I stopped at Target on my way home from work and much to my surprise, they had Conspiracy draft sets for sale. I didn't even know that they would carry Conspiracy, so seeing them 2 days before the release date was a bit of a surprise. Their trading card section is stocked by an outside company and usually boxes are specifically marked if there's a release date involved with any of the products. This store usually sticks to those guidelines.
I hadn't even clocked that Psychosis Crawler was in the set...
But on topic, I think this should be in some way cracked down on as it's shafting LGSs who depend on MTG and actually stick to the rules (and who stand to lose something by breaking them) :/
Problem is WotC can threaten local LGS's by taking away tournament and specialty product eligibility. They can't threaten Target and Wal-Mart who just sell product. Plus, Hasbro isn't going to shun profit from major chain stores. How exactly are you going to crack down on them?
Actually other companies have done things in the past to the big box stores when product was sold before the release date. I still remember the PlayStation 3.
Problem is WotC can threaten local LGS's by taking away tournament and specialty product eligibility. They can't threaten Target and Wal-Mart who just sell product. Plus, Hasbro isn't going to shun profit from major chain stores. How exactly are you going to crack down on them?
Wal-Mart may be a Juggernaut but they're not unbeatable. In the 90's Walmart demanded a Walmart SKU almost on their own whims. This was noticeable with media such as video games, movies and music. The only example (though I know there were many more) I can think of off the top of my head was Redneck Rampage. Interplay was forced to sell a a cuss-free Walmart SKU. This later prompted Interplay to release a patch to fix it. Half-Life also had the same issue but I don't remember what, if anything, was changed. If I remember right, Walmart tried to force the makers of Grand Theft Auto to release a Walmart SKU. Rightly so, Take Two refused. Walmart backpedaled realizing that gamers were tired of buying watered down junk and game companies began to threaten to pull their product (a few did). Walmart relented on their policies surrounding video games.
By comparison Target would probably pay companies for a Target SKU. Saw an entire section dedicated to "antique" b9ard games marketed by Parker Bros. marked as Target exclusives.
Hasbro has teeth and they can absolutely pull their product to enforce timing, especially against Target. Can you imagine a store completely devoid of any Hasbro, WotC and Parker Bros. game? A lot of unhappy parents come Christmas time.
The advantage that Hasbro has is that big box chain stores can't go to another source to replace a lost product. Want MtG? It's gotta come from WotC and no one else. It's not like selling shirts. If Hanes won't allow their product in a box store, they'll go to Fruit of the Loom or just make their own bouse brand.
Is selling a product two days in advance enough for Hasbro to put pressure on Target not to do it again? Doubtful... if it's just one store...
Revenues from last year: Hasbro $4.1 billion. Target $73 billion. Wal-Mart $482 billion. You really think Hasbro is going to tank their relationship with Target and Wal-Mart over two days and a $250 million subsidiary division of theirs (WotC)? Probably not. WotC and Hasbro need Target and Wal-Mart to move toys and products for them. Not the other way around.
And honestly, part of the issue is that the trading cards are all done by a vendor. Wal-Mart just sells them, but they aren't responsible for stocking them. If they went to Wal-Mart directly, they could put a hold on them (this happens regularly with new game and video releases- they literally cannot be sold before the appointed time, because Arkansas says so.) Since vendors can't get into the system to put a hold on things, and since vendors operate on a store-by-store basis, there's no way to lock sales of a product out once they stock it. Wal-Mart doesn't get M:tG from Hasbro like they do the board games. If WotC wanted to sell directly to the big-box stores and completely upend their distribution model, they could, but that's the only way to enforce time-sensitive products.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Cards are game pieces, and should be treated as such, easily replaceable.
Cards are not money, investments, or a retirement fund, and should never have been treated as such.
Wizards made a mistake caving to speculators once, and we still pay for that mistake 2 decades later.
"Entitled:" the entire ad hominem fallacy condensed into a single word. It doesn't strengthen your argument to attack motivations, it just makes you look like you don't understand the argument.
I don't blame Target. They don't understand these products and this world and half the workers are probably underpaid part-timers with no oversight or help.
I blame Wizards of the Coast.
They are the ones not enforcing this.
They are the ones who should send product a week LATE to Target not early.
WotC is killing the LGS that is the lifeblood of Magic.
Revenues from last year: Hasbro $4.1 billion. Target $73 billion. Wal-Mart $482 billion. You really think Hasbro is going to tank their relationship with Target and Wal-Mart over two days and a $250 million subsidiary division of theirs (WotC)? Probably not. WotC and Hasbro need Target and Wal-Mart to move toys and products for them. Not the other way around.
But it's not Hasbro vs. Wal Mart. It's Hasbro vs. the company the customer has never heard of that's stocking Wal Mart's shelves with TCGs and CCGs.
I mean you could go after the retail stockers, but Wal-Mart and Target are going to sell whatever product is on their shelves. If Hasbro/WotC do that the box stores wonder why they have an empty card game section they can use as impulse items (in regards to hammering the early shelf stockers). They do profit off of renting that shelf space and/or taking a percentage of product sales. That'd be my guess on how they operate in regards to Magic product. Anyway...we got four people together Thursday night and had an awesome time with our early pack purchases. It's also not a product designed for Modern/Standard play. This is a specialty set (though they stock other stuff early too that is current). The street dates are to protect Standard/Modern formats and to move draft packs.
I stopped at Target on my way home from work and much to my surprise, they had Conspiracy draft sets for sale. I didn't even know that they would carry Conspiracy, so seeing them 2 days before the release date was a bit of a surprise. Their trading card section is stocked by an outside company and usually boxes are specifically marked if there's a release date involved with any of the products. This store usually sticks to those guidelines.
I opened one. The first 2 packs had Psychosis Crawler as the rare. The third had Recruiter of the Guard.
But on topic, I think this should be in some way cracked down on as it's shafting LGSs who depend on MTG and actually stick to the rules (and who stand to lose something by breaking them) :/
Wal-Mart may be a Juggernaut but they're not unbeatable. In the 90's Walmart demanded a Walmart SKU almost on their own whims. This was noticeable with media such as video games, movies and music. The only example (though I know there were many more) I can think of off the top of my head was Redneck Rampage. Interplay was forced to sell a a cuss-free Walmart SKU. This later prompted Interplay to release a patch to fix it. Half-Life also had the same issue but I don't remember what, if anything, was changed. If I remember right, Walmart tried to force the makers of Grand Theft Auto to release a Walmart SKU. Rightly so, Take Two refused. Walmart backpedaled realizing that gamers were tired of buying watered down junk and game companies began to threaten to pull their product (a few did). Walmart relented on their policies surrounding video games.
By comparison Target would probably pay companies for a Target SKU. Saw an entire section dedicated to "antique" b9ard games marketed by Parker Bros. marked as Target exclusives.
Hasbro has teeth and they can absolutely pull their product to enforce timing, especially against Target. Can you imagine a store completely devoid of any Hasbro, WotC and Parker Bros. game? A lot of unhappy parents come Christmas time.
The advantage that Hasbro has is that big box chain stores can't go to another source to replace a lost product. Want MtG? It's gotta come from WotC and no one else. It's not like selling shirts. If Hanes won't allow their product in a box store, they'll go to Fruit of the Loom or just make their own bouse brand.
Is selling a product two days in advance enough for Hasbro to put pressure on Target not to do it again? Doubtful... if it's just one store...
Cards are not money, investments, or a retirement fund, and should never have been treated as such.
Wizards made a mistake caving to speculators once, and we still pay for that mistake 2 decades later.
"Entitled:" the entire ad hominem fallacy condensed into a single word. It doesn't strengthen your argument to attack motivations, it just makes you look like you don't understand the argument.
I blame Wizards of the Coast.
They are the ones not enforcing this.
They are the ones who should send product a week LATE to Target not early.
WotC is killing the LGS that is the lifeblood of Magic.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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