Influences on cards value (Part 1)

One of the most important things in the business world is to predict and know how to take advantage of value fluctuating. In Magic the Gathering, there are many factors that can cause certain cards value to fluctuate, raise or drop.

In this series I will explain each one of them and in the end, tell you how to take full advantage of those value swings.


Tournaments/Event results
At major tournaments, usually the value of cards present in the top 8 decks and specially the winning one will likely spike for a few days. You will have to be able to identify the difference between a general value increase and a short term peak of demand. These can be determined by how long these cards have been present and how steady their value as been or how new cards and set rotations interact with them.



Generally speaking, Cards like Inferno Titan, which was present in the MTG Worlds 2011 winning deck are likely to be going through an euphoria phase and start dropping into their real value anytime soon, turning it into a risky card to buy just under the current sell price.



On part 2 I will tell you how to predict these fluctuations instead of reacting to them.