CGC Trading Cards Featured Card of the Month: Volcanic Island

Posted on 12/29/2022

Volcanic Island is an integral card for many Vintage and Commander Magic: The Gathering decks.

Game: Magic: The Gathering

Set: Unlimited (and others)

Card: Volcanic Island


Click images to enlarge.

What makes it special? Volcanic Island is one of the original dual-land cards from the early Magic: The Gathering series. By coming into play as both a mountain and an island, Volcanic Island enabled players to choose their mana type freely, giving them an advantage in early stages of play. For this reason, Volcanic Island is a very popular card to use in Vintage and Commander play formats.

Did you know? Volcanic Island is on Wizards of the Coast’s Reserved List: a list of Magic: The Gathering cards that Wizards of the Coast has pledged not to reprint to preserve their value on the secondary market.

Total graded by CGC Trading Cards: As of December 2022, there are 31 examples of the Volcanic Island from the Unlimited Edition in the CGC Trading Cards Population Report. There are also 33 in Beta Edition, 5 in the International Edition, 21 in the Collectors’ Edition, 182 in the Revised Edition and 1 in the 30th Anniversary Edition.

CGC Trading Cards median grade: CGC 7 for Unlimited

CGC Trading Cards highest graded: CGC 9 for Unlimited

Sales highlights: A Volcanic Island from the Beta Edition graded CGC 5.5 realized $6,476 in an eBay auction in December 2022. A Volcanic Island from the Unlimited Edition graded CGC 6.5 realized $1,320 in a Heritage Auctions sale in December 2021. Another Volcanic Island from the Unlimited Edition graded CGC 7 realized $1,080 in a PWCC Weekly Auction in September 2022.

CGC Trading Cards Registry: As of December 2022, there are examples of Volcanic Island in the top two Unlimited Edition sets in the CGC Trading Card Registry. These include a CGC 8.5 in the top set, Unlimited 1 by Blackmask, and a CGC 8.5 in the second-top set, Unlimited Set by SuiGeneris. There is also an example in the top Beta Edition set. A CGC 7.5 is included in Blackmask’s Beta 1 set.

Previous Featured Cards of the Month:


Stay Informed

Get the latest CGC Trading Cards news delivered straight to your inbox.

This is required.This is invalid.

Articles List