For the most part, movement on the MTG secondary market is driven by in-game factors like scarcity and card performance. On rare occasions, however, events in the world beyond Magic can cast unexpected financial ripples of their own.
Earlier this week, for example, we learned of the sad passing of beloved actor Sam Neill, best known for his portrayal of Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Since then, the price of Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists, an MTG card bearing his likeness, has risen dramatically.
Ellie And Alan, Paleontologists MTG
Ellie and Alan was released as part of the Jurassic World Collection, a set of 26 cards based on the Jurassic Park series. Unlike recent Universes Beyond projects, these cards didn’t get a dedicated release, but were included as inserts in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan boosters. Each Set Booster had a 1/12 chance of containing one of these cards, while one was guaranteed in each Collector Booster.
While this unorthodox delivery method ensured Ellie and Alan was always fairly scarce, there wasn’t a ton of demand for the card prior to this week due to its low power level. Discover is hard to build around due to its inconsistency, and Bant isn’t the best color combination for a graveyard Commander. As a result, only 2,620 players ran the card as their Commander according to EDHREC data.
Ellie and Alan received a second wind this week, however, in the wake of Sam Neill’s passing. Many players online paid tribute to the actor with deck techs and discussions of the card, bringing it firmly into the limelight. This renewed surge in interest then translated directly into a renewed surge in sales, with the majority of the card’s stock selling out overnight.
The Spike
Prior to July 13th, near-mint copies of Ellie and Alan, Paleontologists could be had for around $3.34 on TCGplayer. While it wasn’t a particularly widely played card, its innate scarcity and iconic Universes Beyond status kept it from being complete bulk. There was a reasonable supply of the card at this point, too, with around 130 copies listed on the site.
Following the announcement of Neill’s death on July 13th, a whopping 116 copies of Ellie and Alan were sold in a single day. With very few copies left, the price on the card has risen astronomically in line with current demand. The current cheapest listing for the card is $45.87 with shipping, with plenty of others listed in the $50-80 range. These aren’t hypothetical prices, either, with plenty of confirmed sales of the card in the $40-54 range over the past day.
For those hoping to get around this price spike with an alternate printing, unfortunately you’re out of luck. Foil copies are over four times more expensive, with listings and sales at $200 and above. The ultra-rare emblem version, surprisingly, doesn’t seem to have been affected by the spike so far, but with its previous sales in the $550-630 range it was hardly affordable to begin with.
The Future
Since the cause of this price spike was so unorthodox, it’s very difficult to predict where Ellie and Alan will end up long term. We have seen outside factors impact Magic prices before, as in the case of the MTG Stranger Things cards spiking following the release of the show’s fifth season. The cards that spiked in that instance have largely held their higher prices, but the two situations aren’t totally comparable.
A key difference is that the Stranger Things cards are all fairly playable in Commander, whereas Ellie and Alan is far less so. As the card’s previous price tag proves, without outside factors, it’s not worth a ton as an actual card people want to play with. For this reason, once the current surge of demand dies down, it could easily slip back down in price again.
On the other hand, supply on Ellie and Alan is now so low that it could remain expensive going forward on scarcity alone. While it’s not a powerhouse, it is a mechanically unique Universes Beyond card, which makes a future reprint unlikely as well. Ultimately, Ellie and Alan could go either way, and, as always in the world of MTG finance, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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