While Magic: The Gathering’s Avatar set doesn’t release fully until this Friday, there’s plenty of product going around already. Players were able to crack packs of the set at Prerelease, and secondary market prices are starting to take shape as a result. Some of the set’s chase cards actually seem to be climbing above their huge pre-order price tags, which is very unusual. In a similar vein, the set’s Headliner, the Raised Foil Avatar Aang, is already selling for truly eye-watering figures.
$13,000 For A Raised Foil Avatar Aang?!
Since Innistrad Remastered, every MTG set has had an ultra-rare Headliner card, and the Raised Foil Avatar Aang is Avatar’s. Featuring a distinct foil treatment, and artwork from Bryan Konietzko, one of the show’s co-creators, it’s a hugely desirable card. It’s also incredibly rare, appearing in less than 1% of English-language Collector Boosters according to the official collecting article for the set.
While it’s not quite a Serialized card, this is just about the next best thing. You’d naturally expect a high price tag as a result, and the card is certainly delivering that so far. In fact, at the time of writing, the card has seen a couple of Ebay sales at the $13,000 mark. Both of these sales occurred last Saturday, November 15th, in the thick of Avatar Prerelease. These, and a couple of other sales at $10,500, seem to be all the recorded sales for the card so far.
Other listings for the card suggest that it could climb even higher than this, too. Several Ebay sellers have the card up for $15,000, with another lone listing at $16,900. If players buy in at these prices over the next few days, the card’s price could make steady upward progress. Conversely, there are also sellers undercutting the early market, with some copies of the card selling for $9,800.
Since the set isn’t even fully out yet, it’s hard to say which way the Raised Foil Avatar Aang will move in the future. Heck, there aren’t even any confirmed sales of the card on TCGPlayer yet. Based on the early data, however, $10-15,000 is looking like a reasonable prediction.
Neon Ink Goodness
The Raised Foil Avatar Aang isn’t the only super-expensive chase card in the set, either. Avatar also boasts four Neon Ink “Battle Pose” cards, each being a rare variant of one of the set’s legendary creatures. While these are definitely more common than the set’s Headliner, they still appear in less than 1% of Collector Boosters, and the early prices reflect that.
Naturally, there’s a lot more sales data available for these cards, so we can see their prices developing faster. While they’re all (presumably) equally rare, they’re not equally expensive. Aang, Swift Savior is the biggest hitter so far, selling for between $1,600 and $2,750 on TCGPlayer, with current listings pushing the range to $1,900-$3,500. This is likely down to the fact that this is a double-faced card, with Neon Ink art on the back, too.
Toph, the First Metalbender and Fire Lord Zuko are in similar positions to each other. Sales-wise, Toph has hit the $1,800-2,750 range on TCGPlayer, while Zuko has just one TCGPlayer sale at $2,500. Both have listings in the $1,700-2,800 range, which is similar to, but decidedly less than, Aang.
Katara, the Fearless is, unfortunately, the weakest member of the cycle price-wise. TCGPlayer listings put the card between $1,200-1,500. Like Zuko, the card does have a single TCGPlayer sale at $2,500, but this feels like an outlier based on the other data we have for the card at present.
A Step Down?
Even on the low end, the prices on these Avatar chase cards are pretty impressive. Considering how many times over each would pay for the price of a Collector Booster, it’s hard not to consider them exciting pulls. What’s interesting about these cards, however, is that they seem to represent a step down in terms of Headliner card value for Magic.
Past Universes Beyond sets, in particular, have offered much more lucrative Headliners. Spider-Man’s Cosmic Foil Soul Stone has sold for as much as $70,000. Avatar also lacks an equivalent to Final Fantasy’s $6,000 Black Chocobo, or its $75,000 Serialized Golden Chocobo.
That said, it’s worth bearing a few things in mind. First and foremost, the market for these cards is still very young. The Cosmic Foil Soul Stone sold for around $10,000 when it first landed, but over time, it has gained a ton of value. The Raised Foil Avatar Aang seems similarly rare, and could therefore achieve a similar feat.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that the Neon Ink cards from this set are roughly on par with those in Final Fantasy, and the Headliner cards for regular mainline sets, price-wise. While some, like Katara, are weaker, we’re still dealing with $1,000-2,000 pieces of cardboard here. The surge in ultra-rare chase cards has made cards like this feel less exciting, relatively speaking, but there’s still a ton of value to be found in Avatar’s new high-end offerings.
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