One of the most revered things in all of Magic: the Gathering is Alpha cards. The original set cards are so hard to come by that they often command a ridiculously high price tag. There are some in the world who collect these coveted cards, but very few people have any sealed Alpha product. Well today, the fine folks over at Open Boosters decided it was time to grace us with an experience of opening one of these sealed products.
Although the video is shot from Rudy’s perspective from Alpha Investments, Open Boosters has his hands on the cards, and we get a great angle. You hear that these guys are going crazy over the centering in the pack. The reason for this is that back when Alpha was printed, printing quality was definitely not as good as it is today, so cards were often not centered when they were cut. However, a majority of these cards are very centered, with even borders all around.
The Hits
While I’m not 100% sure on the pricing for all of these cards, they are all expensive. Some of the bigger known hits are Lightning Bolt, Icy Manipulator, and Illusionary Mask.
Now, the Lightning Bolt is only a common, which if you were to buy a loose one, it could be roughly $900, but if you get it graded, and it ends up being a 9.5 or 10, then we’re talking multiple thousands of dollars. There’s few that are out there, but we’ve seen 9.5 BGS graded cards go for upwards of $14,500, and there’s 1 BGS 10 Pristine up on ebay for $55,000. Icy Manipulators loose float around $1,500, and when graded are around $3,000 – $4,000. Illusionary Mask can be around $2,000 – $2,400 for a loose near mint, and graded ones can be up near the $10,000 range.
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If you were handed a $100,000 starter deck, would you open it at the chance for a Black Lotus or other Power 9? or would you sell it? Let us know in the comments!
