not sure- but what edition are my cards?

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abandonedMagic

Guest
ok, here goes... :rolleyes: i used to play magic when i was in elementary school, but i abandoned the game when i hit 7th grade and stopped doing the things that people told me were "uncool". so i have all these old cards and im trying to asses their value and just see what exactly ive got my hands on.

my question is how can i tell what edition a card is or what set it came from. please keep in mind that i basically know nothing about this game anymore.

If i can count correctly, I probably started buying cards in 1994. most of mine say copyright 1994 or 1995, some dont say anything besides the illustrator. but i know that i have a few later editions too. so a little help would be greatly apprecitated. thanks. :)
 
R

Ransac

CPA Trash Man
Alpha: Black Borders and very rounded edges. 3D "Beveled" lining.

Beta: Black Borders and edges like today (edges will be the same from here on out). 3D "Beveled" lining.

Unlimited: White Borders and 3D "Beveled" lining.

Revised: White Borders, NO Beveled lining and the art is more pale than Unlimited

4th Edition: 1995 print year

5th Edition: 1997 print year

6th Edition and on: have set symbols.


Anything else?


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
Oversoul

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
The hardest one is telling the difference between Unlimited and Revised. Revised is much more common, so the best thing would be to find a card that you have two copies of, but that look distincly different from each other. I think the easiest way to spot Unlimited cards is by noticing how their letters look different from Revised cards...

Also, if you have a white bordered card with an expansion set symbol, it's from like something else. Chronicles cards, for example, have white borders and can have symbols from Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, or The Dark.

Battle Royale and Anthologies can both have expansion symbols, but Anthologies has a 1993-1998 at the bottom while Battle Royale has a 1993-1999.

http://www.crystalkeep.com/magic/misc/symbols.php
 
A

abandonedMagic

Guest
yea thanks for the reply. :D
im not sure what the current edges look like but i cant really tell the difference in edges between my cards so i probably don't have any alphas.

on the line where it tells the card type (immediatly under the picture), what do the symbols to the right mean? ive got a sickle moon, a snowflake like thing, one with a scimtar, but mostly a crown or nothing.

if there's like a webpage with all this basic information on it you can just post the link rather than having to type it all out. thanks.

edit: ok, just caught the one above with the symbol link. thanks
 
R

Ransac

CPA Trash Man
The Crown is Fallen Empires

The Sickle Moon is The Dark

The Snowflake is Ice Age

The Scimitar is Arabian Nights


HOWEVER, make sure that these are all Black Bordered cards. If the cards have these symbols BUT are White Bordered, then they are part of either Chronicles or Anthologies.


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
Oversoul

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
abandonedMagic said:
im not sure what the current edges look like but i cant really tell the difference in edges between my cards so i probably don't have any alphas.
Click to expand...
Yeah, if any of your cards had Alpha edges, you'd probably notice right away. And they're kind of rare compared to other sets. I don't think I have any Alpha cards myself (although I do have some Beta commons)...
 
D

DarthFerret

Guest
I have one Alpha card left (Hill Giant, dont know why though). The rounded corners are very distinctive when comapred to any other card. Another difference in most of the cards (But not all of them have it) is that in Unlimited, the cards used the word Tap. In revised the changed that to a circle with a crooked t in it. sometime later (not sure exactly when) they changed it into a crooked turn arrow.
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
What does "3D Beveled lining" mean?

I think the crooked t was only used in Revised - definitely 4th had the crooked arrow turn. I think maybe one of the expansions that came in between them had the crooked t (Fallen Empires?) but it was changed pretty quickly.
 
R

Ransac

CPA Trash Man
Been a while since I've looked at my cards, but I believe it goes like this.

Beveled lining: If you look at the line that separates the border of the card with the colored background of the card, it'll be a straight line on Revised cards and have a 3-D look on Unlimited.

NOTE: I got the term "Beveled" from the Wikipedia.org article describing old cards.


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
S

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
Huh. Kinda a complicated term for someone who just wants to know the difference between card looks :) I mean, you'd have to go a dictionary and all when just an "easier" explanation will do :)
 
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Ransac

CPA Trash Man
Easy explanations are no fun, though. I mean, had I given a simple explanation, I wouldn't need to re-explain myself and so forth and you and I wouldn't be having this wonderful conversation right now. :D


Ransac, cpa trash man
 
Oversoul

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Spiderman said:
I think maybe one of the expansions that came in between them had the crooked t (Fallen Empires?) but it was changed pretty quickly.
Click to expand...
Yeah. Fallen Empires uses the "T."
 
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