Foilio Study · Open data · Magic
The MTG Reserved List is famous for being expensive. Most of it isn't.
The Reserved List is the set of cards from Magic's early sets, Limited Edition through Urza's Destiny, that Wizards has promised will never be printed again in functionally identical form, and since 2011 not in premium form either. Scryfall counts 567 names on it. It is best known for the dual lands and the Power Nine, so we priced every card by its cheapest paper printing on Cardmarket. The result is lopsided: 58% of the list trades under €5, the median reserved card is about €3.07, and only 19 cards (3%) clear €500. Most of the list's value sits in a small group of cards.
Computed 2026-06-19 from Cardmarket EUR price (cheapest paper printing per card), via the open Scryfall API. The cheapest printing is the floor price to own the card, not the price of the Alpha or Beta copy a collector may have in mind. Reference estimates, not sold records, free to cite with a link to this page.
What the Reserved List actually costs
Every reserved card sorted into a price band (cheapest paper printing, Cardmarket EUR). A large base of cheap cards and a thin expensive top.
567 unique reserved cards. Bars scaled to the largest band. The €500+ band is just 19 cards. Prices under €1 rest on thinly traded listings, so that band is rough.
What the numbers say
- The promise alone doesn't set the price. Every card here is covered by the same no-reprint promise, yet 58% trade under €5 by their cheapest printing. We measured the spread; we did not measure what drives it.
- The value is in a handful of cards. Black Lotus and the rest of the Power Nine, the original dual lands (Underground Sea, Volcanic Island…), and oddities like Mishra's Workshop, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Library of Alexandria sit at the top. The 10 priciest names hold at least ~49% of the list's Cardmarket value, the top 50 at least ~83%. We call these floors because we think our euro data under-prices the very top cards, which sell rarely on Cardmarket.
- A similar shape to the Pokémon sets we measured. A small group holds most of the value while most cards trade cheaply, like the pattern we measured in Pokémon set value concentration. We compare three games side by side in the cross-game study.
How we computed this (and what we didn't)
- We pulled every Reserved List card from the open Scryfall API (
is:reserved game:paper). - For each card we took the cheapest paper printing's Cardmarket EUR price, the floor cost to own that reserved card, and binned the list by price.
- What we did not publish: precise euro values or a ranking for the marquee vintage cards. Few copies sell on Cardmarket, so a single euro figure there would mislead. The distribution is the solid finding; the concentration share is a floor.
- Our count (567) is the number of names Scryfall flags as reserved. Other sources count slightly differently, for example when a card has more than one art.
- It's reproducible, the script is in our repo.
What this data can't tell you
- What a specific copy is worth. We used each card's cheapest paper printing, so an earlier printing of the same card (Alpha, Beta, Unlimited for the oldest cards), or a copy in better condition, can cost many times our figure.
- US prices. This is Cardmarket EUR only; the same cards often trade at different levels on TCGplayer.
- Why some reserved cards are worth thousands and most are not. We did not collect play, condition or print-run data.
- Graded cards, sealed product or price history. This is one snapshot of singles (2026-06-19).
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Questions
How much is the MTG Reserved List worth / how expensive is it really?
Measured by each card's cheapest paper printing on Cardmarket, most of it is cheaper than its reputation. Across the 567 reserved cards, 58% trade under €5 and the median is about €3.07. Only 19 cards (3%) clear €500. The list is famous for Black Lotus and the rest of the Power Nine, the original dual lands (Underground Sea, Volcanic Island…), and oddities like Mishra's Workshop, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale and Library of Alexandria, while most reserved cards trade for a few euros. The cheapest printing is often not the one collectors chase: for a card printed more than once, earlier printings of the same card can cost far more. (Prices are Cardmarket EUR references as reported by Scryfall; the marquee vintage cards sell rarely in Europe, so their euro figures are less reliable.)
What percentage of the Reserved List is actually expensive?
Very little. Just 19 of 567 reserved cards (3%) trade at or above €500, and the value is hyper-concentrated: the 10 priciest names hold at least ~49% of the list's Cardmarket value, the top 50 at least ~83%. We treat these shares as a floor, because we think the very top cards are under-priced in our euro data.
Why is the Reserved List value concentrated in so few cards?
We measured the concentration, not its cause. The no-reprint promise covers every card on the list equally, yet prices range from under €1 to four figures, so the promise on its own does not set the price. Explaining the rest (playability in Vintage, Legacy and Commander, condition, print runs of the original sets, collector demand) would need data we did not collect.
Where does this data come from, and how reliable is it?
We pulled every reserved card from the open Scryfall API (is:reserved, paper) and took the cheapest paper printing's Cardmarket EUR price per card. The distribution (how many cards fall in each price band) is the solid part. Prices under €1 rest on cheap, thinly traded listings, so treat that band as rough. We deliberately do NOT publish precise euro values for the marquee vintage cards, because few copies sell on Cardmarket and a single euro figure would mislead. These are reference estimates from one date, not sold records, and not financial advice.
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Citing this study? Please link to foilio.net/studies/mtg-reserved-list. Data licensed CC BY 4.0.
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Free to use with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Paste the embed on your site for the chart card + a link back, or grab the plain citation.
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<img src="https://foilio.net/studies/og?stat=58%25&label=of%20the%20MTG%20Reserved%20List%20trades%20under%20%E2%82%AC5&title=The%20MTG%20Reserved%20List%2C%20by%20the%20numbers%3A%20most%20of%20it%20trades%20under%20%E2%82%AC5" alt="The MTG Reserved List, by the numbers: most of it trades under €5, Foilio" width="600" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:12px" />
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Source: <a href="https://foilio.net/studies/mtg-reserved-list?utm_source=share&utm_medium=study_embed&utm_campaign=viral">The MTG Reserved List, by the numbers: most of it trades under €5, Foilio</a> · data CC BY 4.0
</p>Foilio (2026-06-19). The MTG Reserved List, by the numbers: most of it trades under €5. Retrieved from https://foilio.net/studies/mtg-reserved-listThe big picture, across every game we measure: The Chase Multiple · The Price Census · The Promo Premium · The Foil Premium