The recent auction of an Alpha Black Lotus for over 27k on ebay reminded me that I have a lot of valuable cards sitting in boxes. I started playing MTG the week after it was launched at Gencon back in 93. I cringe to think how we treated our cards back then, not knowing how or why to protect them properly.

I actually stopped playing when they switched to white bordered cards in Unlimited and Revised. I thought (wrongly!!!!) that the game was dying off at that point.

So some questions...

Is eBay still the largest/best marketplace for singles? Is the new standard for card grading Becketts? I used PSA for many cards in the past, but that Lotus was a Becketts 9.5, and I never saw a Becketts graded card when I was active previously.

Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and see if anyone had advice on the best way to get involved and working toward extracting value from my collections?

If you have cards as old as you say you do then go through you list and look for these names (name is at the top of the card):
Ancestral Recall
Time walk
Time vault
Time twister
Mox 'anything'
Black lotus

Taiga
Tundra
Tropical Island
Volcanic Island
Underground Sea
Bayou
Savannah
Scrubland
Plateau
Badlands

Force field
Wrath of God
Wheel of fortune
Birds of Paradise
Shivan Dragon
Chaos Orb
Illusionary Mask

People are gonna probably be asking for pics so you may want to lay out a bunch of these, take some pics and then post links online for people to see.

Would be interested to see what you have

Only the best,
Jesse

Nothing against the OP but so many say they have it and the pics either don't come or are of 4th edition/fallen empires+.

Wish you the best as winning the lottery and not playing is sweet but odds are always against you. As some would say "pics or it didn't happen"

Add:

Time vault
Demonic tutor

I appreciate the feedback and help like telling me which cards are worth money, etc. But that's completely unnecessary. I fully understand the value of my cards and which cards are likely to have value. I had a complete set of power 9 in a combination of Beta/Alpha, many of which I sold last time I was actively trading. In the past I've run MANY ebay auctions and sold thousands of dollars of cards. I still have close to 50k cards, many commons of course, but also quite a few valuable cards are still part of my collection. My most precious card is a Near mint Alpha Lotus signed by Richard Garfield. You can read my Quora post from last year where I included a scan of it. I pulled it from a small un-played collection I purchased for $200 back in 1996 from a guy I worked with at the time.

http://www.quora.com/What-Was-It-Like-to-X/What-was-it -like-to-start-playing-Magic-The-Gathering-when-Alpha-was-released

I have a near full Collectors Edition set, I sold a few of them off I think. I sold most of the popular Arabian Nights cards, but I have at least a full set of the commons/uncommons left. Same goes for Antiquities. Playsets of Mishra's Factory, all four artworks, etc.

I worked through just one of my boxes last night and located about 14 duals, all Revised and UL copies. Also many Beta commons in various conditions. A couple of Beta Lightning Bolts, an Alpha Serra Angel, Alpha Kormus Bell, UL Mana Vault, some other stuff. It is going to take me a while to locate and re-sort all of my cards so I know exactly what I have. I did start back up for a while after Legends, so I do have Fallen Empires cards, but I am fully aware they are mostly worthless. I have a few full sets of the expansions up to about Tempest, but I was out of the game during Legends, Revised, UL, and possibly one other early expansion.

That said, please be as skeptical as you wish. I'm not trying to sell you anything, just looking for friendly advice as to the correct venues to extract value, and the best way to understand current pricing models. I think I found a decent site for tracking prices last night www.mtgprice.com, but I would prefer something I can extract or download to excel.

As for advice, there are many avenues to explore. ebay is of course going to give you the best exposure for an item, but you have to remember they are going to hit you on fees pretty hard. The issue becomes whether you will make more money there or by just making a straight negotiated sale to a private party. Certainly, posting on forums like this will help you drum up some interest in your cards.

If you have any high valued items in near-pristine shape, it's likely worth getting them graded.

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