Scrye Collectible Card Game Checklist & Price Guide, 2001 (Scrye Collectible Card Game Checklist and Price Guide)

Rating:
Summary: Not bad...
Review: I found Mr. Miller's book extremely helpful. I was really surprised to find the Christian game "Redemption" in there but was pleased to see it. If you are an avid CCG player you must have this book.

Rating:
Summary: Scrye Review
Review: This is a great product! It gives valuable, accurate information for tons of CCG's and many checklists. Althought the system for card organization can be rather confusing at first, after a while one gets used to it and it becomes even easier to locate the cards you wish to have priced! A Great Value!

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly Useful for Anyone Involved in C.C.G.s
Review: While appearing to be merely a checklist and resource for collectors attempting to catalog their collections of cards for various collectible card games, the many and varied types of information provided in Miller and Greenholdt's encyclopedic volume actually have valuable details ready to assist everyone- from the most casual players to the hard-core enthusiasts.

This veritable tome on collectible card games does contain a complete list of cards and prices for every game and every expansion to every game published in the English language up until the book's publication date in 2001. Additionally, it contains some lists of cards for expansions and games slated to come out after its publication date, but no prices are given for sets not available on the secondary market at the book's press time. These lists are very complete, and are specially tailored to each individual game. Thus, the lists can provide extra info such as the color, type (creature, instant, etc.), and rarity of every magic card; the alignment (light or dark), type, and rarity of every Star Wars card; and other type and rarity information modified for each individual game. The lists also place a checkbox next to every card name, allowing you to mark which cards you acquire.

However, it is not only the lists, but the extra info that truly makes this first-of-its-kind book shine. First, every game and every expansion has a short essay preceding the card list in which experienced players and "industry insiders" discuss the merits and flaws of the game. These discussions are usually very helpful in determining the quality of a game you have never seen, and are a remarkable resource for anyone trying to decide which new collectible card game to begin playing, or which expansion to buy into for a current game. These essays often contain a brief version of the game's mechanics, as well as how the game was received in the general market. Also, other bits of info, such as what the company was doing or planning when a particular set was released is in these essays, helping you to see how the themes and cards of the sets link together (or how they were supposed to link together). Additionally, special boxed sets and other unusual releases sometimes get their own mini-essay, a nice extra touch.

As useful as the essays are, Scrye has gone further, giving every game (not expansion) no less than 4 different 5-star ratings: one each for the quality of the game's concept, game play, card art, and the size and availability of its player pool. Providing an alternative to reading the essay (or a reminder of what it contains), these ratings help to sum up the reviewers' impressions of the game in each different area, and also allow you to focus on one specific issue most important to you (game play, for example).

Aware that their readers would be unfamiliar with many of the games in this volume, Miller and Greenholdt have provided a number of different tools to help readers navigate through the releases of unfamiliar games. Most impressively, there is a full-color section containing pictures of the backs of a card from every game, as well as the fronts of one or more types of cards from every game. This allows you to identify a card's parent game by appearance, and also gives you an idea of the quality and style of artwork on games you haven't seen (which may help you decide whether to purchase some of that game). Next to the card art in the color section, there are complete lists of every expansion for each game, neatly categorized into basic sets, expansions, and special sets, useful for quick reference of all the parts of a large game such as Magic: The Gathering. Also in the color section is a guide to determining a card's physical quality (poor, good, fine, near mint, or mint), an extra bonus.

All this would have been enough to make the Scrye CCG Checklist and Price Guide more than worthwhile, but there is still more excellent info stored within its hundreds of pages. In the front, there is a time line, organized by date, of every release for every game in the book. Also in the front are a variety of introductions, some on the general trends in CCG during each year, some on determining how to sell your cards and what price you might expect (there is even a page on online card auctions), and a foreword by Peter Adkison, the founder of Wizards of the Coast, the company that created Magic: The Gathering. And yet, there is still more! In the appendices, there is info about CCGs in foreign languages, about the collectible miniatures game Mage Knight, and even a section on "pseudo-collectible card games," or card games that had interesting features or were similar to CCGs, but were not truly part of the genre.

Miller and Greenholdt have created an amazing volume of valuable information for almost anyone involved in collectible card games in any way. From the exhaustingly thorough listings to the helpful essays and introductions, The Scrye Collectible Card Game Checklist and Price Guide is an invaluable tool and a fine chronicle of a new genre of game that could only be fated to grow in the years ahead.