of a token slot in general upcoming booster packs this year?

Here is a link to read about it in better detail if WOTC Article/Announcment

KBK7101 says... #2

Unfortunately, as absolutely ridiculous as this product is, it's going to sell out. All the complaining that we could collectively do will not change this fact. Same with Universes Beyond cards and Secret Lairs. Literally anything this game prints these days will make money and Wizards is abusing this fact with everything they have.

It's honestly pretty amazing to see how they can cater to their long term fanbase with sets like Dominaria United and The Brothers War... And then immediately ignore them and follow it up with Transformers cards, Final Fantasy and Assassin's Creed stuff coming year after next and this monstrosity of a box.

I guess the real question now is, what does this mean for the Reserved List? (Probably nothing but I feel I should ask.)

October 4, 2022 8:43 p.m.

Caerwyn says... #3

“I guess the real question now is, what does this mean for the Reserved List? (Probably nothing but I feel I should ask.)”

Absolutely nothing - reprints of these kinds that are not tournament legal Magic cards are already covered by the current RL policy, which explicitly permits their being reprinted: “All policies described in this document apply only to tournament-legal Magic cards.”

October 4, 2022 8:57 p.m.

sylvannos says... #4

WotC: "What's the secondary market? We don't know what that is. Obviously, players just get all their cards by buying boosters. They absolutely do not trade for or buy cards as singles."

Also WotC: $999 proxies and Secret Lairs

As KBK7101 said, the worst part about this whole thing is it will sell out. People are going to want the cards for their cubes and I doubt EDH groups will give a shit if you're using a "fake" (insert Maro comment here) cards instead of real ABUR duals.

October 4, 2022 9:10 p.m.

Niko9 says... #5

I mean, honestly it's kind of a complicated one just because of how crazy it is. On one hand it doesn't seem like a big deal because it has zero impact to most players. These are expensive proxies that are put into a thing just to give collectors something to tap right into the newstolgia, and I think that the vast majority of these packs will not get cracked for a long, long time. And that all seems like an, it is what it is situation, but what makes this also kind of depressing is that there absolutely is some percentage of people who will buy this as a player, whether it's due to the marketing, the fomo, the fact that they always wanted these older cards and never got them back in the day, and that's legitimately saddening.

Honestly, I get that they want to sell to the collector market, and they have done that before, but at this kind of price point you are really going to get people who get so excited about it, put money into it that they know they shouldn't, and then get that sinking feeling when they open the packs and realize that these aren't the old cards, and they aren't even new copies of the old cards, they are frozen dinners that looked a lot better in the picture.

October 4, 2022 10:09 p.m.

SpammyV says... #6

I'm really not wild about this. At $1000 the only people who are going to be getting this are the people who already could afford Reserved List cards. You could buy an actual Tropical Island that you could register in a tournament and not have to caveat in casual games and it would be cheaper than gambling on a box of this. It's a limited print run product, so it's not even going to make official proxies more available for people that just want these cards for casual decks or cubes. All I really see this doing is having created a lot of awareness of custom card printing services and the high-quality fakes.

Between the issues with the event Magic 30 (I really hope the cosplayers grade and slab their Joann's Fabric gift cards) and this, I'm just not really feeling the big anniversary celebration. It's hard to see the exciting forest for all the trees of incredibly greedy, fan-unfriendly business decisions.

October 4, 2022 11:09 p.m.

But the nostalgia! Shivan Dragon, Dark Ritual, Birds of Paradise, $999 packs purchased directly from Wizards via the Internet... It feels just like 1993!

Jokes aside, it's tough to get excited about any of it. Just another product that's "not for me."

October 4, 2022 11:17 p.m.

Dead_Blue_ says... #8

Can someone link an article?

October 5, 2022 12:51 a.m.

EnbyGolem says... #9

October 5, 2022 3:47 a.m.

PartyJ says... #10

So Wizards has finally started selling their own proxies to get a piece of the Aliexpress proxie cake?

And on top of that only 2 retro frames per pack?

This is a huge trap for all those FOMO and glory day seeking MtG nerds. I respect them, but Wizards cashgrab is just another way to empty their pockets.

Topped with the utter garbage they they are printing these days, which has nothing to do with the MtG legacy and universe, I feel they really dropped the ball here.

And no, I do not own P9. Although it won't affect peoples RL value at all.

The Grinch is coming to town, all the way from Hasbro :p

October 5, 2022 4:05 a.m.

sergiodelrio says... #11

Great, now there will be a new wave of forgeries due to more hi-res, mint scans of RL cards.

-.-

October 5, 2022 5:22 a.m.

DoomNoodle says... #12

For 1k you can get a REAL cradle or a couple dual lands. So if you've wanted any of those and considered buying this product think about the REAL cards you could get for that money... Is this product cool? Absolutely. Is it 1k cool? Excuse me?? Noooo?!? As a few have said this product will sell and it'll sell well but I really wish it wouldn't... Giving WotC the wrong idea of what their majority player base wants.

October 5, 2022 6:10 a.m.

I agree with OP that they should have been printed in the token slot or been like the List, except that instead of "the List" cards they were RL gold-bordered cards. It would have made a lot more sense, as the entire idea of gold-border expensive reprints is so strange. At a certain point they almost seem like proxies, since they're not tournament-legal.

They're selling cards with the actual worth of a ZNR art card for $1000 and I can't really vibe with it.

October 5, 2022 9:40 a.m.

marco-piatti says... #14

Let's celebrate our 30th anniversary with a 1k product that only 1% of the community (at best) will buy.

October 5, 2022 12:30 p.m.

SpammyV says... #15

Oh also it looks like the basic lands from this set will have the non-standard card back, so you'll pay $250 to open up some worthless Alpha bulk, and even if you get a basic land with the retro frame, your basic land can't be used in any decks!

October 5, 2022 1:33 p.m.

SpammyV that just feels like adding insult to injury...

October 5, 2022 1:53 p.m.

ZendikariWol says... #17

Everybody pray that this is the breaking point. I doubt collectors will pay for proxies. I hope that they won't. Please, please let this be the time that WotC's greed bites them in the ass.

October 5, 2022 1:58 p.m.

Icbrgr says... #18

"Each pack contains 15 cards, 13 cards in the modern frame—1 rare, 3 uncommons, 7 commons, and 2 basic lands—plus one basic land in the retro frame, one additional retro frame card, and a token."

  • That's from the WOTC Article.

I have been watching some various youtuber's opinions/reactions to this and came across an interesting nugget of information...This has been done before sold as COMPLETE sets... you paid $$$ for a complete gold bordered not tournament legal set.

Imagine being a legitimate collector and enthusiast for MTG... dropping $250 bucks on a single booster or $1k on sealed product.... what's the strategy for getting the entire set?... who is going to be cracking these packs? Who this product really for?

October 5, 2022 1:58 p.m. Edited.

I just took a gander at the cards that were posted on MTGGoldfish...

...

They look terrible!! The set symbol is clunky, the dual lands are centralized and blank af, and most of the cards aren't even that good D:

Like, I'd respect it a little more if the cards at least looked good but the majority of these look terrible. And not just the modern frames either... the retro frame cards just don't work well with the modern font and typeface.

I don't know that this can be a bad decision for Wizards. If like a hundred people worldwide buy this product, it's already paid for. That's the "genius" of it -_-

It doesn't hurt their bottom line because it's so ridiculously expensive that whatever people buy it support an immense amount of its production costs.

October 5, 2022 2:47 p.m.

KBK7101 says... #20

Icbrgr YouTubers. That's who this set is for.

"Will I pull a black lotus from this $1k pack?! Emoji emoji emoji"

October 5, 2022 3:13 p.m.

TypicalTimmy says... #21

HMMM

$1,000 FOR 15 RANDOM CARDS I COULD JUST PROXY MYSELF

OR A DOWN PAYMENT FOR A TRUCK??

HMMMMMMMMMM

October 5, 2022 5:22 p.m.

Gleeock says... #22

Haha, that's some spendy proxies there. I keep wondering when the bubble will burst on this product line, I'm already down to buying <$5 singles. The priceline keeps getting more nutty & now we get a cowardly half-done whale product. Oh well, I will keep printing off high quality proxies for <15 cents apiece that look as good as the originals because MtG had low-res imaging back then anyway.

October 5, 2022 8:42 p.m.

vasarto77 says... #23

Can we get these cards from the 30th anniversary set banned?

October 5, 2022 10:19 p.m.

Icbrgr says... #24

vasarto77

these are not tournament legal cards... they are like official WOTC proxies/tokens.... I imagine LGS or friends would decide for themselves if they would be allowed to be used for EDH and things like that.

October 5, 2022 10:26 p.m.

Abaques says... #25

This presents an actual risk to Wizards. One of their cash cows has been the speculator and collector markets. If the collector market decides that Wizards is just trying to gouge them (at this is absolutely, positively the case here) then the collector market may start to dry up. The explosion in card variants and secret lairs and other special cards may also contribute to the collector market saying enough is enough and then the collector and speculator markets will crash. This has absolutely happened to other collectable markets in the past (the 90's comic market being a great example). If that market crashes then its bad for everyone, because a whole lot fewer packs will get cracked and prices will rise for players while Wizards and your local game store will take a hit in sales.

Wizards has kept their foot on the gas for a long time now. The game has grown tremendously in the past few years which is great, but constantly pushing all out for profit can have blow-back effects and it could hurt the game we all love. At some point people will start disengaging from the game if they feel they are being gouged.

October 5, 2022 11:13 p.m.

TypicalTimmy says... #26

I will say this, as a positive note. Having an official proxy of any of the five for Garth One-Eye is pretty cool if you're a big spender.

October 5, 2022 11:49 p.m.

TypicalTimmy says... #27

Abaques, markerts are difficult to predict because you really are divided into two categories on a topic like this. Those who want the original printings (Be it alpha, beta, revised) and those who merely want a card and don't really care about print runs.

Take me, for example. I own a Gaea's Cradle. Caveat: I own a $250 gold bordered Gaea's Cradle. That card is not legal in any tournament setting. However, if an EDH group is okay with it, it can be used within one of my decks. That's what Rule 0 is for. And yes, I've had groups at the LGS say sure, and others say no. I respect the table and play accordingly.

To me, $250 for a card WOTC did in fact print (albeit for a different reason, that being a prize handed out) is superior to just writing "Gaea's Cradle" in black marker on a Forest. All the same, a card is a card is a card.

Do the $250 gold Cradles detract from the value of the original? No, not seemingly. Are there collectors who would like one? Yes. I've been offered my selection through trade binders, as well as cash. I've even had a store owner ask me if I'd like to trade for a few boxes of equal value in my selection of sets.

I personally would never spend $1,000 on a single card. I would for a complete deck, but not a singular card. In fact, I have a $1,400 deck that does absolutely nothing. (All 10 fetches, all 10 shocks, chrome mox, mox diamond. Was a Golos 5c God Tribal deck that no longer exists thanks to the ban).

Point being, for a consumer like me, no having an officially printed proxy does not demean value in any way, shape or form.

That being said, there are collectors and investors who sit on dozens of cards from the Power 9 and the reserves list.

Rudy from Alpha Investment is a great example. There were originally 1,100 Alpha Black Lotus printed and he owns about 100 of them. You should see his binder, it's magnificent.

Will Rudy freak out? No. He was a career Walstreet investor. He knows markers better than likely anyone on this entire website.

  • Hi Rudy, if you're in here!

But someone who maybe has a serious stake without the same knowledge? I could see a panic happening. And there's the crux of it all. Markets are determined by supply and demand, but also intrinsic value. If 1/2 of all investors fear their holdings lost 30% overnight and being to panic sell, guess what happens? Self-fulfilling prophecy. Their assets lose value.

I could see a very minor short term shift, but it'll balance out once investors realize there's a silver lining here. They too can buy these silly $1,000 packs and hold.

Those proxies BLs and Ancestral Recalls will likely fetch $300 - $1,000 each. Far less than the real things, but well worth the efforts to invest in and own.

But as with all investments, only time will tell. If you worry about short term gains, you'll always be chasing your tail.

October 6, 2022 12:10 a.m.

marco-piatti says... #28

I want to talk seriously about this product for a second. This product id offensive imo since they want to make us believe is a product for the common player to give him the feeling of opening a booster pack of the first sets but what it actually is a super restrictive product for collectors and people that want to make money (i have no issues with those people but it's a different target from people who play and enjoy the actual cardgame).

The whole point seems to be that since you don't buy the whole set bust boosters with their own rarity sistem it's like they are actually releasing a new set with cards with different value. So i would buy 4 packs hoping to find the rarest cards which will be worth more than others. Basically, they will still be a super rare items that people would collect and be willing to pay a lot on the secondary market. Sure, a proxy black lotus won't be worth like an original one. But it will still be worth more than most of the cards in this proxy set, that still be basically print on demand.

This is the intrinsic logic of collectables, the value is based on how the item is difficutl to find and how much people is willing to pay for that. And they know for sure that some people will buy this product. That still, is a total fail (but is cristal clear) at being what they try so hard to say it is but people will buy it. And that's what they care about.

October 6, 2022 6:32 a.m.

Niko9 says... #29

No matter what, I think we can all agree that if this is how they see the idea of celebrating 30 years, that's sad laugh territory. It would have been way more in the spirit of old magic if they reprinted 30th anniversary cards and added them at random to mystery boosters. Every now and then people would get big and probably super rare pulls, but most people just get proxies of old cards, and if the price was a normal pack price, that would be a feel good to players and collectors alike.

October 6, 2022 7:53 a.m.

Abaques says... #30

TypicalTimmy Oh for sure, trying to predict short-term market movements is not something I'd ever presume to do. But over the long-term it is possible to make stronger predictions and basically every market will have some sort of cycle. I think that what Wizards is doing is trying to make the peak of the current phase of the cycle as high as possible, but that does have the likely ramification of making the following crash all the harder.

I personally don't trust the big-time magic investment community to necessarily be either rational or accurate predictors. They have a vested interest in continuing the current trends, but history is filled with investors who looked like geniuses during a boom but were proven fools when the bust came.

October 6, 2022 9:32 a.m.

sylvannos says... #31

@Niko9: That's literally all they had to do was put the 30th. Anniversary cards in packs of Brothers' War instead of Transformers. Set would sell like hotcakes, even if they were still proxies.

October 6, 2022 4:59 p.m.

Niko9 says... #32

sylvannos Right? That would have been great to get random first set cards as proxies in Brother's War. I think that maybe they underestimate how many players would be into cracking packs and seeing old janky cards : ) It would have been something that was for fans of magic rather that magic that is for fans of something else.

October 6, 2022 7:46 p.m.

sylvannos says... #33

@Niko9: You could even keep them non-tournament legal and sticking them in the token/tip slot.

Jesus who the hell is in charge of WotC marketing lmao?

October 6, 2022 8:46 p.m.

DemonDragonJ says... #34

Will the printing of this set have any effect on players using proxies in casual games? Some sellers on Etsy are selling proxies of the original dual lands with amazing artwork, and I very much would like to use those.

November 2, 2022 8:36 p.m.

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