Trends and speculative bubbles in the antiques and collectibles trade are nothing new. When younger collectors come to me wanting advice on how to best enter the antiques and collectibles trade, most are horrified to learn that the study of finance, economics, and business is what I recommend above anything else. This advice fell on deaf ears for most of my life, but with the emergence of social media and hype-driven influencers pushing everything from comic books and trading cards to toys annd video games as possible investments, the advice is important more now than ever. I have said it once, and I will say it again, the only constant in the antiques and collectibles trade is change. There are very few collectibles that I would recommend anyone put away in a safe deposit box for decades or more as a long-term investment. This does not mean opportunity for investment does not exist; it just means that the game has forever changed. If you want proof, just ask anyone my age who has lived through the baseball card bubble of the late 1980s, the Beanie Baby bubble of the mid-1990s, and the then modern era “Star Wars” collecting bubble of the late 1990s. Companies that manufacture collectible-based products are notorious for destroying their own brands while in pursuit of short-term profit. This brings us to the world of “Magic: The Gathering.”
For the uninitiated, “Magic: The Gathering” is a fantasy role playing collectible card game that premiered back in 1993 by a small upstart company, Wizards of the Coast. It is almost like playing a game of chess set in a fantasy universe, but with cards instead of chess pieces. “Magic: The Gathering” was a brilliant concept because the gameplay mechanics could change with the creation of new cards. This kept the game fresh, and slowly but surely more and more players were attracted to it. Today, Wizards of the Coast is owned by behemoth toy giant Hasbro, which incidentally was also the maker of all those late 1990s and later “Star Wars” figures that ended up in toy store bargain bins. Ironically, this still doesn’t stop starry-eyed speculators from incorrectly declaring that since “Star Wars” is one of the most valuable licensed properties of all time, every toy imprinted with the words “Star Wars” on it must be a great financial investment. Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth, as “Magic: The Gathering” collectors will soon learn.
When Hasbro originally acquired the “Magic: The Gathering” card game in 1999, it looked like the company was going to continue going in the same direction as Wizards of the Coast originally intended. The company did a very good job of creating a limited amount of products and also adhering to the controversial, but necessary, reserve list. The reserve list is a listing of several rare and out-of-print “Magic: The Gathering” cards that were vowed to never be printed again. This list was quite monumental at the time because when “Magic: The Gathering” first premiered, few could have imagined that certain high-profile cards would be in demand on the secondary market. Unfortunately, the game playing public went nuts for certain cards, and prices started to spike. Mind you, when I say spike, back in 1996, very few “Magic: The Gathering” cards were selling for more than $30. Still, $30 was a lot of money to players of a game in its infancy, and as a result, the company promised not to reprint certain cards for fear of the prices collapsing on the secondary market, thus devaluing a player’s collection. The reserve list was upheld prominently by the makers of “Magic: The Gathering” for decades to come.
Fast forward to right around 2016, and things started to change. It became rather apparent that someone at Hasbro started to see “Magic: The Gathering” as a relatively easy cash cow to exploit. So called “Magic: The Gathering” finance channels started to gain popularity on YouTube, and speculation and hoarding of factory-sealed products and cards was helping to add millions to Hasbro’s bottom line. Wall Street took notice, and even those in the speculator community began to refer to this as “MTG (short for ‘Magic: The Gathering’) finance.” Hasbro saw what was possible and started to release more and more sets. They released different formats, hidden masterpiece cards that would be like chase cards purposely hidden in various packs, limited-edition products, collector-edition products, and even products that you had to access a special website for a limited time to be able to order. For all intents and purposes, “Magic: The Gathering” appeared to have lost its way.
Then the pandemic came, and people got sent money to stay at home. Collectible card games like “Magic: The Gathering” and “Pokemon” were primary beneficiaries of this cash infusion, and starry-eyed speculators were all too eager to spend their newfound cash on meme stocks, cryptocurrency, and of course, collectibles. Hasbro made more money and did what any Wall Street darling would do, they planned more products and crossovers all designed to capture those newly printed dollars.
Things were almost working too well until some collectors and lovers of the game started to lament that Hasbro had sold out. Alas, there was still hope, until Hasbro did the unthinkable. Thanks to the reserve list no reprint policy, Hasbro was banned from printing actual tournament legal copies of their coveted cards. Mind you, some of these original reserve list cards like the coveted Black Lotus can be seen selling on the secondary market for tens of thousands of dollars. So the company made the disastrous decision to do a very low printing of these cards with updated artwork, announcing the cards would not be tournament legal. The company called the product the 30th Anniversary Edition of “Magic: The Gathering,” and for $999 a consumer would get four factory-sealed packs containing 15 cards each (60 cards total) and could potentially pull an updated version of some of the most valuable cards in the game’s history. Never has a product divided a collector base like this one. Immediately after the product became available, some prices for vintage cards crashed. Other cards spiked in value, as now newer editions of these cards were being dumped into the marketplace by would-be speculators. Countless publications and even Wall Street lamented that Hasbro, killed their proverbial golden goose. The stock price was hammered as investors soured on their ability to market the “Magic: The Gathering” to their fan base. Never before have I seen so many enthusiasts of the “Magic: The Gathering” card game agree with the “Magic: The Gathering” finance speculators about how Hasbro is potentially killing the game. Given the fact that this is still developing in real time now, the full effect of this disastrous product and its effect on the secondary market is still unknown. That said, heed my advice pop culture collectors, if you want to be successful in the antiques and collectibles trade in modern times, study finance, economics, and business. Or you could just study how multi-billion dollar companies end up killing their most valuable licensed properties for the pursuit of profit. This is a prime example.

Shawn Surmick has been an avid collector since the age of 12. He currently resides in his hometown of Boyertown, Pa., and is a passionate collector of antiques and collectibles. His articles focus on various topics affecting the marketplace.