I’ve mentioned that I’m in the process of selling off some of my old Magic: the Gathering cards. I started playing the game in 1994, too late to buy any of the Arabian Nights expansion cards myself. But I traded for some of them early on, in a vain attempt to assemble a complete collection of that expansion set. I never managed this, because already by the time I started playing, some of those Arabian Nights cards were considered valuable (like $20 or so!) and it was difficult to find anyone willing to part with them.
I did manage to trade for a City in a Bottle. Here it is, a photo I took a few days ago of my personal copy of this card:
This was one of the difficult rare cards to get, but I was determined to get one because I admired the work of the artist, Drew Tucker. Unlike all the other card artists at the time, he worked in watercolour, and his images were always slightly impressionistic, different to the regular sort of fantasy art of the time. I eventually assembled a complete collection of all of the cards with Tucker’s artwork, as far as the Mirage expansion. But this City in a Bottle was the pride of my collection, as it was so rare.
The reason I took a photo of it the other day is because someone on the Discord where I am selling my cards was in search of a copy to buy. I figured I’m selling my collection, I should let this card go if someone wants it. The current value of this card in good condition, according to recent online sales, is about US$340, or AU$530. I offered a bit of a discount—because the listed selling price is never what you actually get after fees, or the middle-man taking a cut; if you sell direct to a buyer rather than through an online selling site then the accepted practice is to price the card around 15% lower.
The buyer PayPal-ed me some money, and I’ve now sent the card off. I messaged to say it was in the mail, and I hope he treated the card well, because it meant a lot to me because it was the pinnacle of my artist collection of Drew Tucker cards. I didn’t really expect too much of a response, because I know a lot of people don’t really appreciate Tucker’s artwork, preferring more traditional painting media for fantasy art. But the buyer said:
Will do. Drew Tucker is my favorite magic artist by far. I had him do a painting on the back of an artist proof when I was at eternal weekend and it’s one of my favorite cards. This is my first City – very excited to finally get one!
Wow! Now that’s cool. I’m sad to see one of my favourite cards in my collection go, but if it has to go to anyone, I’m glad it’s this guy.
In other news, I’ve scheduled an extra ethics class on Mondays, after requests from parents for more suitable timeslots for their kids. I’m now up to 6 classes on Mondays! I could probably schedule something close to a 40-hour week working on these and get plenty of enrolments, but I still need some time off in between to breathe and get other things done.
I used a bit of spare time today to do stage 4 of the Lego Dungeons & Dragons set. This adds the roof and exterior of the bedroom from stage 3. The roof bits are really nice, with clever angles and construction.
There’s also more details inside. And this new figure of an orcish fighter. Who appears to have bested the bed-mimic from stage 3, and is now interested in this treasure chest that might be full of loot.
But oh no! It’s another mimic!!
This set is so much fun to build.
I also made new IWC comics today, ready for a new update tonight to replace last week’s hiatus of reruns.
New content today:
At least the City in a Bottle is not a very useful card in most Magic metagames. Though it might still be better than the Apocalypse Chime, which does the same thing for Homelands cards. I have that one, I think.
I should probably also sell all my remaining Magic cards. I sold the expensive cards couple of years back, but I still have a box of cards which could be useful for somebody. I was a bit angry at the younger me not using sleeves in the beginning, as my dual lands were in a sad shape, though still worth money.
I started in late 1994, so the oldest cards I could still find boosters for were The Dark and Fallen Empires. I did get some older cards by trading and buying single cards. Also the Chronicles helped, having reprints of the older cards.
Though I think there are some Bazaar of Baghdad decks in some formats, that City might be a nice sideboard card against those… Though probably not fast enough.
At least that prevents all Shahrazads too. It could have been good in some of our multiplayer games (long before Commander or even EDH was a thing). Shahrazad and a couple of Forks was not a fun thing, though it made for a memorable game.
Heh, I’ve sold a couple of Shahrazads recently too, though not to the same person.
I first bought Arabian Nights at a fair in Antwerp when the seller told me to buy a box instead of single boosters….