Basic Land Finance


Written By:

Douglas Johnson @Rose0fthorns




swamp island














plains1 plains2 plains33028_200w

scg plains






End Step






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11 thoughts on “Basic Land Finance”

  1. Basic lands can be tricky. I find they fall into various categories. If non full art, the pricier ones seem to be the really old sets (ABUR) and sets that have small print runs (Legends, Antiquities and, especially anything Portal, P2a and P3K) Snow lands of any kind whether true snow lands or lands (Ice Age, Coldsnap) that have images of snow covered whatever depending on land type. Foils tend to keep really good prices if they are Core 10th edition and before. This is just from my own eperieince.

  2. I think this is a great example why it’s better to point out great investment targets and not to dissuade people from buying into inexpensive cards. In 1994 you would have been considered completely insane if you just spent $20 on 10 shoe boxes full of basic beta lands.

    1. This is true, although I think people were also considered “insane” for trading away Shivan Dragons for duals and power. The game was so different back then, and there was no expectation of longevity.

  3. In the past few months I have been working toward acquiring a complete set of all foil basic lands appearing in sets. It has been a rewarding quest with more than a few surprises along the way. I still can’t believe I ended up paying over $9 for a NM foil basic mountain from New Phyrexia (mountain 172) to complete my set! I noticed that the more expensive foil basic lands tend to either feature more sweeping landscapes (such as mirrodin island 291, compared to the other mirrodin islands), deeper colors (SOI island 288 or Shadowmoor island 287/Swamp 291), or even “bright spots” on the cards (NP mountain 172, M13 plains 231, or mirrodin plains 290). And it also seems that players like something unique going on in the landscape (animals, lightning storms, blooming flowers, etc.).

    1. Yeah, that seems to be the case based on my (very minimal) research as well. I’m surprised that the “panoramic” lands like the Kamigawa Forests that all link together aren’t more expensive, although maybe that’s because they’re obscure enough for not many people to be aware of. Thanks for the info!

  4. I recall sending all my Glen Elendra Islands to some guy through Puca for 40 PP each a few months ago. Never looked back but I wondered what would be the reason for that guy to take several “recent” basic lands for that price. Now things make sense! 🙂 BTW, Puca is now pricing them at 65 PP.
    Ross, as you work your way through endless listings of basic lands and their prices, maybe you could provides us with an extensive list of basic lands worth more than, let’s say, 0.2 in a future article? That would be interesting data! Not suggesting you work for us… (not even so slightly) 😉

    1. Oh, mistyped that, I meant Douglas, not Ross, obviously. But if Ross does want to do that work I won’t complaint!

    2. Hey Carlos,

      I honestly thing SCG buylist is a pretty good baseline to use here. They pick out specific basic lands that they pay more than bulk on (Bulk rate for a foil basic land is $.25), at increments of .50, $1.00, $1.50, etc. Their buylist is also the most easily searchable, as opposed to going on something like TCGplayer or MTGstocks and wading through multiple pages of garbage. Hope this helps!

    1. That’s pretty helpful, Corey! I think it’d be even more useful to restrict the parameters to between $1 and $20 though, or something like that; all the really obscure $x00 basics like Summer and Guru just crowd up the list and make it harder to search through.

  5. Ive been gradually aquiring beta basics for my various decks; most only have a handful of basics, so it is not very costly. Beta lands look great and will retain their value. Forests, islands and plains are super sweet, im not huge on the mountains or swamps (i use snow covered mountains for burn). Also, white bordered unlimited lands are cool if your deck needs to fetch basics, as they are easy to find quickly (same reason i like ur duals over ab).

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