Man opens safe, finds $30k+ worth of MtG Cards

Uh.. Dude. That binder is probably with tens of thousands of dollars.

edit 1: ok. For real, that binder is worth at least 20-25 grand retail. If this isn't staged, you basically found one of the best hidden magic the gathering collections of all time. I am being completely serious. I would have literally fallen over and passed out. Probably peed myself a little.

I want to believe so bad. This is a dream for a lot of people. Please be gentle with those cards, though. Please please please please

edit 2: man. I know it's 3 am. But I really wish I knew how to contact you. Maybe you're on reddit right now. I don't know. I am so fucking excited for you, though. And jealous. I have been playing magic since the game came out 20 years ago. What you have in that binder would rival all but the largest retailers in the US as far as expensive older cards. I watched it a few more times and a conservative it's-3-am-and-i'm-half-asleep estimate would be about $28,000-$32,000 (retail, you could probably get 70-80% for 3/4 of the cards in there). Please PLEASE be gentle with those cards. Not only is that a substantial amount of money, but that stuff just isn't out there much anymore. You found history. A very meaningful binder of treasures. I'm not gonna lie, I thought about making you an offer on it of around $10k, but that would be a shitty thing to do. You deserve to upgrade your house, get a new car, whatever.

I'm rambling like an idiot now because I am this excited. Man. I don't even know what to say. Congrats though. You've got the most expensive personal collection I've ever seen. If you have any questions, as in how to move those, value, etc.: please pm me. I'm happy to help.

edit 3: DON'T OPEN THE PACKS OF CARDS OR THE STARTER DECKS IF THEY'RE COMPLETELY SEALED. The legends packs are between $75-$100 a piece and the unlimited decks .. I .. man. Several hundred a piece.

edit 4: I'm working on a spreadsheet, based on near-mint values of the cards I can make out in the video because I am neurotic and can't sleep and have to know how close my estimate was. Will update

edit 5: holy flying sheep dicks, I am really kind of proud of my initial guess up there, the total of the cards I could make out from binder in the video above, at current retail (starcitygames.com) prices, assuming everything is near-mint, and all the (alpha/OR/beta) cards are Beta, is $32,358 (for the fellow MTG folks, I know that is a LOT of assumptions, but we are ball-parking from a time trial, potato-cam video here after an all-nighter, cut a brother some slack)

here's a spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai8tOGnVZ6ogdEtsYVVEZVZOd1h0WEZNUnNTaWl5QWc&usp=sharing

The thing about some of those cards is that the difference between the editions can make a fairly significant impact on the price. The difference between alpha and beta is something that can't really be judged via paused phone-recorded video. It is absolutely necessary to find it out though, whether you're going to part with any of this or not. You don't want to sell yourself short here. I hope the spreadsheet helps! it's nap time!

edit 6: Holy crap, reddit gold (thank you random internet stranger!), bestof'd, AND we broke googledocs! Yay team!

For those saying this collection is worth more than $32k, you're absolutely right. At 5am, I just wanted to get something in a spreadsheet for OP to reference and went with the video above, I realize there are two other videos, but this should give OP the idea that this is an extremely valuable collection. That's not even counting the black cards at the beginning (no idea) and the artwork.

For those saying selling this is won't get much, it totally depends. If you took this collection to a local game store and presented it to them with the intent to sell, one of two things would happen: 1) you'd get lowballed to all hell or 2) you'd get told to sell it elsewhere because they don't have enough money to pay for it. Either way, it would be neat to see the visible duress on the face of whomever looked through the binder. The secondary market for MtG is very much alive and well and, as I mentioned, these cards are a part of history. A near-mint beta black lotus sold on ebay 3 days ago for $4,482.00. Granted, ebay takes 10% and paypal another 4%, but you still get the gist. To the right people, through the right medium, OP stands to make an astronomical amount of money from a safe he believed had nothing in it.

For those who have asked me to price things: First and foremost, please don't get your hopes up to this level though: the odds of you having something that rivals this binder are probably right up there with getting struck by lightning. I will be happy to look at cards for you if you PM me some clear photos (thanks to the one user who did, I'll have a look this afternoon and get back to you!). It was really fun to actually do this her. As an avid collector and player, it makes me feel good to know that we actually have found some more of these rare cards, notwithstanding OP will be able to buy a boat. Every year, the supply for ultra old stuff like this dwindles. As far as "I have a box of cards, what do you think?," it's impossible to tell what something is actually worth without seeing the cards themselves. For those curious, Ark42 has a price list that updates retail value when you refresh the page. You can sort the price list at the top, it starts at [ Alpha - Revised ] and goes in chronological order to the right to the newest sets released. Each set in here has the set symbol next to the name, and every card that is worth more than $1 is listed. For a list of set symbols see this page at Wizards of the Coast. Once you know what you have, have a look on ebay for the higher dollar cards. Or find a local game store via the wizards store locator and get back out there and play!

NOTE TO OP: It may behoove you to look at getting some of these cards graded professionally by Beckett or PSA -- older cards that are in 'good' condition to the untrained eye (ie, not bent, no water damage, nice corners, not a lot of whitening around the edges, etc) that are graded can fetch SIGNIFICANTLY higher prices (see: Black Lotus, Mox [jet/emerald/ruby/sapphire/pearl] and any of the black bordered dual lands there, specifically Volcanic Island]. For comparison, you could go to Wal-mart or Target and grab a booster pack of magic: the gathering cards. The cards that come out of the pack are, 99.99% of the time, in near-mint condition. If any of the cards that I mentioned above or are in the spreadsheet for over $500 are even close to near-mint condition, getting them graded will increase their value.