Saturday, August 22, 2015

How much does it cost to maintain a Legacy collection?

    Today I got into a discussion on reddit that tangentially touched on the reserved list.  In response to a comment that Wizards didn't care about legacy and vintage players because they don't buy new cards, someone pointed out that they're constantly printing new cards for those formats.  It got me thinking, just how much money does Wizards actually make off of me?  For context, I don't play standard.  I don't play modern, vintage, or limited either.  In fact, the only competitive magic I play is legacy.  For the purposes of this discussion I'm ignoring my cube and focusing on legacy alone.
    I don't actually remember when I stopped buying old cards and got my collection up to date, but it was some time inbetween Innistrad and Return to Ravnica.  I'm going to take this back to Innistrad but only count cards I bought as they were printed, so the Sinkholes I know I bought in January of 2013 don't count :)  Below are the Legacy "playable" cards that I purchased between the summer of 2011 and now, and the approximate price I paid.  This is the actual price I remember paying per card, not the lowest price they were ever at.  You'll see where I occasionally got great deals and where I occasionally lost a lot of money, but I figure looking at actual results is way more interesting than some theoretical perfect investor's record.
    It's possible I left something off so if you see some staple missing that I just forgot about, let me know.  I'm pretty sure I covered it all though.
   
  • Innistrad
    • 4 Liliana of the Veil $22
    • 4 Snapcaster Mage $18
    • 2 Nevermore $2
    • 4 Past in Flames $2 
    • 4 Geist of Saint Traft $15
    • 1 Stony Silence $1
  • Dark Ascension
    • 2 Grafdigger's Cage $8 
    • 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben $3
  • Avacyn Restored 
    • 4 Griselbrand $12 
    • 2 Craterhoof Behemoth $8
    • 4 Terminus $3
    • 3 Entreat the Angels $8
    • 4 Temporal Mastery $25
    • 4 Misthollow Griffin $1
    • 4 Cavern of Souls $20
  • M13
    • 4 Omniscience $8
  • Planechase 2012
    • 4 Baleful Strix $2
    • 4 Shardless Agent $2
  • Return to Ravnica
    • 8 Abrupt Decay $8
    • 8 Deathrite Shaman $12
    • 4 Rest in Peace $2
    • 4 Golgari Charm $0.50
    • 1 Slaughter Games $1 
    • 4 Supreme Verdict $3
  • Gatecrash
    •  4 Enter the Infinite $2
    • 4 Thespian's Stage $1
  • Dragon's Maze
    • 2 Wear/Tear $1 
    • 1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed $1
    • 1 Notion Thief $1
  • M14
    • 4 Young Pyromancer $1 
  • Commander 2013
    • 4 True-Name Nemesis $15 (bought 4 mind seize sets and resold the boxes for $20 without the TNNs)  
    • 1 Toxic Deluge $11
  • Theros
    • 4 Swan Song $2
  • Born of the Gods
    • 4 Spirit of the Labyrinth $2 
  • Journey Into Nyx
    • 1 Keranos, God of Storms $8 
  • Conspiracy
    • 1 Dack Fayden $22
    • 1 Council's Judgment $9
  • M15
    • 2 Reclamation Sage $0.50 
    • 4 Chief Engineer $1 (don't judge me)
  • Khans of Tarkir
    • 4 Treasure Cruise $1
    • 4 Dig Through Time $8 
    • 4 Jeskai Ascendancy $1
  • Fate Reforged
    • 4 Gurmag Angler $0.50
    • 2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang $9 
    • 3 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon $28
  • Dragons of Tarkir
    • 1 Kolaghan's Command $2
    • 3 Sidisi, Undead Vizier $5
  • Magic Origins
    • 4 Molten Vortex $1.50
    • 4 Dark Petition $2

The following cards are ones that a legacy player might have purchased during this time, but I didn't, mostly because I haven't felt the need to play the the decks they would go in lately.
  • Vryn Wingmare
  • Monastery Mentor
  • Eidolon of the Great Revel
  • Containment Priest 
  • Mana Confluence
  • Brimaz, King of Oreskos
Even with some really bad buys ($100 on Temporal Mastery alone and the Geists of Saint Traft that were only relevant for about a year), that's still only $1102 spent over 4 years maintaining a legacy collection.  That breaks down to $275.50/year and $22.95/month.  It's still not a cheap hobby by any stretch, but I'd wager if you took a poll of current standard players and asked how much they were spending on cards, the vast majority of them are spending more than $22.95 a month.

In fact, if you look closely you can see that this is all heavily tilted towards 2011/2012, where Innistrad and Avacyn Restored were loaded with $20+ mythics I bought.  From Innistrad to Planechase 2012 I spent $593.  From Return to Ravnica forward, I spent $509.  That means in the 3 years from Return to Ravnica to Magic Origins, I averaged  $169.67 a year, or $14.14 a month.

I don't really have a point for all of this, I just found it kind of interesting to sit down and work out.  The numbers are pretty much where I expected them to be.  This obviously ignores the cost of getting the initial collection going, but that part has been covered over and over and I don't think I've ever seen anyone break down these numbers quite like this. I hope you found it interesting, if not particularly useful or relevant.

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