The Magic Librarities

Are these only available through MTGO redemption or are there other ways to get them? Do they have their own GTIN codes? Should we be tracking these?

Hi.
They're only through MTGO redemption, right. They also have unique bar codes for each set. And in some cases they're quite rare. I doubt there are very many 7th Edition or Invasion block sets out there, and even fewer foil sets. So this seems like something good to track on this site.

There's also a lot number and a date (month and year) on each set, and the two pairs of sets I could find with legible lot numbers (BoK 1, BoK 2, and foil Judgment and my own foil Judgment ) have the same lot numbers. This might not always be true if they had to start printing more to satisfy demand, but who knows.

You would also need to assume that Wizards is bound legally to actually have printed (and in their possession in their warehouses) one card (or foil card) for every card that exists in the MTGO universe.

This would be similar to back in the day when they had to print 1 Mana Crypt for EACH copy of the First magic the gathering novel "Arena". Hence the existence of sealed Bricks of Mana Crypts showing up on ebay every so often.

I don't assume that at all. Just like airplanes are allowed to overbook flights, banks don't have to have all the money in cash to cover their accounts, and ISP's are allowed to oversell their bandwidth, I'm sure WOTC is not obligated to actually redeem every MTGO card in existence.

Don't even assume that a little. In fact I guarantee it simply isn't true. For starters, at most it would be 'one of each card up to the number of rares in that set', but even then it's like pensions...they simply have to have enough for expected demand..

You are correct in that Wizard's would have to print AT MOST a number equal to the number of rares in a set. They would, in reality, have less than that printed.

The interesting thing is the % of online cards that will NEVER be redeemable. For example, considering a set like Ravnica that consists of 88 rares, 88 uncommons, and 110 commons (not counting basic land), if you were to put this set together opening only booster packs, then you would have to open 88 boosters (best case scenario in a perfect world).

At 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 11 commons per pack; 88 boosters translates to 88 rares, 264 uncommons, 1210 commons. That's a total of 1562 cards, of which 286 can be redeemed:

(1562-286)/1562 = 0.8169

Therefore 81.7% of all digital online cards are UNREDEEMABLE. This, of course, would vary slightly based on the different structure of expansion sets, but using the same logic for a set like Dissension or Future Sight where there are 60R/60U/60C, 80% of the cards are unredeemable.

In fact, the number of unredeemable cards would be far greater than that as sets rotate out of the redemption policy (and as the older sets like Mirage, Visions are released which are not allowed for redemption). Lets just assume however that if MTGO was to go offline, and they made ALL cards redeemable to allow for people to obtain physical sets, then best case scenario would be that roughly 80% of all the digital cards sold would be unredeemable.

I guess the money spent on the 80% of unredeemable cards could be considered a service fee for being able to play Magic online. Seems kind of hefty though.

Now the trick is to figure out how many factory sealed sets are actually produced, how many ever get redeemed before they rotate out, and what happens to all the leftovers?

berkumps wrote:You are correct in that Wizard's would have to print AT MOST a number equal to the number of rares in a set. They would, in reality, have less than that printed.

The interesting thing is the % of online cards that will NEVER be redeemable. For example, considering a set like Ravnica that consists of 88 rares, 88 uncommons, and 110 commons (not counting basic land), if you were to put this set together opening only booster packs, then you would have to open 88 boosters (best case scenario in a perfect world).

At 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 11 commons per pack; 88 boosters translates to 88 rares, 264 uncommons, 1210 commons. That's a total of 1562 cards, of which 286 can be redeemed:

(1562-286)/1562 = 0.8169

Therefore 81.7% of all digital online cards are UNREDEEMABLE. This, of course, would vary slightly based on the different structure of expansion sets, but using the same logic for a set like Dissension or Future Sight where there are 60R/60U/60C, 80% of the cards are unredeemable.

In fact, the number of unredeemable cards would be far greater than that as sets rotate out of the redemption policy (and as the older sets like Mirage, Visions are released which are not allowed for redemption). Lets just assume however that if MTGO was to go offline, and they made ALL cards redeemable to allow for people to obtain physical sets, then best case scenario would be that roughly 80% of all the digital cards sold would be unredeemable.

I guess the money spent on the 80% of unredeemable cards could be considered a service fee for being able to play Magic online. Seems kind of hefty though.

Woah! Those are some awesome numbers.

Wizards should charge 80% less for the online boosters!

j/k, lol, Wizards would never do that. I am sure they would charge more if they though enough people would pay it.

The IPA factory sealed sets are likely pretty rare (I have never seen one), as people weren't redeeming these too often originally. I was wondering how rare the 7th Ed factory sealed set would be in your opinion?

I'll have to agree with 'pretty darn rare,' but surprisingly (to me at least) I just now scored complete sealed sets from INV, ODY, ONS blocks as well as a 7th set. All nonfoil and all still shrinkwrapped. Only time Ive seen them offered since when they were still redeemable... if the person that wanted the barcode/product info (mark?) wants it, just contact me.

As mentioned in my other post, if anyone needs sealed sets of JUD, TOR, APOC, or PLANESHIFT... Ive got some extras now.

Mirror_Lich wrote:I'll have to agree with 'pretty darn rare,' but surprisingly (to me at least) I just now scored complete sealed sets from INV, ODY, ONS blocks as well as a 7th set. All nonfoil and all still shrinkwrapped. Only time Ive seen them offered since when they were still redeemable... if the person that wanted the barcode/product info (mark?) wants it, just contact me.

As mentioned in my other post, if anyone needs sealed sets of JUD, TOR, APOC, or PLANESHIFT... Ive got some extras now.

Might be best just to post the barcode info here, as there are at least 2 people who want it, and it may eventually end up on this site after all the other updates are done.

Yes, please post the codes similar to I have done in this post:

http://www.magiclibrarities.net/forum/v ... php?t=5508

Or, if possible, email me pictures of the tops of the sets

I've got some weird packaging that contains 2 full non-foil sets in a single long box, complete with some Styrofoam inserts. I don't know what the reason or use these double sets were for, but they look official enough and did not come shrink wrapped.

The point of MODO is that you play online. Redeeming sets is something that probably less than 1% of users do, and it's basically as an assurance that the virtual cards are "backed" by Wizards. Dealers redeem the vast majority of all sets, with actual players redeeming very few as far as I know.

It is a shame that they did not print any art on the boxes, which would make the boxes collectable.

Anyone collecting sealed sets of MTGO cards ?