A Perspective on the Health of Vintage: Why do You NOT Attend Tournaments?

[Demonic Attorney]

Guys, please try to keep this on-topic.  Thanks.

[jcb193]

Well, I think cost of cards has to be one of the least relevent options at least this year.  I sell high end T1 cards on ebay every Dec, and I must confess I should have dumped everything last year.  My beta power is off price by about 25%, FBB duals are sometimes down 30-50%, almost all pimp cards are 20-40% lower.  I've lost about $3,000 to $4,000 just by waiting a year.  And 70% of them are going to Europe. 

If you do think that you will be playing Magic for the long haul, this is the year to pimp your deck. 

[Demagogue]

Transportation mainly, I don't own a car so it can be rather tricky to get to a tournament. Luckily I usually bum a ride off a buddy who loves Magic so it's not to much of an issue.

[Petey4335]

Well, since it has been awhile since I posted anything, I at least can start giving some reason why I haven't been around in the past few years.  Its been up between financial issues (i had a 2nd job for awhile while the wife was between jobs), trying to get the house set for foster parenting & generally spending half, if not more, of my weekends volunteerring.  I've noticed as I've been getting older, I have to really really plan my time in advance (usually more than a month).

I was already planning on either sealed or a superbowl party feb 1st.  So, now that there is something at the Circle B, I think I might just do that instead... and hopefully bring a friend or two I've been drafting with. 

Well, at least I top 2'd and 4'd at gen con.

[Purple Hat]

distance to events was why I stopped playing.  As a general rule I don't like to spend more time traveling than I'll spend playing.  this limits drive distance for most events to about 3 hours each way.

My life has gotten a lot busier of late, but I'd still make it to an event every few months if there were anything reasonable.  i also think that the restriction of brainstorm and ponder has made the format a bit more random, but that's not a real issue since the restricted list has reached critical mass anyway in my opinion.

[chrissss]

I don't know how it is in the US, but public transport is horrible during weekends, especially Sundays. Most tournaments are on a Sunday, which is annoying for a lot of people to get to.

[Thisson]

Hi,

I blame the decline of Vintage on the WOTC reprint policy.  More people are stopping playing vintage than those who are starting, and the reprint policy is to blame.

Players want to play with shiny, pretty magic cards -- not beat up cards from 1994.  Not proxies made from basic lands defaced with a Sharpie.   Both of these kinds of cards are eyesores -- and they are offensive to look at.  But we can no longer justify the huge expense of obtaining enough quality vintage cards to make playing Vintage magic the fun that it used to be.  And the odds are great that if you do shell out big money for a card, it's actually a forgery.  So the reprint policy is at the expense of players, for the benefit of counterfeiters.

WOTC should either: 1) continue to sell boosters of the old product; 2) reprint the important cards from old sets with nice new artwork and mix them into new sets (the 2008 Vintage Championship Mox is a great example of what these cards can look like -- seriously it looks better than the original beta/unlimited mox!); or 3) release a new set of all of the tournament staple vintage cards with new artwork and/or a new border color.

I've been playing since 1994 and I remember, back in the day, there would be 1000 people showing up to Vintage tournaments.  The artists would show up and sign autographs.  And dealers made a fortune selling singles.  That's because the GAME of magic was more important than the collectibility of magic.  Unfortunately, WOTC hasn't realized that the collectibility will collapse if nobody plays anymore.  They need to change the reprint policy so all players can experience the excitement of the vintage format.

[RThomas]

Cannot travel to events/too far to travel.  It seems like the community of vintage players splinters a bit more at each glance with only a couple hotbeds of activity instead of being spread across the country.  I don't see that buying necessary materials to play is a priority at this time either. 

Conversely, perhaps the format might experience a bit of awakening in some time if, according to the seller posting above, card prices have declined and it becomes more affordable for new players to enter the fold.