A joke from Just Chatting streamer PaymoneyWubby about Wizards of the Coast adding the Magic: The Gathering Reserve List Reparations card to the Banned and Restricted announcements for being offensive has led to a $30-plus price spike as of June 5.
It’s not unusual for older MTG cards to spike in price during a set release, especially when the new set is Modern Horizons 3. But that wasn’t the case with a Mirage Reserve List card printed in 1996 called Reparations. Playable in MTG formats Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker only, the nearly 30-year-old card spiked in price on May 31 and has continued to rise since. But the price spike isn’t due to a new card making Reparations playable—it’s because streamer PaymoneyWubby joked about WotC banning the card for being offensive, and that collectors should purchase near-mint copies to sell if a ban was to take place.
“There is not enough Reparations, in my opinion, near-mint Reparations in existence, for people to make a God-tier amount of money off this,” said PaymoneyWubby.
The MTG card Reparations doesn’t see much gameplay today, although spin-off versions like Rhystic Study do. And there’s an argument that the three-drop Azorius Enchantment is inappropriate, especially the flavor text.
Buying a Reserve list card that you think will spike in price isn’t the worst way to spend money, but it has to be in near-mint or gradable condition. A lack of attention span must have impacted the chat from PaymoneyWubby’s stream, as one chatter admitted purchasing 50 copies of the Reparations card, and it’s likely most of them are not in near-mint condition. And that chatter wasn’t the only one, according to sales records from TCGPlayer, that didn’t understand the conditions of a card matter.
Dozens of lightly played, moderately played, and even damaged Reparation cards sold from $10 to $20. Near-mint versions sold between $20 and $40. The market price at time of writing is around $35, but I wouldn’t be standing in line to buy a near-mint Reparation MTG card—it’s not worth the projected value.
