This week in Magic finance the biggest gainer was Sergeant John Benton with the Doctor Who card shooting up from around $0.30 to a peak of over $30 before dropping back to around $8. To me this looks like a classic pump-and-dump style buyout. Despite the current inflated price, if we look at actual completed listings, no one is really buying the card for more than $4, and many recent sales are in the $2 range. While the card is a fun commander and could slowly grow thanks to the pseudo-Reserved List nature of Universes Beyond sets, I think this current spike is safe to ignore. The card should settle somewhere between $2 and $4 once everything shakes out.

Meanwhile the Scourge rare Faces of the Past jumped from $4 to $15 this week. A couple of years ago I did a project where I went through old sets looking for cards with unique effects and zero reprints, assuming that sooner or later Commander would cause some of them to spike, and Faces of the Past ended up on my list. It looks like the old enchantment’s time may have come thanks to tribal synergies in Lorwyn Eclipsed. The problem is that it just doesn’t see much play, with Ashling, the Limitless (borderless) — the most hyped home for the card — running Faces of the Past just 2.1% of the time according to EDHRec. Philosophically though, I think this is exactly the type of card you want to buy if you’re hoping to make a profit eventually. With no reprints, if it ever becomes the hot new tech in Commander it can spike incredibly hard thanks to low supply. My guess is that Faces of the Past drops in the short term, but sooner or later it could easily end up a $20+ card — at least until it’s finally reprinted.

Finally, if you’re looking to go dumpster diving in bulk this week, the Tempest uncommon Warmth shot up to $4 as hot new sideboard tech against red decks in Premodern. On the other hand, if you just want a copy to play with, the 6th Edition reprint is still just $0.50.