Magic the Gathering Cards..

[TheVrolok]

So I got my cards outta the closet, and I'm trying to price them so I can finally get around to selling them off .. now .. I"m looking at these guides, but certain cards vary by edition, and I understand I can easily determine the edition if it has a certain symbol on the right middle of the card .. but even then I'm not sure what all the symbols mean .. the real confusing part happens when there are no symbols at all on the cards .. and I've found out that more than a single edition exist that is devoid of symbols .. so how do I differentiate those editions? Any help would be appreciated. 🙂

 

[isekii]

3rd edition didn't have the dates listed on the bottom and the colors were light.
4th edition had darker pictures and had a date and some other info on the bottom of the card.
Arabian Nights has black borders with sword.
Ice age has snowflake.
Legends has a Pillar
Alpha and Beta I have no clue...
that's all i know 🙁

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: isekii
3rd edition didn't have the dates listed on the bottom and the colors were light.
4th edition had darker pictures and had a date and some other info on the bottom of the card.
Arabian Nights has black borders with sword.
Ice age has snowflake.
Legends has a Pillar
Alpha and Beta I have no clue...
that's all i know 🙁

At least that gives me a place to start. Thanks. 🙂

 

[Fingolfin269]

alpha has odd shaped corners. If you have an alpha you'll know it.

It's been so long that I can't remember beta/unlimited looks.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Just check the wizards of the coast site. As for edition with no expansion symbol

Alpha black border with square coreners
Beta black border with round corners
Unlimited White borders
Revised White borders with pale cards
4th edition white borders with the date 1995(I think) on the botom of the card

You can also use the tap symbols and card wording to differentiate the editions.

 

[yukichigai]

I've been collecting since Revised. I can give you a hand.

Alpha - Black bordered, no symbol, round corners. (More round than most)

Beta - Black bordered, no symbol.

Unlimited - White bordered. If you see the phrase "tap to <do something>" and it's white bordered w/ no symbol it's definitely Unlimited. Also if you see the cardtypes "Mono Artifact", "Poly Artifact" or "Continuous Artifact".

Revised - Same as Unlimited, though some are reported to be "washed out". Has a tap symbol on certain cards, which looks like a tilted "T" in a circle.

Fourth Edition - Similar to revised, though with smaller copyright text and crisper colors. (EDIT: and 1995 at the bottom, I think)

Fifth Edition - Very small copyright text, also has differently-shaped mana symbols and a new tap symbol. White border seems to be larger on these cards.

Chronicles - Anything with a symbol and a white border. (except for 6th, 7th and 8th editions) I'm sure a lot of those cards you have are Chronicles, not Legends or Antiquities.

Also, Foil cards out of some of the base sets (6th, 7th, 8th) will have a black border.


I'll be able to tell you more when I get home, as I'm at work right now.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Man, it's been forever. So Beta had the funky borders? Argh. I just remember having a Mox and a Berserk in whichever (Alpha/Beta) that had the jacked up borders and I had to use proxies for them so you didn't know what I was holding. This was of course before people started protecting their cards for some reason.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
Alpha black border with square coreners

No, that's Collector's Edition. The back of Collector's Edition cards are also different than normal ones.

If you have any Collector's Edition cards you'd damn well better say so in the auction. I've had it with folks who claim it's Alpha or Beta. That's fraud.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Man, it's been forever. So Beta had the funky borders? Argh. I just remember having a Mox and a Berserk in whichever (Alpha/Beta) that had the jacked up borders and I had to use proxies for them so you didn't know what I was holding. This was of course before people started protecting their cards for some reason.

Alpha is what you're thinking of. Beta was the edition where they fixed a bunch of mistakes they'd made, (and made some changes they thought were better) including printing Circle of Protection: Black and (I think) Volcanic Island, both of which were accidentally left out of Alpha.

P.S. OP, if you have a camera you can take pictures of the cards. I can't remember the specific things to look for now but if I see them I should be able to pick out what is what.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: Dark4ng3l
Alpha black border with square coreners

No, that's Collector's Edition. The back of Collector's Edition cards are also different than normal ones.

If you have any Collector's Edition cards you'd damn well better say so in the auction. I've had it with folks who claim it's Alpha or Beta. That's fraud.

Rofl, I remember this! I remember playing against some kid around 1995. We were even betting cards. He dropped a Mox or Black Lotus or something of that rarity and I looked at it and noticed the oddity. Needless to say I told him to grow up and learn to play with 'real' cards and just removed whatever I was betting.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Rofl, I remember this! I remember playing against some kid around 1995. We were even betting cards. He dropped a Mox or Black Lotus or something of that rarity and I looked at it and noticed the oddity. Needless to say I told him to grow up and learn to play with 'real' cards and just removed whatever I was betting.

Ahh yes, playing for Ante. I did that all of once and won a Goblins of the Flarg. (Might have misspelled that) But I never saw much point to playing for Ante; too much risk of losing a card you really like.

And if it's any gauge of what Wizards of the Coast thought, I think the last Ante card ever printed was in Legends.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: yukichigai
I've been collecting since Revised. I can give you a hand.

Alpha - Black bordered, no symbol, round corners. (More round than most)

Beta - Black bordered, no symbol.

Unlimited - White bordered. If you see the phrase "tap to <do something>" and it's white bordered w/ no symbol it's definitely Unlimited. Also if you see the cardtypes "Mono Artifact", "Poly Artifact" or "Continuous Artifact".

Revised - Same as Unlimited, though some are reported to be "washed out". Has a tap symbol on certain cards, which looks like a tilted "T" in a circle.

Fourth Edition - Similar to revised, though with smaller copyright text and crisper colors. (EDIT: and 1995 at the bottom, I think)

Fifth Edition - Very small copyright text, also has differently-shaped mana symbols and a new tap symbol. White border seems to be larger on these cards.

Chronicles - Anything with a symbol and a white border. (except for 6th, 7th and 8th editions) I'm sure a lot of those cards you have are Chronicles, not Legends or Antiquities.

Also, Foil cards out of some of the base sets (6th, 7th, 8th) will have a black border.

I'll be able to tell you more when I get home, as I'm at work right now.

Many thanks.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Rofl, I remember this! I remember playing against some kid around 1995. We were even betting cards. He dropped a Mox or Black Lotus or something of that rarity and I looked at it and noticed the oddity. Needless to say I told him to grow up and learn to play with 'real' cards and just removed whatever I was betting.

Ahh yes, playing for Ante. I did that all of once and won a Goblins of the Flarg. (Might have misspelled that) But I never saw much point to playing for Ante; too much risk of losing a card you really like.

And if it's any gauge of what Wizards of the Coast thought, I think the last Ante card ever printed was in Legends.

I'm a gambler. I didn't call it ante. I called it 'if you think you're good enough to play with me then prove it'. I quit around the time Alliances came out after selling my hefty collection. Made roughly $4-$5K and only invested probly $200 max.

I think I'm going to start playing the online version. It wouldn't hurt to at least check it out.

 

[z0mb13]

People still play this??

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: z0mb13
People still play this??

Yes, despite every attempt by Wizards to either ruin it or turn it into Yugioh. It's held up pretty well so far.

The online version is crap. If they think I'm going to buy all the cards I have again they're seriously mistaken.

 

[Michael]

The online version is fun but expensive.

Once you get cards, however, you can play for free in the casual rooms.

As for the editions, I think that Wizard's website is the best place to start.

Michael

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: yukichigai

Originally posted by: z0mb13
People still play this??

Yes, despite every attempt by Wizards to either ruin it or turn it into Yugioh. It's held up pretty well so far.

The online version is crap. If they think I'm going to buy all the cards I have again they're seriously mistaken.

Well yah I can see how that would suck for you. I sold all of my cards and really want to play in sealed deck tourneys so it looks like it might be okay for me. 😛

 

[z0mb13]

wait so u need to buy VIRTUAL cards for the online one??

that is super lame

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: z0mb13
wait so u need to buy VIRTUAL cards for the online one??

that is super lame

That's what I said. Actually, I said things that the language filter wouldn't let me post here, but I had the same opinion.

Every time I see an eBay auction for Magic Online cards I laugh. It's almost as bad as selling Evercrack items.

 

[HorizonSeekerII]

actually, WOTC printed cards that manipulated ante cards all the way through HomeLands, "Timmerian Fiends" was the card in Homelands.

I just got rid of all of my MTG cards for things that I wanted much more. Probably broken even on cost wise since I stopped playing right before Urza's Saga and gave away about 4k cards. all the cost of the cards pretty much have been amortized over the years.

I kept my arabian night Erhnam Djinn though, that and demonic tutor.

 

[andylawcc]

I started with 4th edition and Ice Age and stopped when 5th edition was about to come out. and boy that was some addiction, far more addicting than Counterstrike or DiabloII. the most valuable card I had was either ice age's Icy Manipulator and revised's Nightmare.