I think the biggest thing that people overlook or under-appreciate when making specs is supply. It's not that it's impossible to make money on "modern era" Standard legal rares but the probability that you'll see a dime on anything that isn't a multi-format staple is extremely low. Moreover, even if you have "on paper" gains of buying at $1-2 for a card that goes to $3-4 I challenge anyone to show me a realistic path to capture them as fiat currency. Once you crunch the numbers on time + money invested vs actualized gains (if any and it's a big if) you're making less than a slave's wage.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend like it's the end of the world if someone throws $25 at 20 copies and nothing comes of it, no one's going to end up on the street because of that, but at the same time it has to be said that spec'ing on newly printed rares has a track record worse than the 2015 New York Knicks which begs the question why anyone would bother? Put this specific spec aside for a moment, it's no better or worse than most others, why are you looking to play the "low upside lottery" to begin with? The most probable outcome is that you're out your entire investment and even if you do hit and sell your copies what are taking home after fees? Dinner at Denny's? I think there's better use of people's time and capital that throwing it down the drain trying to spec on Standard rares from the newest set.