Pricing/Value Alternate 4th Full Set

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wizard1
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Pricing/Value Alternate 4th Full Set

Post by wizard1 » Wed Jul 31, 2013 7:43 am

Hi all, its been a good while since i've been on the forums or even really touched what's left of my collection.

Just wondering if anyone can give me a rough estimation on what a full set of Alternate 4th runs for nowadays.

With all the craziness with Goyf being > $100 (they were $30 when I stopped playing), and BB Duals being close to the price of P9 (they were $200-250 max), I hope this has also happened with Alt 4th.

Thanks.

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mmgun
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Post by mmgun » Wed Jul 31, 2013 9:45 am

I'm afraid i have to disappoint you. The problem with alternate 4th, most of the people are not even aware of it, and it is only interesting for collectors.
You cannot pimp your deck with alternate 4th ( nobody might realize it...)
and 4th Edition does not have many staples anyway.
To find a full set is still not very common , but when it comes to random singles, they go for almost as cheap as regular 4th card.
My hint would be, keep it and hope for the best in future ^^

hammr7
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Post by hammr7 » Thu Aug 01, 2013 6:20 am

I can give you a few more definitive limits on price.

For some added background, in addition to the problems listed above for the set gaining popularity, there is still a great deal of confusion about how much alt. 4th product is out there. It is not as rare as Summer Magic, but there isn't a lot of Alt. 4th. There may be as few as 100 of each rare, or as much as 500 to 1,000 of each (at this point I don't think even 100 of each rare have been encountered in known collections).

If you look at recent starter box pricing of as high as $100 per unopened starter, you get an implied price of $4,000 per set if you get great distribution. The reality of bad distribution is offset by the theoretical 2 extra uncommon sets, the 20+ actual extra common sets, and all those extra basic lands.

Dan Bock had a set for sale on Ebay forever. The price was originally $2,999 and was later $2,499. The condition of the set was inferred to be SP, although there was never a listing on a card-by card basis. Although I haven't seen the set offered lately, I don't think it sold on Ebay. So an SP or slightly better set has at most a $2,500 value.

SCG would sell you a Near Mint set for ~ $1,900, based upon their sell prices. Of course SCG has trouble keeping most of the hardest to find cards in stock. And there are some singles they haven't had in stock in the last 3-plus years. However, when they get cards in they sell them at their listed prices, and the SCG Alt. 4th card prices already rose ~ 20% this past year, so the idea of a Near Mint set going for $2,000 doesn't seem ridiculous.

On the other end, I have been approached by dealers claiming they would gladly pay $1,000 or more for a full set of pack-fresh cards. In one case I believe the dealer had a customer who really wanted to buy a set, and was willing to pay much more than $1,000.

Going back in time, the last set I saw sell in an Ebay auction, a few years ago, went for about $900. That set was in very mixed condition, and was from a known seller with a less-than-stellar reputation. But the buyer was apparently happy with the purchase.

While not many know of the set, there is demand, especially at higher grades. It has been so long since any set other than Dan Bock's set was offered, if a strictly mint set were offered on Ebay, it would not surprise me if the price hit $2,000.

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thulnanth
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Post by thulnanth » Fri Aug 02, 2013 1:06 am

hammr7 wrote:There may be as few as 100 of each rare, or as much as 500 to 1,000 of each (at this point I don't think even 100 of each rare have been encountered in known collections).
A quick note on this...

At one point Troll and Toad was selling singles (they were one of the bigger sellers actually), and I know they had over 100 Hurr Jackals in stock, with several other rares in the 20-30 range. I always went with the assumption that there were at least a few hundred of each rare available, possibly as much as Alpha (1100).

Of course, the bigger numbers assume much of it is buried in with regular 4th Edition and undiscovered. If that is true, it won't have any impact on the available mint singles, as these cards wear quickly!!! No matter how much is out there, the amount of "true mint" rares is pretty low. Just my $.02 worth.

Take it easy,
Jared
Ray Thiel (1964-2007) - the man who showed me more wonderful games & gaming sessions than I ever dreamed possible... you ran out of hit points too young, my friend.

hammr7
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Post by hammr7 » Fri Aug 02, 2013 5:09 am

I have a theory on Hurr Jackel. Everyone assumes that US Playing Card Company printed Alt 4th exactly the same way that Carta Mundi did. That would result in equal numbers of each rare card.

I have also noted the anomalous amounts of Hurr Jackel in circulation. It continues to exist. I noticed it on the boxes I opened. If you check SCG you will see they have far more of that card than any other rare.

My hypothesis is that US Playing Card Company produced sheets that were not 11 cards across, but instead were an even number (8 or 10 or 12 cards) across. If the rare sheet only contained 120 of the 121 cards then one rare would need to be printed elsewhere. It probably wouldn't be with the uncommons, since they would also be a card short.

It could have been that a separate sheet printed with proportionate amounts of the missing rare (one or two copies), the missing uncommon (3 to 6 copies) , the missing common (9 to as many as 44 copies), with the remainder of the sheet having basic lands. If more of these extra sheets were produced than the rare sheet, that would explain the extra Hurr Jackels, and might also explain the differences in the relative amounts of the basic lands (there are very notable differences).

Make no mistake, when it comes to alt 4th Hurr Jackel is much more plentiful than any other rare.

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wizard1
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Post by wizard1 » Mon Jan 06, 2014 7:44 pm

SET SOLD

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