I have invested well over 200 dollars into the popular collectable card game Magic: The Gathering. In an attempt to console myself for overspending on things which in the long term will ultimately have little to no value, I decided to imagine a world where these cards do have value; in fact, where these cards are considered currency. After pondering for many hours, I found that my ideas were not as crazy as I had first envisioned them to be. The cards do maintain 3 of the 4 criteria for acting as money; they are Durable, Accepted as payment (in some very rare situations), and they store value. They do not, however, maintain the ability to be easily split into parts of equal value. For example, there is no way to split a Black Lotus (a card currently appraised at $7,600.00 for a moderately played card usable in tournament settings) into smaller, more manageable increments. After discovering this potential value, I became intrigued with the idea of using MTG cards as a stock-like investment; Buy potentially good magic cards before they are considered highly priced, then sell them at the peak of their price to make a profit. My findings showed that I may not have been the first economically minded person to come across this idea. But what is "Magic: The Gathering," and how did it gather such a fan base that I can claim it is a pseudo-currency today? The Wizards of the Coast, is a small adventure game creating company founded by Peter Adkison in 1990. In 1993, with their first game, MTG, created, Adkison started running the company out of his basement. This game was the first of its kind to be both playable and collectable; Baseball cards were collectable but had no value in entertainment, a deck of playing cards is easy to enjoy, but hardly collectable. This shocked the gaming industry, creating a new sub-industry and inspiring game companies in time to create similar games (take any popular children’s media and I assure you, at some time there has been an attempt to popularize a collectable game out of it). The game quickly became the world’s most popular game, outselling Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit before 2005. Over 10 million cards were sold in six weeks through over 10 thousand different book, comic book, or hobbyist stores. It was later published in 9 different languages throughout 65 different countries, quickly sparking a multinational corporation and attracting the attention of possible mergers (Adler). Its first partnership came in MCI, a telecommunications giant in 1996. This sponsorship was what led to the first large scale MTG U.S. Tournament, creating a professional scene for the card game. By 1997, they had only teamed with eight different licenses; Acclaim Entertainment Inc. and Microprose (who created the first Magic: The Gathering PC Edition), Workman, Carlton Books Limited, and Nice Man (an apparel manufacturer). That April, Wizards of The Coast made a move that was staggering to the world of gaming companies; they bought TSR, the struggling gaming giant which created Dungeons and Dragons. After settling royalty disputes with that acquisition, they proceeded to buy the Five Rings Publishing Group Inc, a company known for its various other trading card games (Wizards of the Coast History). The first World tournament for Magic The Gathering was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1994. The pro scene started a revolution that would eventually create the basis for today’s card prices; cards that succeeded in the professional scene would be deemed good, part of the “metagame,” and would provide more utility for the consumer. Therefore, they will pay more. However, this also creates a positive feedback loop; the more people buy the card, the more popular it becomes, and the more it is value. The price of cards is also determined by their supply; there are four different rarities of cards. The most common is called “common,” the next is called “uncommon,” the more rare cards are called “rare,” and the most rare card is called a “mythic rare.” In general, because of the laws of supply and demand, common cards are worth very very little, whereas mythic rare cards can be worth more than $200 (in the case of “Tarmogoyf,” appraised at a high of $260). Conspicuous consumption also comes into play when the idea of “foil” cards is introduced. These cards are exactly the same as their non-foil counterparts, but they are shiny and much rarer. This lack of supply drives the price o