Council of Elrond

As the title states, I've got an extra mint condition MEAS set that I may be selling if the price is right. It's been a while since I put it together, so I'm not sure what the going rate is for the set as a whole, or even for the more valuable cards in it like the R1s. People have recently bought R1s on eBay for obscene amounts, but is that really representative of what the community at large would pay?

I know for sure I wouldn't let the complete set go for less than $500, since I don't think there's any question R1s are at least $50 each these days, but has the value appreciated since then? Is there enough interest that I should put it up for auction?

CCG Collector, I thought you were there for that whole discussion months ago about valuing sets/cards, and checking ebay prices, etc?

Ah, here it is again: https://councilofelrond.org/forum/viewt ... 124&t=3825

Anyway, it's clear that those Against the Shadow cards did not sell for obscene amounts (e.g., the asking price). Nurniags was just marked as "sold" by the seller without any bids. Presumably an offer was accepted offline. And for the Ithil stone, you can see that it was sold according to a "best offer." Setting a high ask and accepting an offer is an interesting way to obscure the actual value of rare cards. I wonder if this is intentional.

I can't speak for others. But I can speak as someone who is lacking many Against the Shadow rares. I would not pay near $50 for the R1s nor would I pay near $500 for a set. But I am more of a player than a collector. Still, you would need to find a collector that doesn't already have all of these cards? So, maybe you could find someone if you waited. It's worth throwing it up with a starting bid.

Anyway, I'll just print proxies. Though I may also pick up a non-English set of MEAS for $110, which seems like a good price.

Ah, good catches. The Nurniags listing did seem off, but it didn't occur to me that it could have simply been marked as sold. As for the Ithil-stone, I saw the $149.99 was marked as the "winning bid," and didn't notice the "Best Offer" graphic until I checked the bid history page just now.

As for what you said about MEAS pricing, I've seen that mindset before: "I wouldn't pay that much, so it's not worth that much." I have a variation on it myself, where I think $50 seems high to buy the card, but I certainly wouldn't sell it for less than that. Scarcity does funny things to perceived value, and prices that we remember from years past may not always reflect what people are willing to pay today.

EDIT: Apparently MEAS boosters are hot, hot, hot: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... Complete=1

I have sold non-mint R1s for around $40-45 on eBay, and they went quickly. This was several years ago. So I don't think $50 is unreasonable. For something like The Ithil-Stone or Farmer Maggot, I'd expect you would get more, as those are especially rare for some reason.

That said, there's a big difference between selling singles and selling a whole set. I'd try listing it as Buy it now with the option for interested buyers to make an offer, and see what you get. I wouldn't recommend an auction for a whole set, as I don't think there's enough demand.

CCG Collector wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 12:25 am
EDIT: Apparently MEAS boosters are hot, hot, hot: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... Complete=1

There was some pretty bogus stuff going on with MEAS a few months back. Something stupid like 3 booster packs sold for $100? or $200? I forget and it's no longer in my ebay history.

There was discussion of it over on the MECCG Facebook group. Here is a similar post over there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/6301243 ... %22O%22%7D

After that fiasco, a player on FB offered to sell MEAS boosters "at the going rate" and he didn't have success. He did end up selling the MEAS boosters for a price that he was happy with but he didn't disclose the details. (Again, I think this discussion i mention here was a different post than the one I linked above.)


There was recently a Balrog's Host set (less Strider) that sold for surprisingly cheap ($153) compared to the alleged "going rate" of $300. Of course, Strider is one of the more sought after cards in the set.

CDavis7M wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 3:02 am There was recently a Balrog's Host set (less Strider) that sold for surprisingly cheap ($153) compared to the alleged "going rate" of $300. Of course, Strider is one of the more sought after cards in the set.

I think that $300 rule of thumb only really applies to sealed boxes. Opened sets can still be had for $120-$180, especially if they're missing a card or two. I'd say a complete opened set is probably around $200 at "going rate."

I haven't ever seen a sealed box of Balrog offered for sale. But maybe that is why people think their opened sets are worth that much. A few opened (seemingly good condition) sets recently sat unsold for $300 list price.

Exactly. I see a lot of Balrog sets go unsold at that price for months (and I keep a close eye on MECCG listings).

Kjeld wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 4:48 am Exactly. I see a lot of Balrog sets go unsold at that price for months (and I keep a close eye on MECCG listings).

The thing to consider too is that perhaps it's a fair price, but people are just unwilling or unable to spend that much money at once, so they don't. And who besides collectors really need MEBA anyway? From what I've heard, it's the most convoluted and unique set in MEAS, and the decks aren't very impressive from a playing point of view.

It seems like Balrog decks do very well and are annoying to play against. There was never a chance to balance against them. As a player, I'd be happy to play Balrog.

CDavis7M wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2019 6:58 pm It seems like Balrog decks do very well and are annoying to play against. There was never a chance to balance against them. As a player, I'd be happy to play Balrog.

That's good information, but I meant the pre-constructed decks specifically; I can't speak to the alignment in general. Are there decklists out there somewhere? Do you know how many MEBA cards were actually included in the winning Balrog decks?

Hello CCG Collector, Against the Shadow is one of the last sets that I need to finish right now. Is your set still available?

Trotter wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2019 11:58 am Hello CCG Collector, Against the Shadow is one of the last sets that I need to finish right now. Is your set still available?

It's unsold but tentatively spoken for. I'll PM you with the details.