ALL THE INFO: bootlegmtg – Reddit
Bootleg MTG – ALL THE INFONote: I was not asked to write this and didnt have any coordination with the mods here. I made significant efforts to toe the line and ensure this is completely above-board in terms of contentTHIS GUIDE COVERS MY EXPERIENCES account is a burner account but I will check periodically for PMs, etcReminder: Rule 0: r/bootlegmtg in no way supports or condones or tolerates the fraudulent selling of counterfeit cards as authentic. If someone wants to spend hundreds of dollars on a piece of paper, they deserve to get what they think they’re paying is this all about? As we all know, there are many tiers of card values in MTG, with some cards being breathtakingly expensive, and at the same time being essential for various formats. Various printers produce various proxies. Quality can be all over the unterfeit vs ProxyFrom my perspective, this comes down to, [prok-see]nounthe agency, function, or power… to act as the deputy or substitute for anothercounterfeit, [koun-ter-fit]adjectivemade in imitation so as to be passed off… as genuine; forged. With the intent to defraudQuite obviously there is some room for interpretation but generally it seems that is as accepted that a proxy is intended for personal use (from casual to tournament play) and counterfeits are intended for profit / to defraud others from their money. As far as I’m concerned talking about proxy use is fine. However, the moment this turns into discussing how to deceive others and turn a profit – we’re in unacceptable oxies:TypesWhite Core:Generally the lowest quality, most obviously fake Casual play; cubes, deck guantlets, etc. I wouldnt personally even bother with CoreMiddle of the road from what I’ve heard. They are apparently off a little bit weight-wise; but probably fine sleeved. I have not dealt with these CoreThese are the real deal. High quality cards, sometimes nearly imperceptable. Go with these for anything more than kitchen table play. A large percentage of these would hold up in tournament entificationEasily the best guide I’ve foundWhat if I’m deck-checked? As of writing, generally speaking deck-checks are not to find proxies. The intention is simply to verify your deck a printed, organized, easily read decklist ready. This will expedite the process and minimize the time people are touching your sleeve! This makes it almost 100% impossible to tellDont freak out. Seriously. Just play it cool and act dumbTry to play playsets of proxies and real cards. E. g. Dont run 2 proxy lilianas and 2 real cards from the same set. You’ll be setting up the possible side-by-side view. Most of these wont matter, but why chance it? If, somehow, it’s noticed: accept the DQ, move on, dont cause a scene, and dont run proxies for a while! Aging cardsI’ve had mixed success (as have many others) with niques I’ve tried and the results:Bleach: Almost no effect; may need more time. I wiped this with a rag. I feel like there may be some potential with a spray bottle and letting it sit for a little cquier Thinner: Actually worked to wash out some colors a bit. Easy to take too much off, tread wool #0 grade: A bit abrasive. Good if you REALLY want to age some cards, but will quickly remove color. I sometimes will use this around the edges of a card to make it look more wornSteel wool #0000 grade: Excellent if used with a light touch to remove some of the glossinessBaby powder and Additional treatmentsAlcohol and additional Notes Techniques I have not tried, but heard about:Coffee groundsShuffling with bulkBaking at a low tempSunbleachingSourcesThere are two primary suppliers that are recommended, and then a whole bunch of commended: VZ (Villa Zheng), BL (Black Lotus), and RTL (US based, same card inventory, more expensive, faster shipping, no customs)These guys sell the same cards. They have different list formats, different pricing, and are slightly different to deal EXPERIENCES:After a whole lot of comparison and $500+ in orders through both:I have come to conclude that BL is closer to the printing is faster, but BL is closer to the ‘origin’ of the printsVZBLPROSPROSCommunicationCommunicationBonus cardsAlways have received trackingFaster shippingSlightly more competitive pricingCONSCONSHave not received trackingShipping has been a bit slower Paypal requests are in Chinese, gets caught by some spam filtersOther sellers:Italian guy on Bonanza: Same stock at VZ/BL. Ships out of the same exact shipper (e. drop shipping). Not worth the LinkKnown Bad Cards:Inkmoth Nexus Original print run; was missing phyrexian symbol in the rules text box. Dead giveaway. Has been fixed on latest Confidant (Modern Masters) The – is too short. The Ravnica version is BLWORK IN PROGRESS
Proxy card – MTG Wiki
Plains serving as Mox Pearl
A proxy card often abbreviated to proxy is a card that represents another Magic card in casual play. [1]
1 Casual use
2 Playtest use and counterfeits
3 Tournament use
4 References
Casual use[]
Vintage tournaments often allow unsanctioned use of 10 proxies to keep costs down. Having the original Power 9 in a deck can be well over $24000.
For instance, the chances that a player owns a Black Lotus are slim, but if they have their opponent’s permission, the player and opponent could play with the understanding that a different card represents a Black Lotus. A proxy may be a card with different text written over it, with a piece of paper with the text written on it taped over it, with the text paper inserted into its card protector over it, or anything else the players agree upon.
Another use of proxy cards is to protect high-value cards. For instance when you do actually own a Black Lotus or perhaps a foil Jace, The Mind Sculptor, you could put a proxy card of it in your deck while having the actual card in a special protector on the side, to prove that you actually own the card. However, when no proxy cards are allowed in the format you’re playing, be ready to have your deck inspected to check if proxied cards equal the authentic cards you own.
Playtest use and counterfeits[]
Some people print out cards from sources like Scryfall and use these as proxy cards for playtesting. Some of these “proxy” cards are so professionally made that they can pass as real Magic cards to the untrained eye, and are therefore effectively counterfeits. The production of these cards, for the purpose of sales, is of course illegal. It should be noted, however, that the reproduction of Magic cards for personal use is not illegal under Fair Use[2] laws.
Wizards of the Coast has no desire to police playtest cards made for personal, non-commercial use, even if that usage takes place in a store. [3] However, cards used in DCI-sanctioned events must be authentic Magic cards.
Tournament use[]
In sanctioned tournaments like Grand Prixes, if a certain card suffered a damage beyond suitable for competition, Head Judge of the event has the right to issue proxy card replacing damaged card in deck for that event. Players must also keep the respective damaged card and show to the opponent if necessary (like setting aside when the card comes into play) if a proxy cards replaced damaged cards.
From the Tournament Rules (November 22, 2019—Throne of Eldraine)
3. 4 Proxy CardsA proxy card is used during competition to represent an otherwise legal Magic card or checklist card that can no longer be included in a deck without the deck being marked. For a proxy to be issued, the card it is replacing must meet at least one of the following criteria:• The card has been accidentally damaged or excessively worn in the current tournament, including damaged or misprinted Limited products. Proxies are not allowed as substitutes for cards that their owner has damaged intentionally or through negligence. • The card is a foil card for which no non-foil printing ayers may not create their own proxies; they may only be created by the Head Judge who has sole discretion as to whether the creation of a proxy is appropriate. When a judge creates a proxy, it is included in the player’s deck and must be denoted as a proxy in a clear and conspicuous manner. The original card is kept nearby during the match and replaces the proxy while in a public zone as long as it is recognizable. A proxy is valid only for the duration of the tournament in which it was originally issued.
References[]
↑ Aaron Forsythe (March 19, 2004). “A-Proxy-Mation”. Wizards of the Coast.
↑
↑ Elaine Chase (January 14, 2016). “On Proxies, Policy, and Communication”. Wizards of the Coast.
Foreign Language (Cards) for Dummies | MTGPrice Blog
By Guo Heng Chin
First and foremost, I have to apologise to you readers and my editors for the late publication of this article. I am currently in Tokyo with intermittent internet access. With that out of the way, let’s dive into a topic that is close to my heart: foreign language foils.
Foreign language cards and foils never used to catch my interest. I delegated them to the realms of hardcore Commander, Legacy and Modern players with wallets thicker than their decks.
Then on one fine day, my girlfriend brought back two boxes of Korean Theros from her trip to South Korea, and I opened this in one of the boxes:
It’s hammer time!
Oh my, it looked gorgeous. I grew up speaking English, Malay and Cantonese but I only wrote in English and Malay, which also used Roman alphabets. The Korean script read to me like ancient runes, fittingly on a card that summons a god, and it looked absolutely fascinating in foil. After going through two boxes of Korean Theros, I started to find myself with a thirst for foils in scripts intelligible to myself.
The Tiers of Foreign Cards
One of the first thing every foreign language cardphile learns is the rarity tier of languages and their corresponding price multipliers. This would be exceedingly familiar to many of you, and countless articles have been written about the topic, so I am going to quickly skimp through it for the new entrants and the uninitiated.
English cards are the baseline, being the default language of Magic cards. The European languages, French, Italian and Spanish have a similar or lower valuation in relative to their English counterparts. From my own experience, when I was living in London Spanish, Italian and French cards were valued slightly lower than their English counterparts, both on player-to-player trading and on, and for both non-foils and foils including eternal staples like Thoughtseize. German is the only exception; some cards have awesome, punny and sometimes politically incorrect names in German:
However, back in Malaysia, most European language cards command a higher price than English cards. A rule of thumb for valuing non ‘tier one’ foreign language cards and foils is that they are only worth the amount your trade partner is willing to pay for them.
Non-Roman alphabet languages generally demand a higher price for their cool factor:
Foil Japanese Brainstorm from eBay user kidicarus.
The cheapest of the tier one languages is Japanese, considered to be the third most expensive but most accessible of foreign language cards due to the fact that most LGSes worldwide have Japanese booster allocations. Big Japanese stores like Saito Card Shop also have an English-friendly online presence with a large Japanese non-foil and foil inventory making it easier for anyone around the world to acquire Japanese singles.
The top two rarest languages are Korean and Russian. While most local game stores have a small allocation of Korean and Russian boxes, most stores do not stock them unless requested, or the stocks fly right off the shelves if there are demand for them due to the small allocation. Buying Korean and Russian singles online are much harder. I tried looking for an online venue to purchase Korean singles to little avail. Even the large Korean Magic: the Gathering stores recommended to me by a Korean friend do not have English websites and Google Translate was horrible at it, especially when I tried to use the search function. I have not done as much research for Russian singles sites but a quick search did not yield any website in English.
The only way to acquire Korean or Russian boxes en masse would be to be in South Korea or Russia yourself, or hope that your LGS stocks them or is willing to order them for you using whatever limited allocation Wizards gave them.
Simplified Chinese cards are cheaper than their English counterparts due to Simplified Chinese cards being perceived to be in high supply, and while Traditional Chinese cards are scarcer, the difficulty in differentiating Simplified and Traditional Chinese for the untrained eye made it that Traditional Chinese cards do not command a significant bump in price.
Non-foil foreign language Japanese, Korean and Russian cards are only slightly more expensive than their non-foil English counterparts, even for eternal staples. As of writing, Korean Thoughtseizes are going for just about $10 more than an English one. The Japanese store I visited were selling Japanese Polluted Delta for 1950 – 2000 yen, which is just $4 – $5 more than an English one.
The foreign language price multiplier gets insane when you look at foil eternal staples, even those currently being opened. The Japanese stores I visited were selling foil Japanese Polluted Delta for 20, 000 yen, which translates into roughly $170. Completed listings on eBay for Korean foil Polluted Delta showed winning bids at around $320. The last sold Russian Polluted Delta on eBay went for slightly higher than $1000.
Pricing Foreign Foils
Foreign non-foils are pretty easy to price, the tier one languages are usually a few dollars more than English versions. Pricing foreign foils is a more arduous task.
The first thing I did after cracking foil Korean Purphoros was to check if I have struck gold. While I easily looked up the prices for my English foils on, attempting to pin a value on foreign cards required more digging, and the fact that Korean was the second rarest language made it felt like trudging through a wild west of card price. When I first looked up on completed sales of foil Korean Purphoros, God of the Forge on eBay, I was estatic to see one sold for $120, which was six times the price of a foil English Purphoros, God of the Forge at that time (January 2014). A few months later, a Korean-based seller was relisting a foil Korean Purphoros for $80 multiple times and no one bought it.
Japanese cards are easier to price thanks to Saito’s Card Shop. Without any English-friendly online Korean or Russian stores to check for prices (and assuming that like me, you do not speak Korean or Russian), your best bet would be either eBay or the High End Magic Stuff for Sale Facebook Group. While eBay shows you the price at which a card was sold at, it is not often that you can find a card you are looking for and eBay archives old listings, making it more difficult to research. More often than not, you would find no recent sold listings for foils that are not in high demand. The High End Magic Stuff for Sale have a larger listing for you to search through, the prices listed there may not be the price at which the card was bought, and many posters are open to best offers.
Keep in mind that foreign foils, especially the high end ones are only worth as much as the party on the other end of the transaction is willing to pay. The price for foil Korean Purphoros, God of the Forge is a good example. The listing that sold when I first looked it up early this year so happened to meet a buyer willing to fog up $120 for it (Purphoros is popular in Commander I hear), but later listings struggled to find even someone willing to pay $80 for it. As for my own foil Korean Purphoros, I probably will not part with it even for a foil Korean Polluted Delta. The sentimental value attached to it is worth much more to me than a foil Korean Polluted Delta.
I hope you have gleaned some useful information on foreign cards and foils pricing tiers and how to find out how much they are worth. Join me next week as a recount my Magic adventures in Tokyo.
Edit: The price for foil Japanese Polluted Delta was corrected from 200, 000 yen to 20, 000 yen. The author would like to thank reader Ben Q who pointed out the extra zero typo.
Frequently Asked Questions about mtg chinese proxies
Is it illegal to buy MTG proxies?
Some of these “proxy” cards are so professionally made that they can pass as real Magic cards to the untrained eye, and are therefore effectively counterfeits. The production of these cards, for the purpose of sales, is of course illegal.
Why are Chinese MTG cards cheaper?
Simplified Chinese cards are cheaper than their English counterparts due to Simplified Chinese cards being perceived to be in high supply, and while Traditional Chinese cards are scarcer, the difficulty in differentiating Simplified and Traditional Chinese for the untrained eye made it that Traditional Chinese cards do …Dec 16, 2014
Is MTG proxy legit?
Printed proxies might have different art, different abilities, or just be a straight up custom card that doesn’t exist in Magic. … Proxies aren’t legal in MTG, and depending on how they’re made, they sometimes skirt the line of legal in general.Mar 17, 2021
