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If you're not reading the Top8Magic.com blog, featuring Magic luminaries Brian David-Marshall and Michael J. Flores, you ought to be.
I often find new inspirations from their posts and podcasts, and I heartily recommend the site to my readers. Through their blog I learned about CardShark.com. You may have seen their ads on Magic Workstation and done what most people do with web ads - dismissed them. That was a mistake, because it turns out that CardShark tracks the volume of individual card sales on Ebay and formats it into a pretty little spreadsheet that's easy to digest. (An aside: I'm usually not a big fan of advertising in any media but I must say that I've found some excellent sites by way of the random ad click.)
I took some time this evening to look at the trends over the last 7 days and made a few notes:
*Hypergenesis is the 3rd most sought-after rare!
*Dauntless Escort is #2, and is selling for a firm 20 bucks per set on Ebay. There is usually a disparity between StarCityGames prices and Ebay prices due to the fact that some people prefer to avoid Ebay, but the Ebay price is actually higher in a few cases. I've revised my opinion to reflect this, below.
*The most sought-after rare, according to CardShark, is Finest Hour. I'm not sure what to make of this. They aren't selling for much, but a lot of them are moving. I'm not going to submit a Focus on it just yet, but I'll keep an eye out for any deck that might possibly be using it. If you've got any idea why these are moving almost 25% faster than the Dauntless Escorts, post a comment. My guess is that its a big splashy effect, an inexpensive card to buy, and appeals to loads of casual players.
*The top 3 Uncommons are no surprise: Bloodbraid Elf, Zealous Persecution and Anathemancer. The #4 might surprise you - Mind Funeral! The 3 mana Mill spell is was actually the #1 Uncommon over the weekend. I doubt the card will ever surpass the dollar mark, but I'd be curious to see if the card gets some Constructed play.
That's what I've got for now. As always, I'll keep my ear to the ground and help you spot the bargains before the rest of the pack. If there's a feature you'd like to see me add, some research you'd like to see me do, or would just like to chime in and let me know you're reading, the best way to get in touch is to post a comment with the link below each post. You can also follow me on Twitter - there's a link at the top of the page on the right-hand side.
Till next time!
Finest Hour was in that one Bant deck that won that PTQ.http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=28398As for Mind Funeral? It's Glimpse Lite. I don't know why its sales surprise you at all. It's cheap and mills for a reasonable amount.(Man, are people really playing Hypergenesis? From my testing that deck folds to any disruption at all… but that doesn't affect the market, whoo hoo!)
Ah, that would explain it. Oddly enough, it was Tommy Ashton (the reigning Maryland state Champ) who knocked me out of t8 contention at my first States tournament during the Onslaught/Mirrodin era.Hard to say if people are playing Hypergenesis, but the deck has people abuzz. People are buying them on speculation and rightfully so. I'd say that the window to buy low is closing, because at 3 bucks a pop, you're talking about paying real money for a set instead of pocket change.
Hypergenesis lets people cheat in fatties with insane speed. Even if it isn't competitive, it's going to be popular. Especially given how arduous some of the more popular extended decks are to play (TEPS, Elfball), Hypergenesis is something where you just play the cascade and duuuurrrr BIG MANS.One card I am looking at possibly dropping like a rock that I thought would be going up in value is Stillmoon Cavalier. Two weeks ago, I thought this card was going to be populating sideboards as B/W Token hate. Since it dies terribly to Zealous Persecution I can see it hit the skids somewhat.