Episode 609: The Curse Of The Black Lotus : Planet Money Faced with an asset bubble, the creators of Magic: The Gathering came up with a plan—a plan to once and for all conquer the science of bubbles, and make a collectible toy that could live forever.

Episode 609: The Curse Of The Black Lotus

Episode 609: The Curse Of The Black Lotus

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A mint condition Black Lotus sells for $25,000. Jim Bruso hide caption

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Jim Bruso

A mint condition Black Lotus sells for $25,000.

Jim Bruso

In a classic bubble — housing for example, or tech stocks or Beanie Babies — the fun ends in a crash. Things go belly up, and people can lose a lot of money.

The creators of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering faced such a bubble. The cooler they made their cards, the more the resale value increased — and threatened to send Magic cards the way of the Beanie Baby.

Today on the show: how the folks who made Magic cards came up with a plan. A plan to once and for all conquer the science of bubbles, and make a collectible toy that could live forever.

Music: Grapes's "I dunno" and Jessie J's "Price Tag." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Spotify/ Tumblr.