Man oh man, if this was a drinking game I'd be so wasted right now.
So, I finally finished building a deck with singles I bought (one of which included
Ashnod's Altar which I paid nearly $30 for, which was the going price at the time) and I spilled an entire bottle of
Mountain Dew on the deck...
Sapphire Medallion,
Consecrated Sphinx, and a few other high value cards of course took the most liquid damage. I used a hair dryer to dry them as much as I could and set them beneath a stack of heavy books to press them flat as I could. Still fucked them as far as overall condition goes, but at least they're playable.
With this same deck I spent so so so much time and effort, with many smelling like
Mountain Dew, I ended up ditching the deck in it's entirety when I found something else to hyperfixate on.
I have seen someone get kicked out of a tournament for being caught cheating. Like... bad adding cards from outside the game to his hand kind of cheating. When they counted his deck he ended up having 113 cards... three of which were the same card... so... yeah, he was both kicked out of the tournament and banned from playing there.
Never have I ever paid more than $50 for a single card.