LogFAQs > #881806029

It's a bit more complicated than that, guys.

In the early years of Magic, back when it was as much a collector's thing as a game, there were of course a bunch of super popular cards with pretty high price tags. Some of the sets that contained those cards had been very low print rates, so people had a hard time finding them, especially if they had only just recently started to play. WotC decided that the best way to get those cards into the hands of these new players (and to make a quick buck) was to make a set entirely of reprints called Chronicles that contained a bunch of these sweet cards. Elder Dragons, old artifact block stuff, whatever, Chronicles had a bunch of them.

Wizards printed a metric shitload of Chronicles, and the result was disastrous. Card prices tanked overnight. Some collectors -- and more importantly, stores -- saw the value of their inventories nosedive. Remember, this was an era before close collaboration between WotC and its distributors, so many of them were taken by surprise. Older players' investments also depreciated and made them lose faith in Wizards. Basically, customers were out for blood, and Magic faced what remains the greatest crisis to ever meet the game.

To restore the faith of their customers, Wizards offered to make a Reserved List, which called out specific cards that Wizards vowed never to reprint, thus ensuring their value. The move probably saved the game at the time, and they continued to add to the list as more sets came out with iconic, powerful, and valuable cards of their own. They finally realized they were painting themselves into a corner and stopped adding to the list in Masquerade Block.

Unfortunately, the RL is a big reason why it's so damn expensive to get into Eternal formats like Legacy and Vintage. There is a finite supply of format staples (dual lands, Mishra's Workshop, etc.) but ever-increasing demand. In addition, Magic has no SEC like stocks do, so some bad actors can orchestrate a buyout of a card, sharply raising its price, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Many both within and without of Wizards want to abolish the RL -- Mark Rosewater being one of the largest profiles of it -- but the list has held for so long that it can legally be interpreted as a contract between Wizards and its stakeholders. Any attempt to break it could be litigated as breach of contract and subjected not just to stiff financial penalties but also injunctions, ruining the point in the first place. Even if it didn't, Wizards/Hasbro would be paying legal fees for months if not years, which is a huge money pit even if the ruling is in their favor.
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