Is the Limited Edition Beta set complete?
Yes. All 302 cards of the Limited Edition Beta set are present, and each one has been photographed individually in macro. The set includes the complete Power Nine and all ten original dual lands.
Questions & Answers
What this collection contains, how its condition is documented, and how to get in touch. If your question is not answered here, write and ask.
Yes. All 302 cards of the Limited Edition Beta set are present, and each one has been photographed individually in macro. The set includes the complete Power Nine and all ten original dual lands.
Yes, twice over. The complete Power Nine — Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Timetwister, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, Mox Emerald and Mox Pearl — is present in Limited Edition Beta and again in Unlimited Edition. All nine Beta cards are photographed front and back at full resolution.
Yes. The complete set of ten dual lands — Underground Sea, Volcanic Island, Tropical Island, Bayou, Tundra, Taiga, Scrubland, Savannah, Plateau and Badlands — is present in Limited Edition Beta, in Unlimited Edition and again in Revised Edition. The ten Beta dual lands are photographed front and back at full resolution.
Limited Edition Beta (302 cards, 1993), Unlimited Edition (302 cards, 1993), Arabian Nights (92 cards, 1993), Antiquities (100 cards, 1994), Legends (310 cards, 1994), The Dark (119 cards, 1994) and Revised Edition (306 cards, 1994). The collection also holds two sealed Collector's Edition boxed sets and the complete expansions from Fallen Empires (1994) to Mirage (1996).
No. None of the cards has been graded or slabbed. Condition varies from one card to the next, and some show the wear of thirty years. Rather than claim a grade, every card is photographed individually so that condition can be assessed directly from the images.
Yes, for the cards where it matters most. 127 Beta cards are photographed front and back at full resolution, along with 26 Arabian Nights, 24 Unlimited, 21 Legends and 17 Antiquities cards. In the viewer, "Show back" turns the card over and "Full resolution" opens the untouched master file, for inspecting centring, edges and surface.
In individual plastic sleeves since acquisition in the mid-1990s, kept dark, dry and smoke-free, and handled without bare-hand contact. The cards have never been removed from their sleeves, including for photography.
Yes. Original full-resolution files and additional angles can be provided on request by email. The one thing that will not be done is removing a card from its protective sleeve: after thirty years of careful storage, that is left to a professional if it ever becomes necessary.
Yes. Questions about any card, set or photograph in this collection are welcome by email through the contact form on this site.
In Switzerland.
They are the first three print runs of Magic: The Gathering, all from 1993. Alpha came first, with 295 cards and distinctly rounded corners. Beta followed as the second print run, with 302 cards, black borders and square corners — it corrected Alpha's omissions and printing errors. Unlimited was the third run, with the same 302 cards but white borders. Alpha and Beta are the two black-bordered originals, and Beta is the largest complete black-bordered set obtainable.
Between 1993 and 1996, the period usually described as Magic's golden era. Limited Edition Beta and Unlimited were printed in 1993, Arabian Nights in December 1993, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark and Revised Edition in 1994, and the expansions through Mirage by 1996.
Private Collection
One of the most complete and well-preserved vintage Magic: The Gathering collections in existence. Serious enquiries only.