Fetching some card images returns HTTP 308

[GuilhE]

Trying to get any image from ["4ED", "5ED", "TMP", "MIR"] and some more sets ex: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=2316&type=card will get HTTP 308 and https://gatherer.wizards.com/assets/card_back.webp.

Sets: ["AKH", "XLN", "EMN", "SOI"] are ok for example

[raineorshine]

What is the question exactly?

FYI This SDK is for magicthegathering.io, not gatherer.wizards.com.

[GuilhE]

I'm using your API (https://docs.magicthegathering.io/) to retrieve card information. For example, the following request:
curl https://api.magicthegathering.io/v1/cards?set=4ed returns data like:

{
 "cards": [
   {
     "name": "Alabaster Potion",
     "imageUrl": "http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=2316&type=card",
...

However, when attempting to fetch the image via the provided imageUrl:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=2316&type=card

I receive an HTTP 308 redirect and end up getting this image instead:
https://gatherer.wizards.com/assets/card_back.webp

This issue seems to occur with certain older set codes like:

["4ED", "5ED", "TMP", "MIR"]

But not with more recent sets like:

["AKH", "XLN", "EMN", "SOI"]

I’ve noticed now that these images are being served from gatherer.wizards.com, so I assume the redirect is controlled by their API and might be outside your API’s control. Still, I wanted to ask: is there any known reason why some cards return redirects to the generic card back instead of their actual images? Or any workaround to fetch the correct image for these older sets?

Browsing for this card in gatherer.wizards.com: alabaster-potion returns a valid image but the imageUrl is different from what your API retrieves.

Thanks in advance!

[raineorshine]

Thanks for the explanation. That makes more sense now.

Unfortunately I don't have any insight into the gatherer api, or even the magicthegathering.io api. This is just a wrapper library.

Maybe try contacting backes.andrew@gmail.com from https://magicthegathering.io/#contact.