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- Verified Buyer
I'm a bit conflicted in writing such a highly regarded review for this product, considering it has been quite some time since I've paid and opened my own boxes of this very product, but here goes...In a tragic sense of "you had to be there", there was a time when the price for these things were not as high as they are now. There is a chance that it could go back down, but I highly doubt that they'll ever go back to the prices I remember giving them a chance. Given the nature of how these products go, once they're gone, they're gone. As a frugal Magic player, I often resort to buying singles after a righteous grace period of time when certain cards lose their flair, desire, and often, pick up the pieces for most cards that are not in favor due to other chase cards which people are fanatically pursuing and cracking packs, these days, from these very Collector's boosters as we speak. This was one of the few Collector's I actually participated in, not just once, but twice. Double dipping was one of the best things I could remember with this product, for one important reason: Lands.If you are in the actual practice of playing Magic, then you know lands are the staple resource in order to actually play the game. Lands NEVER go out of style, and the more potent lands you have at your disposal, the more dynamic, flexible and efficient your decks will become and perform. This is a constant across every format in Magic. Why this particular product was so valuable, in my opinion, was because of the TWO guaranteed Expedition lands that came in every box. EVERY. BOX. If you were fortunate enough, those two lands alone could essentially pay for the actual cost of what the entire collector's box was worth at the time they were released, and that's before actually digging into the actual contents buried in those boosters!Around the time I decided to give these Collector's a try, they came down to about $180 each. If they were ever any lower than that, I never saw or caught wind of prices like that. But the entire experience, from what I remember, was amazing. It was hands down one of the greatest pack cracking experiences I've had in many years of enjoying Magic, and I've since found it very difficult to even justify wanting any other product like it since. Sometimes you don't come out on top with the box toppers, but again, you still have all 12 actual packs to open and you'll still get your value's worth. Zendikar Rising was a homerun of a set, and the Collector's edition of it was what I might recall as a masterpiece of how to push a highly desired product that people actually enjoy opening, for collecting, for lottery chasing, for card chasing; a product that supplemented into so many playable formats that people already enjoy with game pieces that just added so much for whatever strategy people were looking to build or diversify into.It really is a shame to see this product as expensive as it is now, but honestly, I'm even more surprised that it's not higher at this point. If I wasn't so eager to open the ones I had, I should have held onto at least one. Or better yet, have bought one more and just sat on it for the purpose of seeing how much higher, and desired, this product becomes years down the road. I'm not saying it's an investment plan, but much like many desired things in Magic, over time, nostalgia ages the product like a fine wine, and this one will be an extraordinary vintage in what feels like a not too distant future. Unless something like a secret reserve of this product is unleashed to the masses to drive its price back down, Zendikar Rising: Collector's will remain one of the most important examples of how a well done Collector's looked, and felt like.If I could go back and do it all over again, you bet I would. I just can't justify doing it at the prices being asked for them now. But at the time? More than worth it.
