Language. English is the most commonly printed Magic language. If
we use it as a baseline, then non-English versions of cards have the
following values: Russian - 125%-15O% of English; Korean 一
ioo%-125% of English; Japanese 一 8o%-ioo% of English; German
and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) yo%-go% of English;
French, Italian. Portuguese, Spanish - 6o%-8o% of English
There are exceptions to this rule (for instance, Black Bordered Revised
only exists in French, German, and Italian. Cards from that particular
printing are worth a lot more than the English versions, which are all
WHiite-Bordered), but I'll cover those in the individual sections for each
set.
Note that Russian foils pull a large premium over any other printing of
Magic cards. A Russian foil card can be worth 10 to 20 times more than
the English version, for the highest-end Magic cards. This is due to
scarcity!
The Reserve List. In 1995, Wizards of the Coast released a set called
Chronicles. It was the first major reprint set where all of the cards were
pulled from other sets. (Sets like Alpha/Beta/Unlimited/Re\dsed/4th
Edition were seen as just updates of the same set, at the time). There was a
ton of community backlash, so Wizards established the Reserved List. This
is a list of cards that Wizards says will never be reprinted in a tournament-
legal form. Since Magic cards are uniquely identified by card name, the
Reserve List takes this a step further and says that even functionally
identical cards (under a different name) will never be reprinted. More
about the Reserve List is on P. 35.
Please send email to [email protected] if you have any questions.