Nerd Video: My 1st Edition Magic: The Gathering Artist Proof

      I started playing Magic: The Gathering back in the fall of 1994 (which was probably still a little too late, from a value perspective, but bear with me here). Unlike many people who got sucked in during the initial wave of mania surrounding the game, I never sold my collection. This ended up paying off for me, unlike, say, Beanie Babies collectors from the same era, who are still waiting for their time to shine. Actually, I'm sort of one of those too, having pillaged my mom's storage locker after she passed away for collectibles that might help mitigate the funeral costs, but let me tell you, the Princess Diana bear is still not worth anything despite pre-TNA Don West's promises of yore and internet urban legend. But anyway.

     Magic cards from back then are increasingly scarce, is my point. And though I don't have anything as brain-meltingly expensive as, say, the fabled Alpha Black Lotus, I just so happen to own something quite a bit more scarce. As in, something absolutely unique, a vintage piece of Magic history that resides with me and me alone. So I decided to make a quickie video to share it with the world.



     At least, that was the idea. As it turns out, even a pretty basic video becomes rather time-consuming when you throw in writing, voiceover, editing, etc. It was quite frankly a reminder why I don't do videos very often, and why the smart Youtubers are the ones who pay editors to put these things together for them. 

     Having said that, I'm pretty happy I did it. It didn't turn out exactly like I wanted it to...for example, there's a weird choppy warpedness to some of the card images that I was unable to figure out how to fix (if you know why that was happening and want to let me know in the comments, that would be awesome. I don't believe that I'll go back and fix it for this one, but it would be nice to know how to avoid it next time). It does, however, convey what I wanted it to: a bit of the history of the card game I've played and collected for what is now the majority of my life, plus a glimpse at the unique card in question. It's not like I'm going to come over to your house personally and show it to you, so this is about as good as it gets. Check it out if it sounds interesting to you, and let me know what you think. 

Joey Marsilio makes videos so infrequently that he always ends up forgetting anything he learns while putting one together by the time he starts on the next one. And speaking of tardy creative works, he's still plugging away at a sequel to his first novel, Henry Garrison, which you can preview here.

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