It’s been almost two weeks since Konami launched its latest expansion set, Quarter Century Stampede, on April 11th.
As part of Konami’s final lap, celebrating the long history of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game (TCG), Quarter Century Stampede features many reprints of favored cards, both new and old.
Now that the set has been out for a little bit, it’s time to see how well the second-hand market has handled this new influx to the existing supply.
Honorable Mention: All the Alternate Art Cards
We’re starting off this list with a major copout. Quarter Century Stampede not only features reprints of cards in the highly coveted Quarter Century Secret Rare (QCSR) print, but some of them come with alternate art.
Looking at online markets like TCGplayer since Stampede’s release, we’ve seen alternate art cards jockeying for the top spot of best seller listings like it was an actual race. Most of the best-selling cards, even the current top seller, from this set are usually alternate art cards.
We didn’t want this list to all be about alternate art cards, so we decided to lump them together into this spot.
From cards tapping into the deepest recesses of nostalgia (Dark Magician, $55), to competitive non-engine pieces (Effect Veiler, $85), to favored archetype inclusions (Diabellstar the Black Witch, $120), if you’re looking to recoup some losses from buying packs from this set, then these cards are being hunted down by players and collectors all over the internet at various prices.
5. Black Metal Dragon
Moving on to our actual list, we have the non-descript Black Metal Dragon coming in at a $20 price average. Back during pre-sale season, this card actually commanded the same price point before sharply dropping to a 50% decrease on the day of the set’s release.
Afterwards, this monster card slowly climbed back to its original pre-sale value. This can be pretty unusual as cards don’t usually see such a fast return to their pre-sale price point.
There’s really not much else to say about this card. The Red-Eyes archetype has some strong pull on the nostalgia side, and Black Metal Dragon can be used in other decks like Dragon Link and Buster Blader. In terms of competitive viability, this card sits firmly in rogue territory.
4. Dimensional Prison
*No QCSR image of Dimensional Prison is available at this time.
It’s a little refreshing to see unusual cards making a mark in the second-hand market. What’s strange, however, is how Dimensional Prison started off Stampede’s release with a $30 market average.
We could have attributed this to the fact that Dimensional Prison was reprinted as a QCSR, but that doesn’t exactly explain why its value has continued to rise ever since. Now it's sitting at a $44 price average.
Trap cards, in general, have a stigma attached to them in modern Yu-Gi-Oh! due to their lack of competitive viability. This is definitely applied to trap cards that are only usable in the battle phase.
Outside of a tech choice against the local meta, we can only hypothesize that this card’s popularity may be due to local Time Wizard tournaments.
Nostalgia may still be playing a factor in this card’s value, but with older copies going for less than $10 a piece. Subsequently, we’re left a little confused as to why this card is doing so well in sales if we were to discard collector’s value as one of the potential reasons.
3. Sage with Eyes of Blue
*No QCSR image of Sage with Eyes of Blue is available at this time.
We’re finally coming back to familiar ground as we have Sage with Eyes of Blue coming in at third. As with most cards in the presale stage, Sage enjoyed a rather hefty $50 price tag. This could mostly be attributed to the fact that it’s a QCSR as well as the competitive success of the Blue-Eyes archetype.
Like the previous cards on this list, Sage’s market value dropped to a $37 median on the day of the set’s release. As the days went on, the price point sharply rose and doubled its value to around the $74 mark just last week.
At this time, the QCSR copy of Sage with Eyes of Blue is slowly coming down in price, but not by much, as it still commands a $67 price average at the moment.
As a three-of and main component in modern Blue-Eyes engines, interested players may want to look at the older copies of Sage with Eyes of Blue for a cheaper alternative.
2. Dragon Master Magia
Konami has finally responded to the fans as Dragon Master Magia was not only reprinted in Quarter Century Stampede but also at lower rarities.
With copies coming in at Prismatic Collector’s Rare, Prismatic Ultimate Rare, and Platinum Secret Rare, Dragon Master Magia can be found at a more reasonable price average of about $60 to $70, depending on the rarity type and seller.
This is a far cry from the past, where the QCSR version of this fusion monster was easily asking players for over $700 in second-hand markets. Competitive viability aside, Konami has done right by its fans with this card’s reprinting.
1. Mulcharmy Fuwalos
Speaking of competitive viability, taking the top spot as the best-selling (non-alternative art) card of Quarter Century Stampede, we have Mulcharmy Fuwalos. Ironically, this card is actually the cheapest card on this list at a market average of $15.
Fuwalos mirrors Dragon Master Magia in a lot of ways, as it was originally printed at a high rarity when it first came out in the Rage of the Abyss expansion back in October 2024.
With the TCG adding Maxx C to the Forbidden/Limited list, Fuwalos saw high demand as the next best hand trap to the roach. Copies a few months ago were easily hitting over $100 in second-hand markets.
With the release of Quarter Century Stampede and the ensuing influx of copies hitting the market, the overall value of Fuwalos and its various versions has dropped to a more affordable price range.
This doesn’t really help the overall metagame as it still stings to play into a copy of Fuwalos during a match. At least now players don’t have to bore a hole in their wallet to have their own full playset when heading into tournaments.