2 days ago
Pricing My Magic: The Gathering Mono Red Deck From 1994
I don't have many regrets in life, most of them being food related, but one that persists to this day is selling my Magic: The Gathering mono red deck constructed in the early 1990s at the advent of Magic cards. This collection of 60 cards, at the time, didn't carry the thought of investment. But after one of my friends told me he recently sold his entire collection from that era to purchase a house, I figured I may as well finally endure the pain of pricing out what I sold for a mere $600.
And yes, $600 back then was a lot of money to a 17 year-old looking to escape the confines of Florida. That money enabled me to go on a cross-country journey for a year and discover that I still didn't know what I wanted to do. Still don't. Regardless, those were all the Magic cards I had left at the time, my mono red deck that brought me endless wins, after selling the rest earlier to friends. This deck I sold to a dealer, someone who surely knew what their value would become. I hope he's enjoying the Maserati I inadvertently bought him.
I've forgotten a lot of things over the years, but I haven't forgotten the majority of the cards that made up my mono red deck from 1994. These cards came from the Limited Edition Alpha and Limited Edition Beta, but not the Unlimited Edition.
And while Revised Edition came out in 1994, I had already built my deck by then, starting as soon as the cards hit shelves in the comic book store that I basically lived in during those early high school years. And while I've rebuilt that original mono red deck with reprints, it's not the same. The only point of contention as it concerns my memory is whether some of the cards I had were Alpha or Beta. Unlimited cards had a white border, and I know my deck was all black borders, which was a trait of both Alpha and Beta.
MTG: Mono Red Deck circa 1994
So let's break down the cards in this deck that I swear existed in my possession, with pricing from TCGPlayer. I'll use Beta as the baseline, swapping Alpha when my brain is almost sure the card came from that release. As far as condition, let's assume if I had kept these cards, they'd be heavily played but not damaged. Prices can tend to be all over the place, so I'll do my best. There's going to be some estimation and averages. And I'm using listing prices, not the market price because the listing price is more based in actual reality as far as sales.
FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™
Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase
Pinpoint By Linkedin
Guess The Category
Queens By Linkedin
Crown Each Region
Crossclimb By Linkedin
Unlock A Trivia Ladder
No, I did not have a Volcanic Island. I wasn't savvy enough back then to play dual-color decks. All I had was basic land, mountains, 20 of them. Current price for a mountain from the Beta set is about $10 for a heavily played card. So that's $200 right there just for lands. 40 cards to go.
Lightning Bolt (4): I don't know if these were from the Alpha or Beta sets, so with the price for a heavily played Alpha Lightning Bolt around $300 and a Beta one sitting around $140, let's go with the average of $220 each. Total value of $880. Of course, this card isn't legal in a lot of formats anymore, but back then, we didn't care. We played in the mall. Remember malls?
Fork (1): What a great card. Want your Lightning Bolt to be more effective? Play it with a Fork. Double the damage, double the fun. Beta edition value of $445.
Shivan Dragon (1): Starting at the top, with the big beast of the deck and most expensive creature as far as mana cost back then. I have a reprint in my mono red dragon Commander deck now, but I sure do wish I had this card today, as it averages around $2,550 between Alpha and Beta on the open market.
Rock Hydra (2): Average price $330 each.
Dragon Whelp (4): If you had a mono red deck in 1994, you had a bunch of Dragon Whelps. There weren't a ton of creatures yet, so you filled your deck with what you had. And these were certainly from Alpha. They go for about $200 each now.
Roc of Kher Ridges (1): I can't really remember if I had two of these or two of the next card because of the similar name. The Beta edition values are about the same at about $160 so it's kind of a wash.
Roc Hydra (2): While the Alpha edition is worth a bit more, chances are I had the Beta verison so we'll stick with the $160 here.
Hurloon Minotaur (2): This card isn't worth much nowadays, oddly enough. The Alpha edition version is sitting at around $11.
Sedge Troll (1): I distinctly remember the horrid little creature on the face of this card. Beta version is a whopping $525. There are no Alpha versions on the market at all, so I probably didn't have that version.
Dwarven Warriors (2): Beta edition goes for about $3, even less than the Minotaur. But I'm certain I had a few of these little fellers in my deck.
Mon's Goblin Raiders (1): Priced around $17, this was one of those cards I stuffed into my deck because I wanted to have all possible creatures represented, even though at this time, sorcery and instants were much more powerful. Creatures were just cool to look at sitting useless on the food court table, as I pounder my opponents with Lightning Bolts.
Fire Elemental (1): Finally, a Fire Elemental rounded out my creatures. This card would sell for around $18 currently, though I'd probably price it at $17 because I'm cool like that.
Fireball (4): Aside from Lightning Bolt, this was the best player damage card in the deck. Forget about attacking creatures, one mana plus X means I'm coming after you. These average around $44 on the open market nowadays, not a huge price tag after 31 years, but not too shabby for a single very used card.
Earthquake (2): Another X sorcery card, this one does both player and creature damage at the same time. The Beta version, heavily played, is selling for around $260.
Stone Rain (2): Did you like that land? How about if I destroy it with this $11 card?
Wheel of Fortune (1): Yes, that Wheel of Fortune card. While not a board wipe card, it did shake things up, especially if you waited until you had one card (this one) and your opponent still had a handful. Totally worth it. And totally worth about $2,597 in aggregate between Alpha and Beta.
Disintegrate (2): An exile card before exile was a thing. The language on these early cards was very descriptive. 'Disintegrate does X damage to one target. If target dies this turn, it is removed from game entirely and cannot be regenerated. Return target to its owner's deck only when game is over.' It's worth about $6.
Mana Flare (1): I didn't have a lot of Enchantments in my early decks, not like my Commander decks now that are packed full of them. But I know I had this one and the next two. And even though this $360 (average) card helped the other player, it also enabled me to punish them with even stronger Fireballs.
Earthbind (1): There weren't a ton of flying creatures, but if you had one and I pulled this card, it wasn't flying anymore. Only worth around $15 nowadays, but this card spawned so many anti-flying cards.
Burrowing (1): To be clear, I owned other Enchantments at some point, such as Power Surge and Firebreathing, but once I built my deck and started winning (loser had to buy Sbarro's) I usually traded my cards for comics or a few loose cigarettes. This card sells for around $5, but in my opinion at least, that artwork is iconic.
Sol Ring (1): Yeah, of course I had an original Sol Ring. A mainstay in almost every Commander deck these days, this card was a must-have in a deck with numerous X mana cards. Needed that extra mana. $645 average value now.
Glasses of Urza (1): You may be asking if I had a Black Lotus, surely one of the most sought after and expensive Magic: The Gathering cards in existence. I did not. But I had these glasses that sell for about $30. I'm going to look at your hand and there's nothing you can do about it.
Mox Ruby (1): I may not have had a Black Lotus in this deck, but I sure did have a Mox Ruby. One of the vaulted Mox cards, since it could be played as an interrupt (early word for instant), it was extremely helpful for throwing a Lightning Bolt when you are otherwise tapped. Current aggregate between Alpha and Beta puts a heavily played version of this card around $4,750.
Chaos Orb (1): This $1,800 card (Beta) was so much fun. Here, let me throw a card and hope it lands on one of your creatures. Could you imagine this mechanic in today's game? It's totally banned in modern formats, but if you are just playing with an Alpha/Beta deck (because you're rich apparently) then it's allowed.
Lands: $200
Instants: $1325
Creatures: $5077
Sorcery: $3327
Enchantments: $380
Artifacts: $7,225
Total estimated deck value if I had just kept these cards: $17,154. I sold them all in 1996 for $600. No regrets, because it was a heck of a lot of fun playing Magic: The Gathering in the food court back in the day.
Selling my Magic: The Gathering mono red deck was a lesson
Not everything you purchase as a fan or collector has to be saved as an investment, but so many from our generation (Gen-X) had something when they were a kid that is worth a lot now. And while it's hard to predict what that might be, that thinking has influenced the current state of the resale market and why many of us buy one box of Magic: The Gathering cards to play with, and one to sell. Invest wisely; but be sure to have fun along the way so even if you have regret, at least you had a good experience along with it.
