Foil Planeswalkers

I'm contemplating to start off a collection of foil Planeswalkers, but there are few factors are affecting my decision; 

The first factor is no doubt, the most important factor; Price. The cost of foil walkers are averaged at Between $20-$30 for "normal demand" walkers which see play in EDH and casual formats, $40-$50 for walkers that are either new or in demand for standard format, and we have >$60 walkers which are either incredibly rare and/or extremely in demand in eternal formats like Legacy and Modern. A quick gauge of the full collection will cost me $2000 to finish just the basic collection. (when I mean basic, means no special prints, judge promos, event specials, etc.) Looking at tight Budget constraints as a full-time student, it will be a long-term project to finish the collection. The fear would be the prices soaring up to exaggerating prices, or the market crash and leaving my collection worthless. 

Continuing on, the price and availability of different prints forms my second point; To what extend? To what extend am I looking to complete my collection? As mentioned, $2000 is just to cover the basic prints of the walkers in foil in singles. I'm not even including every print edition for the planeswalkers ever to be printed! Take core set walkers as example, (best example actually) Ajani Goldmane had 3 prints over the Lorwyn, M10 and M11 set. Am I going to collect the same card thrice cos it's printed in 3 different editions? How about Jace Beleren? he has 3 prints in the same sets as Ajani; not to forget a Duel deck version. If given that there are alternate arts for a single planeswalker like Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, whose expansion and Duel Decks print have different art, it may be valid to grab a duplicate copy in an alternate set. Actually, all planeswalkers have an alternate art for Duel Deck reprints. Similarly, judge promos do have alternate arts. but, back to point 1, Price! How about Book Jace? It's a sweet new art that is super rare, costing about $200 just to keep a copy! I've yet to go to Jace, the Mind Sculptor! A foiled Worldwake print is a whooping $700, FTV:20 is costing $180 as per mentioned date of writing!

My third point, Appeal. I have just completed my Foil Theros Gods collection. The total cost of the entire package cost me about $120.00, and I'm looking to complete the BOG and JIN minor god collection in the later part of the year. While collecting, there are other people also jumping into the bandwagon and the demand is pretty high for the foil gods. Why? It's unique. It is unique to the Theros set and upon post-rotation and post prints, the rarity of these cards are going to climb slowly due to EDH, cubes, collector's demands. Planeswalkers are unique to Magic: the Gathering since the first printing in Lorwyn block. The demand as a whole collection is there, but specific to collectors. If I ever were to do a resale. It would take a search to find the right guy to get a good price for my collection of planeswalkers.

Fourth, Consistency. This is a major factor which affects how much I spend and how my collection will look like in the end. Consistency in the sense that if I were to get EVERY print available, means I will have to get EVERY print! If SDCC 2013 Collection is calling at $1000, judge promos are valued at $100+ per piece, I will have to get them! Organisation would also be an issue as to how the collection to look like. At the moment, I have drafted a general outline, which sorts the Planeswalkers into Alphabetical order. With the inclusion or alternate arts or duplicate prints, it's not too bad; I can shift around the cards and make way for these alternate prints. The only issue is the hassle to do it and the condition of the cards must be taken care of to preserve the conditions. Emblems aren't an issue here, I could easily get them at $1 each at specific sites I have sourced and just slot them in on the go.

Fifth, Time. With limited budget and the near exponential growth of the foil cards, it's a race against time and budget constraints to make it there. The only 2 options I have is by trading and profit from buy/sell. At this point of time, I can still choose; the collection is considered just starting out, I have less than 10 foiled walkers in my collection and backing out now can still be an easy option to sell everything and move on. Various school of people has told me various perspectives. The top is being that the collection will be expensive to start. To maintain, I only have to buy the foil walkers every 3-4 months upon release. But, as mentioned, the start up capital is steep due to budget and time constraints.

Eventually, the sense of satisfaction in having completed something I have started is something I look forward to. Also, as a self-address to my worry in the value, foiled cards will increase in demand and value as the edition/set gets rarer; the prices will no doubt increase together with the set.  It'll be a long journey to complete the collection, but once I set up my mind to complete this collection, I'll update here on this blog on the progress.