Quote Originally Posted by tgva8889 View Post
From research I have heard about but never actually seen or read, apparently the cost of older versions of cards either increased or did not change in price when the card was reprinted in Standard-legal sets. I'm not certain where that comes from or what examples were used, though, so I'm not sure how reliable that is.
Well when talking about prices, I'm less interested in the price of the original versions, I just want to know if it means it'll be less or more expensive to get a copy of the card. Wish you knew where the research came from though...

I do know that the price of original Chain Lightnings dropped when it was reprinted in the Premium Deck Series, though that didn't suddenly make it Standard legal.

There aren't a lot of cards like the shocklands to compare to, as since they've been printed they've always been in pretty good demand which has kept their price high.
That's not quite true. Their price was a little high when they were Standard legal, but they gradually dropped in price afterwards. It wasn't until Modern came along that their prices suddenly went up. Like...look at this for example. Note the (overall) trend in the price going down until mid-2011 when Modern was created.

Birds is a different kind of card since besides the fact that it has somewhere around 10 different printings, the card has also been legal in Standard for a really large amount of time.
At this point I think the only thing to really lower the price of Birds of Paradise is if they stopped printing it. They've been printing it for so long that I doubt the price will be decreased, but if they halt it then it won't be Standard legal and demand will drop.

Oh well, soon enough we'll see I guess. I believe Wizards (or at least some employees) have said that we'll be seeing some reprints of Modern staples this year (and I believe the shocklands are the most expensive cards in the format after Tarmogoyf and Dark Confidant), and between that and Return to Ravnica it's hard to believe the shocklands won't be reprinted.