So Books-a-Million is my go-to place for studying and I saw come Magic 2014 boosters and took them to the cashier. When the cashier rang them up they came to $4.99 before tax. I kindly told the cashier that the price is above retail and that I am no longer interested in them.
I mean, even at $3.99 retail, I don't see booster packs as worthwhile and I myself mainly get cards through singles and trading. The only time I get booster packs is at prereleases and FNM (consistently 3-1 or 4-0 at FNM nets you a decent amount of boosters). What the hell is Books-a-Million thinking charging five dollars for a booster pack?
At places that are not game stores, MTG products are almost always above MSRP.
The markup on products at most stores is somewhere between 150-300% (or 33-66% of the price). The markup on MTG cards is not that high, and most of these stores are getting them from secondary or even tertiary distributors, and as such, will set high prices.
1) Almost any product bought in a place that does not specialize in that product will be inflated.
Shopwise here (a supermarket), for example, sells tablets. Their prices are way, way over what I could get if I went to the mall and looked for a place that specifically sold tablets. Same for TVs (an appliance store would be cheaper), non presription medicine (drugstore is cheaper), etc.
2) MSRP. "S" is for "suggested".
Just don't buy there, and complaining to the cashier doesn't do anything.
1) Almost any product bought in a place that does not specialize in that product will be inflated.
Shopwise here (a supermarket), for example, sells tablets. Their prices are way, way over what I could get if I went to the mall and looked for a place that specifically sold tablets. Same for TVs (an appliance store would be cheaper), non presription medicine (drugstore is cheaper), etc.
2) MSRP. "S" is for "suggested".
Just don't buy there, and complaining to the cashier doesn't do anything.
I wasn't complaining to the cashier. I was explaining to the cashier the reasoning of why I no longer wish to purchase a particular product.
I don't think the cashier is the right person to complain to about pricing. If you bought from them before isn't it always that price? Magic cards don't seem like something a store would randomly make more expensive.
Don't pay it. I tried to purchase a 3 booster (Dark Ascension post rotation) blister at Target. The tag was marked $3.99 but rang up $11.99. I politely explained the price was marked at $3.99, asked for a supervisor and asked if they were going to either honor the $3.99 price tag or change the tag. They gave me the quoted price and it was changed the next time I was there. It's OK to call stores out on their BS but you have to do it the right way and be ready to just politely tell the clerk "thanks, but no thanks".
Actually I got my Commander decks for MSRP from the local store that deals mainly in sports cards. Same with Modern Masters for $200 for a box.
The LGS store that specializes in Magic? $50 for Mind Sieze and $250 for a Modern Masters box. Plus $11/pack of Modern Masters.
So considering I have options to buy at MSRP it's not exactly a monopoly, now is it?
Point being...if a store like Books-A-Million or your LGS is gouging prices then politely refuse and go buy at one with better prices. You are far more likely to get my money if I don't feel like you're simply trying to gouge me because you can.
Also: Boosters outside of draft? Are you completely insane? Negative EV man...NEGATIVE EV!!!!!
Actually I got my Commander decks for MSRP from the local store that deals mainly in sports cards. Same with Modern Masters for $200 for a box.
The LGS store that specializes in Magic? $50 for Mind Sieze and $250 for a Modern Masters box. Plus $11/pack of Modern Masters.
So considering I have options to buy at MSRP it's not exactly a monopoly, now is it?
Point being...if a store like Books-A-Million or your LGS is gouging prices then politely refuse and go buy at one with better prices. You are far more likely to get my money if I don't feel like you're simply trying to gouge me because you can.
Also: Boosters outside of draft? Are you completely insane? Negative EV man...NEGATIVE EV!!!!!
For the most part I only get booster packs at Prereleases and at FNM from prize support. The reason I even thought of getting them at Books-a-Million was because I was going to help them out since I go there to study a lot, but after seeing their price on those boosters I'm not getting those.
Toys R Us does the same thing for most product, its over-priced. They can charge whatever they want and if you are looking for the best deals retail is almost never the answer.
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Hi I'm Infecter4life and ironically I only play GBx decks.
The vendor who stocks the local K-Mart sucks. Packs are $4.49, intro packs are $16, and we never get fat packs or even the new commander decks. But people still buy them anyway.
I was actually being very sarcastic there. I love cracking boosters and usually buy a box for each set - even at a negative EV. Magic is a great game - it just gets disheartening because of how EV theory and money obsessed the game is now. If it loses you money don't do it. Buying boosters outside of draft is stupid. Most people I talk to are obsessed with the value of their singles in trades - enough so that I don't even bother anymore because it's just not worth the hassle.
So Books-a-Million is my go-to place for studying and I saw come Magic 2014 boosters and took them to the cashier. When the cashier rang them up they came to $4.99 before tax. I kindly told the cashier that the price is above retail and that I am no longer interested in them.
I mean, even at $3.99 retail, I don't see booster packs as worthwhile and I myself mainly get cards through singles and trading. The only time I get booster packs is at prereleases and FNM (consistently 3-1 or 4-0 at FNM nets you a decent amount of boosters). What the hell is Books-a-Million thinking charging five dollars for a booster pack?
That is what my LGS charged for them.
On boxing day you could get them for $3.75, though.
I went to Books-A-Million for the first time ever this weekend and was kind of pissed off about the price as well. My girlfriend and I went on vacation and she wanted to do some shopping and dragged me to this shopping mall where they had a Books-A-Million. In my home area, I have never heard of this store, there are just Barnes & Noble stores here, but this particular place was a little different. I was excited to have a place where I could go pick up a couple of packs and see what I get, as when I go on vacation to visit family I like to play against my brother and he's very casual, so we just open some packs and play with what we get. Anyway that's just kind of besides the point (why I wanted to buy some packs to begin with), but yeah, seeing the price, I just decided to wait until I find a Barnes & Noble. 5 bucks is a rip-off for a pack.
I go to Wal-Mart, Target, Barnes & Noble, and Five Below for my packs in my area where I live, because I can't easily get to an actual gaming/cards store, and all of those places charge $3.95 or $3.99 a pack (depending on the store, for some reason certain ones have a different pennies amount to round off the price). Never seen a pack over $4 before until Books-A-Million.
If the other posts here are accurate, I'll avoid looking in Toys-R-Us in the future as well, but I've never actually looked there before.
As far as the Commander sets go, I got all of mine at Barnes & Noble, where I have a 10% off members card, and every couple of weeks they send me a 20% (sometimes 30%) off coupon. They always charge MSRP. So I got Mind Seize for 21 bucks haha
It's a cheap impulse buy that they don't care whether you make or not. But you probably will, because it's only 5 bucks. Or maybe your nephew plays Magic and that's all you know about the game and you want to get him a small treat.
Not for grinders. Hot tip grinders: do not buy packs at Books-a-million!
The funny ones are the people getting angry about it.
Generally, non-card-game specialized retail stores that are not Big-Box Stores (like Walmart/Target and the like) mark up their product pricing. It applies to everything, not just Magic (maybe except the things they specialize in), because it's just a basic guideline. They don't go into LGS to "research" the Magic Booster pack market.
Like I said, this sentence doesn't apply everywhere, too them it's just "another product" that uses their basic mark-up guidelines.
The Kmart near my town sells Magic boosters marked up 60 cents. It's not just a Hawai'i thing, either, because the LGS in Honolulu sells them at MSRP, same as Target and Wal-Mart.
Years ago I used to buy packs at books a million for 3.99 (it was during darksteel).
The store I bought from eventually had to raise the price due to profit loss from shrink, alot of their stuff was getting stolen especially mtg. I think it got so bad they eventually gave up selling mtg altogether.
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I mean, even at $3.99 retail, I don't see booster packs as worthwhile and I myself mainly get cards through singles and trading. The only time I get booster packs is at prereleases and FNM (consistently 3-1 or 4-0 at FNM nets you a decent amount of boosters). What the hell is Books-a-Million thinking charging five dollars for a booster pack?
The markup on products at most stores is somewhere between 150-300% (or 33-66% of the price). The markup on MTG cards is not that high, and most of these stores are getting them from secondary or even tertiary distributors, and as such, will set high prices.
My recommendation? Just don't buy them there.
Shopwise here (a supermarket), for example, sells tablets. Their prices are way, way over what I could get if I went to the mall and looked for a place that specifically sold tablets. Same for TVs (an appliance store would be cheaper), non presription medicine (drugstore is cheaper), etc.
2) MSRP. "S" is for "suggested".
Just don't buy there, and complaining to the cashier doesn't do anything.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I wasn't complaining to the cashier. I was explaining to the cashier the reasoning of why I no longer wish to purchase a particular product.
I mean...it's not Wal-Mart, Target, or other retailers selling Mind Sieze at well over the $29.99 MSRP.
I think this is the wrong place to ***** about that.
Boosters at non game stores near me are $4.19, boosters at game stores near me are 3/$10.
Mind Seize was only $40 at game stores near me.
Then again, there are a lot of game stores near me. There's competition. No one sells cards above TCG mid.
Perhaps the reason why your LGS charges so much is because of a monopoly and not because 'everyone does it!'
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The LGS store that specializes in Magic? $50 for Mind Sieze and $250 for a Modern Masters box. Plus $11/pack of Modern Masters.
So considering I have options to buy at MSRP it's not exactly a monopoly, now is it?
Point being...if a store like Books-A-Million or your LGS is gouging prices then politely refuse and go buy at one with better prices. You are far more likely to get my money if I don't feel like you're simply trying to gouge me because you can.
Also: Boosters outside of draft? Are you completely insane? Negative EV man...NEGATIVE EV!!!!!
For the most part I only get booster packs at Prereleases and at FNM from prize support. The reason I even thought of getting them at Books-a-Million was because I was going to help them out since I go there to study a lot, but after seeing their price on those boosters I'm not getting those.
I just get so bored when the wife drags me to Target...
We draft with those every week, including one for prize each, no prize support from the store.
I live in Norway..
That is what my LGS charged for them.
On boxing day you could get them for $3.75, though.
I go to Wal-Mart, Target, Barnes & Noble, and Five Below for my packs in my area where I live, because I can't easily get to an actual gaming/cards store, and all of those places charge $3.95 or $3.99 a pack (depending on the store, for some reason certain ones have a different pennies amount to round off the price). Never seen a pack over $4 before until Books-A-Million.
If the other posts here are accurate, I'll avoid looking in Toys-R-Us in the future as well, but I've never actually looked there before.
As far as the Commander sets go, I got all of mine at Barnes & Noble, where I have a 10% off members card, and every couple of weeks they send me a 20% (sometimes 30%) off coupon. They always charge MSRP. So I got Mind Seize for 21 bucks haha
Packs here are just $3.50. At most it's $3.80. Intro Decks are usually at $13 and booster boxes are at $95. Live in the Philippines by the way.
Not for grinders. Hot tip grinders: do not buy packs at Books-a-million!
The funny ones are the people getting angry about it.
Generally, non-card-game specialized retail stores that are not Big-Box Stores (like Walmart/Target and the like) mark up their product pricing. It applies to everything, not just Magic (maybe except the things they specialize in), because it's just a basic guideline. They don't go into LGS to "research" the Magic Booster pack market.
Like I said, this sentence doesn't apply everywhere, too them it's just "another product" that uses their basic mark-up guidelines.
Just don't buy from them. Simple as that.
The store I bought from eventually had to raise the price due to profit loss from shrink, alot of their stuff was getting stolen especially mtg. I think it got so bad they eventually gave up selling mtg altogether.