Is that really such a bad thing? If a store decides to be greedy and demand more money for a product that isn't worth the new price, the only group that's really going to be hurt by this is the store itself. If Walmart and Target can offer better prices for packs and decks, why wouldn't you want to shop there?
The vast majority of the time, you want to pay a store to actually have a place to play.
Thats the main point of a store, having a place to play AND get your cards to do so.
If you "just" want to buy cards and play at your kitchen table, you dont need a LGS at all, thats already covered by ebay or some other form of buying the cheapest possible cards you can get, if you just want to get the cards choose the way to get the most out of your money.
However, if you actually play at your store and enjoy the time, chances are the store doesnt do so good, and they BADLY need the money.
So if they lose customers, the irony is, they have to charge more for the stuff they have, which will then drive away more customers, because the product gets more expensive ; its a cycle into death of the store.
The vast majority of stores are not inherently "greedy" , theres no point to be greedy if that translates into customers leaving your store, you want to keep a loyal base of players, and the better you know them, the more loyal they will be and the more enjoyable the experience of the store can be for everyone involved.
Stores that charge more than MSRP are usually doing bad already, so it all comes down to if the players want to support a store, or they want to abandon the store and leave ; which is either easy to do, as there are other stores around, or its very terrible, as there is no other store in any reasonable reach, in which case, you better get to work with that store if you value your LGS to play you enjoy.
----
Taking the money to some super market chain is pretty much the worst you can do in terms of supporting your local LGS, and if too many do that, you wont have any stores left that offer their place to play.
Its not rocket science at all.
----
The MSRP is pretty much ignored by LGS stores anyway if they can make more money out of product it will go up, if they dont sell the product it goes down; pretty simple stuff, no greed, just totally normal business.
The big super market chains will honor a MSRP much more, as they dont bother if a product sells or not, and their people dont know anything about the game, so they slap the MSRP on the stuff and let it sit there to sell, and sadly enough it does sell to people that are just as badly informed if they overpay and others will abuse the cheap MSRP on premium product (which the supermarket stores did not get at the beginning, but WotC doesnt give a ***** about that anymore).
At this point WotC is the ENEMY of any LGS , not a partner or a benefit, they are the flat out enemy that want to see the store crash and burn, while paying them double.
The irony gets to the max if a store has to buy from a distributor that actually charges more for a booster box than you could them online, but you have to buy from that distributor to keep your WPN status alive.
Its all a mess that just hurts the stores, and thats a terrible trend that just keeps accelerating with everything WotC does at this moment.
No MSRP equals to less transparency for the consumer. I want to know as much information as possible for the products I am purchasing from the company of my preference. Also, Magic is Global but special editions are locked for US customers, LMAO.
The problem is that American consumers are quite fickle and lazy.
It's not that they're fickle and lazy when it's their family / jobs that keep them away from playing during the weekdays since they need a disposable income to spend for their gaming hobby which is why the weekends are normally ideal for them to enjoy their hobby. Online orders have sped up waiting periods of completing decks to the point where it's almost had a negative effect on the Local Game Store. It's usually either because their local distributor doesn't carry specific products that they're wanting, lack of specific card singles available, or there's nobody within the vicinity to trade specific cards with.
Having sanctioned events being spread out onto different Local Game Stores does have a tendency to be harmful for their business especially If they aren't getting enough customers in due to competitive pricing which is really just an excuse to undercut consumers. MSRP was really the one thing keeping this type of bad business practice in check. Why leave MSRP the way it was when you could get rid of it by pitting Local Game Stores against each other and sell direct to consumers through a new website that isn't susceptible towards online traffic? Because who cares If no one has a place to play Paper Magic right?
So why create an incentive in the hopes that consumers are gullible enough to completely abandon Paper Magic for Arena when that defeats the whole purpose of opening a new website to sell Paper Magic directly to consumers? If they don't have a place to play then what would be the point of purchasing Paper Magic directly from Wizards of the Coast online If they can't even use the physical cards on Arena? Maybe If there was some sort of physical booster pack redemption on Arena.
Why is it always this all or nothing approach in gaming business? Either you're making billions or it's just not worth it to bother? What happened to being proud of modest successes and stability?
It's this fear that If they don't get caught up with the latest trends that they'll end up getting left behind and become less profitable long term when they need to focus more on what made them successful in the past while still being able to appeal toward a wide audience. If gaming companies had better PR with their customers and clientele then we wouldn't be having this problem. However they choose not to because the cost of the industry itself has made it more difficult for them to take as many risks as they did decades ago where it's not as much of a burden with Tabletop Games.
That's what makes this whole e-Sports craze with Tabletop Games so perplexing because all they're trying to do is take away the experience of what makes the genre what it is when they don't even know how to properly advertise it as such. Perhaps they see this as their only out in fear that this current generation of kids and young teenagers are too asocial to socialize with others outside of a digital space. When it comes to Video Games like Fortnite and Overwatch, e-Sports make sense but for Tabletop Games like Magic: The Gathering? Wouldn't live stream matches with commentaries be better anyway?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
i think this is just a consequence on the feedback they got from the high ultimate masters msrp
"uh, people critize us for the increased msrp"
"just dont announce any more msrp"
problem solved
thisssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
almost every poor decision they've made in the past... bunch of years... has blamed the lgs and the consumer rather than wotc's own decisions. i mean, just look at all the products we've been told didn't sell well and that players didn't like... while simultaneously seeing those products decline in both quality and availability or how many times its been our fault that something got leaked
MSRP is just an illusion. There are a ton LGS's in the Orange County, CA area. Some sell packs at $4 a piece. Others offer 3 packs for $10 ($3.33/pack), and another sells 4 packs for $11 ($2.75/pack), and even w/ all of there price fluctuations, these LGS stores still manage to stay in business. Some have sales in other ways that their competitors across town do not have.
And then there is Frank & Sons, in the LA area ( Hey, my SoCal folk, vouch for me here!!! ), an indoor geek swapmeet, where one can get cards much cheaper that the LGS's, and booster boxes for dirt cheap prices too. MSRP is laughed at, eaten up & spit out like a Good 'Ol Boys moist wad of tobacco... When I got back into Magic around 2003 or 2004, the LGS owner (of Alakazam Comics) told his employees to not talk about Frank & Sons, because then they couldn't sell their booster boxes for $110 each. Instead I found out, to Franks for a box as low as $70.
"msrp" is now just going to be determined by wizards online store.
Aren't they already publicly acknowledging the existence of a Secondary Market by determining the MSRP through their online store though? Isn't that why they usually leave it up to other sites like Star City Games and Channel Fireball to determine the MSRP? They already have a monopoly on the Modern format in terms of barrier entry which I assume is $300+ since it's really the only thing keeping Paper Magic from being more budget friendly and to a lesser extent the Legacy format even though no one plays it due to the Reserve List.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
"msrp" is now just going to be determined by wizards online store.
Aren't they already publicly acknowledging the existence of a Secondary Market by determining the MSRP through their online store though? Isn't that why they usually leave it up to other sites like Star City Games and Channel Fireball to determine the MSRP? They already have a monopoly on the Modern format in terms of barrier entry which I assume is $300+ since it's really the only thing keeping Paper Magic from being more budget friendly and to a lesser extent the Legacy format even though no one plays it due to the Reserve List.
They cannot publicly acknowledge the secondary market for card singles but there is no issue acknowledging the market for sealed product WotC sells. WotC will simply just avoid marketing the paper product's MSRP.
They cannot publicly acknowledge the secondary market for card singles but there is no issue acknowledging the market for sealed product WotC sells. WotC will simply just avoid marketing the paper product's MSRP.
Selling card singles is the only real advantage Local Game Stores have of competing against the Direct to Consumer business model that Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro is operating with their new Hasbro Pulse website since consumers like to receive the cards on hand instead of having to go through waiting periods where they might end up receiving faulty product with no refunds.
That's why Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro are only allowed to sell sealed products on the Hasbro Pulse website cause If they started selling card singles through their Direct to Consumer business model, they would be publicly acknowledging the Secondary Market for these card singles by putting themselves in legal jeopardy regardless of trying to avoid the paper product's MSRP because there's still a set price determined by retail markets.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
So... Modern Horizons may be a good litmus test for this whole "no msrp" thing.
GP event price resembles that of a "normal" set (conspiracy, battlebond, etc)... MTGO packs cost 6.99... and MaRo has indicated on his blog that the set will not be a limited run.
Given the lack of MSRP, what info do we use to anchor expectations. Should we treat this as a "semi-premium" set being sold for the same price as the initial Modern Masters? Should we expect early spoilers to have a bigger impact on pre-sale prices for sealed packs/boxes?
i think you are right that its going to be a perfect test. on one side we will see how close prices get to distributor levels; since it will be a race to the bottom once people figure out there are basically no limits on how much stock they can order. also, and this is just speculation atm, there will be potential direct distribution through some online medium from wizards (hasbro site, ebay, amazon, etc). these will naturally punch box prices down during the pre-order phase.
on the other side there is the variable demand depending on what exactly is in the set. at this point im putting the print run of this set somewhere close to recent standard sets; which is a LOT of supply. however this just being an assumption means some people might capitalize on this early on with absurd singles prices (more than usual anyways). this in turn artificially inflates the perceived value, and sellers can lean into those speculative prices since they are presumably the only way to get a sense of box EV. with no msrp to look at to gauge such things people might just shrug their shoulders and say to themselves 'yeah that seems right'.
also if the product isnt sold in big box stores like walmart/target/etc, then end prices at the lgs level might vary wildly initially depending on stuff like the proximity of competition (ie other lgs in the area).
in the end though its really going to come down to what prices distributors are getting, since that sets the baseline for anything else down the supply chain.
So... Modern Horizons may be a good litmus test for this whole "no msrp" thing.
GP event price resembles that of a "normal" set (conspiracy, battlebond, etc)... MTGO packs cost 6.99... and MaRo has indicated on his blog that the set will not be a limited run.
Given the lack of MSRP, what info do we use to anchor expectations. Should we treat this as a "semi-premium" set being sold for the same price as the initial Modern Masters? Should we expect early spoilers to have a bigger impact on pre-sale prices for sealed packs/boxes?
Any real answer will lie with what an LGS will have to pay to stock this. Typically, MSRP is roughly twice that price, for stores that like having their lights on or paying employees (and don't focus almost exclusively on TCGs and singles). We'll find out when the solicits go out, hopefully. Which should be soon-ish.
I'm wondering if WotC will follow up their removal of MSRP with instituting a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policy on future releases. This would do potential good for LGSs that tend to price closer to MSRP on products, since it would do something to at least try to close the price gap that *will* exist between those LGSs and online retailers when it comes to this product. Although, given that they're no longer distributing directly, my hope on that happening is very low.
I don't know about you but I think the era of the LGS is on the close. They cost money to run, to keep open, and require people to show up to buy product to keep the store going. The problem is that American consumers are quite fickle and lazy. A convenient alternative like Arena will do great damage to gaming stores simply because it removes a lot of hassle from the average gaming outing; physical copies of product, expenditure in time and gas and money, being packed into a battered area in a strip mall that reeks of dank weed and a lack of personal hygiene, not being pressured by the owner or staff to buy product. Most LGS's remind me of museums anyway; boxes and boxes of stuff all stacked up and put on shelves to gather dust and molder without anyone showing the slightest interest whatsoever.
You realize if every LGS closed, Magic would just die right? Arena and MTGO wouldn't keep it's corpse afloat.
Card stores are on the decline already. They wont go away completely, but dont expect local places that are small to survive.
Wizards of the Coast gets hit the hardest by this because of their card quality, generic art, and print volume. A lot of the tier 2 card games have better quality and stronger artwork, so they survive better in a casual collector environment.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
I don't know about you but I think the era of the LGS is on the close. They cost money to run, to keep open, and require people to show up to buy product to keep the store going. The problem is that American consumers are quite fickle and lazy. A convenient alternative like Arena will do great damage to gaming stores simply because it removes a lot of hassle from the average gaming outing; physical copies of product, expenditure in time and gas and money, being packed into a battered area in a strip mall that reeks of dank weed and a lack of personal hygiene, not being pressured by the owner or staff to buy product. Most LGS's remind me of museums anyway; boxes and boxes of stuff all stacked up and put on shelves to gather dust and molder without anyone showing the slightest interest whatsoever.
You realize if every LGS closed, Magic would just die right? Arena and MTGO wouldn't keep it's corpse afloat.
Card stores are on the decline already. They wont go away completely, but dont expect local places that are small to survive.
Wizards of the Coast gets hit the hardest by this because of their card quality, generic art, and print volume. A lot of the tier 2 card games have better quality and stronger artwork, so they survive better in a casual collector environment.
If all you do are card games, then your business model is very fragile. To survive in this economy, your store needs to become a destination location - a place people WANT to come to and hang out at. Otherwise, you will forever teeter on edge of oblivion.
I don't buy it for a second that getting rid of MSRP is good for the consumer. That's basically giving less information and saying that less information is good for us when their entire problem has been a lack of communication, bad set design, and refusal to improve card quality in the long term due to financial pressure from the stockholders.
Not to mention, this just looks like them trying to get even further away from the possibility of admitting there is a secondary market.
Agreed. Imagine if you went to buy a new car and there was no MSRP for the vehicle you wanted to buy. The feel bad experience you would have at that dealership is probably similar to the one people are going to experience with new MTG products.
If all you do are card games, then your business model is very fragile. To survive in this economy, your store needs to become a destination location - a place people WANT to come to and hang out at. Otherwise, you will forever teeter on edge of oblivion.
I guess that could explain why some Local Game Stores are taking new incentives to ban customers from purchasing product outside their store whether If they're purchasing products from other Local Game Stores or through e-commerce websites. Then you have to ask yourself how it's the customer's fault that the Local Game Store's distributors weren't able to get specific products in on time when they don't even carry card singles for said Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game. They need to have a good reason to carry the product so that it doesn't lose money for their business.
Customers shouldn't be banned from Local Game Stores just because their distributors didn't do their job like they're supposed to. It's even harder when you're trying to promote a different Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game that specific Local Game Stores don't even host or run events for due to how crowded the market is for it to thrive. If your Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game isn't MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Pokémon TCG then you don't matter to them. Why? Because other Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games are mostly perceived as a net loss for the Local Game Store.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
Corroborating the $6.99 MTGO pack price with the ~$199 box price that most LGSs would need to sell boxes at... everything seems to add up. We have a pack worth the same as OG modern masters (1 pack of MH = 2 packs of Standard set)... which isn't totally unreasonable if they bring out good reprints and shiny new cards.
The fact that these values line up so well lead me to suspect that distributors aren't using the lack of MSRP to claim a larger profit margin (so far). Further, I am feeling more comfortable with the use of MTGO prices as an ad-hoc "MSRP" in the US. We still have some problems with specialty products such as anthologies or game night (especially if distributors contemplate consolidating/price fixing) but I'm feeling relatively safe as long as this sort of info makes it out there.
Presales are starting on MKM for modern horizons. The first prices that are goung up are 399.95 euro per box.
Obviouslòy they will go down as new sellers make their posts, but that's feels kind of a pretty high starting point.
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The vast majority of the time, you want to pay a store to actually have a place to play.
Thats the main point of a store, having a place to play AND get your cards to do so.
If you "just" want to buy cards and play at your kitchen table, you dont need a LGS at all, thats already covered by ebay or some other form of buying the cheapest possible cards you can get, if you just want to get the cards choose the way to get the most out of your money.
However, if you actually play at your store and enjoy the time, chances are the store doesnt do so good, and they BADLY need the money.
So if they lose customers, the irony is, they have to charge more for the stuff they have, which will then drive away more customers, because the product gets more expensive ; its a cycle into death of the store.
The vast majority of stores are not inherently "greedy" , theres no point to be greedy if that translates into customers leaving your store, you want to keep a loyal base of players, and the better you know them, the more loyal they will be and the more enjoyable the experience of the store can be for everyone involved.
Stores that charge more than MSRP are usually doing bad already, so it all comes down to if the players want to support a store, or they want to abandon the store and leave ; which is either easy to do, as there are other stores around, or its very terrible, as there is no other store in any reasonable reach, in which case, you better get to work with that store if you value your LGS to play you enjoy.
----
Taking the money to some super market chain is pretty much the worst you can do in terms of supporting your local LGS, and if too many do that, you wont have any stores left that offer their place to play.
Its not rocket science at all.
----
The MSRP is pretty much ignored by LGS stores anyway if they can make more money out of product it will go up, if they dont sell the product it goes down; pretty simple stuff, no greed, just totally normal business.
The big super market chains will honor a MSRP much more, as they dont bother if a product sells or not, and their people dont know anything about the game, so they slap the MSRP on the stuff and let it sit there to sell, and sadly enough it does sell to people that are just as badly informed if they overpay and others will abuse the cheap MSRP on premium product (which the supermarket stores did not get at the beginning, but WotC doesnt give a ***** about that anymore).
At this point WotC is the ENEMY of any LGS , not a partner or a benefit, they are the flat out enemy that want to see the store crash and burn, while paying them double.
The irony gets to the max if a store has to buy from a distributor that actually charges more for a booster box than you could them online, but you have to buy from that distributor to keep your WPN status alive.
Its all a mess that just hurts the stores, and thats a terrible trend that just keeps accelerating with everything WotC does at this moment.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
Come on, since how many years have there been GP and the game played all around the world? This comment doesn't make any sense.
But yeah, maybe they're cooking a "Reserved Masters"
"uh, people critize us for the increased msrp"
"just dont announce any more msrp"
problem solved
Which shifts the blame onto the local stores who have to set a price for the packs
Marath, Will of the Wild
Friendly Kess Twin Combo
Tatyova - Sir Bounce A Lot
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Prime (Eldrazi) Speaker Zegana (Retired)
I think this is the most simple and obvious reasoning, as well
Having sanctioned events being spread out onto different Local Game Stores does have a tendency to be harmful for their business especially If they aren't getting enough customers in due to competitive pricing which is really just an excuse to undercut consumers. MSRP was really the one thing keeping this type of bad business practice in check. Why leave MSRP the way it was when you could get rid of it by pitting Local Game Stores against each other and sell direct to consumers through a new website that isn't susceptible towards online traffic? Because who cares If no one has a place to play Paper Magic right?
So why create an incentive in the hopes that consumers are gullible enough to completely abandon Paper Magic for Arena when that defeats the whole purpose of opening a new website to sell Paper Magic directly to consumers? If they don't have a place to play then what would be the point of purchasing Paper Magic directly from Wizards of the Coast online If they can't even use the physical cards on Arena? Maybe If there was some sort of physical booster pack redemption on Arena. It's this fear that If they don't get caught up with the latest trends that they'll end up getting left behind and become less profitable long term when they need to focus more on what made them successful in the past while still being able to appeal toward a wide audience. If gaming companies had better PR with their customers and clientele then we wouldn't be having this problem. However they choose not to because the cost of the industry itself has made it more difficult for them to take as many risks as they did decades ago where it's not as much of a burden with Tabletop Games.
That's what makes this whole e-Sports craze with Tabletop Games so perplexing because all they're trying to do is take away the experience of what makes the genre what it is when they don't even know how to properly advertise it as such. Perhaps they see this as their only out in fear that this current generation of kids and young teenagers are too asocial to socialize with others outside of a digital space. When it comes to Video Games like Fortnite and Overwatch, e-Sports make sense but for Tabletop Games like Magic: The Gathering? Wouldn't live stream matches with commentaries be better anyway?
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
thisssssssssssssssssssssssssss.
almost every poor decision they've made in the past... bunch of years... has blamed the lgs and the consumer rather than wotc's own decisions. i mean, just look at all the products we've been told didn't sell well and that players didn't like... while simultaneously seeing those products decline in both quality and availability or how many times its been our fault that something got leaked
And then there is Frank & Sons, in the LA area ( Hey, my SoCal folk, vouch for me here!!! ), an indoor geek swapmeet, where one can get cards much cheaper that the LGS's, and booster boxes for dirt cheap prices too. MSRP is laughed at, eaten up & spit out like a Good 'Ol Boys moist wad of tobacco... When I got back into Magic around 2003 or 2004, the LGS owner (of Alakazam Comics) told his employees to not talk about Frank & Sons, because then they couldn't sell their booster boxes for $110 each. Instead I found out, to Franks for a box as low as $70.
MSRP, hahahaha... that's so Mickey Mouse.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
They cannot publicly acknowledge the secondary market for card singles but there is no issue acknowledging the market for sealed product WotC sells. WotC will simply just avoid marketing the paper product's MSRP.
That's why Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro are only allowed to sell sealed products on the Hasbro Pulse website cause If they started selling card singles through their Direct to Consumer business model, they would be publicly acknowledging the Secondary Market for these card singles by putting themselves in legal jeopardy regardless of trying to avoid the paper product's MSRP because there's still a set price determined by retail markets.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
GP event price resembles that of a "normal" set (conspiracy, battlebond, etc)... MTGO packs cost 6.99... and MaRo has indicated on his blog that the set will not be a limited run.
Given the lack of MSRP, what info do we use to anchor expectations. Should we treat this as a "semi-premium" set being sold for the same price as the initial Modern Masters? Should we expect early spoilers to have a bigger impact on pre-sale prices for sealed packs/boxes?
on the other side there is the variable demand depending on what exactly is in the set. at this point im putting the print run of this set somewhere close to recent standard sets; which is a LOT of supply. however this just being an assumption means some people might capitalize on this early on with absurd singles prices (more than usual anyways). this in turn artificially inflates the perceived value, and sellers can lean into those speculative prices since they are presumably the only way to get a sense of box EV. with no msrp to look at to gauge such things people might just shrug their shoulders and say to themselves 'yeah that seems right'.
also if the product isnt sold in big box stores like walmart/target/etc, then end prices at the lgs level might vary wildly initially depending on stuff like the proximity of competition (ie other lgs in the area).
in the end though its really going to come down to what prices distributors are getting, since that sets the baseline for anything else down the supply chain.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Any real answer will lie with what an LGS will have to pay to stock this. Typically, MSRP is roughly twice that price, for stores that like having their lights on or paying employees (and don't focus almost exclusively on TCGs and singles). We'll find out when the solicits go out, hopefully. Which should be soon-ish.
I'm wondering if WotC will follow up their removal of MSRP with instituting a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) policy on future releases. This would do potential good for LGSs that tend to price closer to MSRP on products, since it would do something to at least try to close the price gap that *will* exist between those LGSs and online retailers when it comes to this product. Although, given that they're no longer distributing directly, my hope on that happening is very low.
Card stores are on the decline already. They wont go away completely, but dont expect local places that are small to survive.
Wizards of the Coast gets hit the hardest by this because of their card quality, generic art, and print volume. A lot of the tier 2 card games have better quality and stronger artwork, so they survive better in a casual collector environment.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
If all you do are card games, then your business model is very fragile. To survive in this economy, your store needs to become a destination location - a place people WANT to come to and hang out at. Otherwise, you will forever teeter on edge of oblivion.
Agreed. Imagine if you went to buy a new car and there was no MSRP for the vehicle you wanted to buy. The feel bad experience you would have at that dealership is probably similar to the one people are going to experience with new MTG products.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
Customers shouldn't be banned from Local Game Stores just because their distributors didn't do their job like they're supposed to. It's even harder when you're trying to promote a different Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game that specific Local Game Stores don't even host or run events for due to how crowded the market is for it to thrive. If your Trading Card Game / Collectible Card Game isn't MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh!, or Pokémon TCG then you don't matter to them. Why? Because other Trading Card Games / Collectible Card Games are mostly perceived as a net loss for the Local Game Store.
"Restriction breeds creativity." - Sheldon Menery on EDH / Commander in Magic: The Gathering
"Cancel Culture is the real reason why everyone's not allowed to have nice things anymore." - Anonymous
"For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?" - Mark 8:36
"Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution." - Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
"Every life decision is always a risk / reward proposition." - Sanjay Gupta
We now have a price LGSs are paying ($163 USD per box)
Corroborating the $6.99 MTGO pack price with the ~$199 box price that most LGSs would need to sell boxes at... everything seems to add up. We have a pack worth the same as OG modern masters (1 pack of MH = 2 packs of Standard set)... which isn't totally unreasonable if they bring out good reprints and shiny new cards.
The fact that these values line up so well lead me to suspect that distributors aren't using the lack of MSRP to claim a larger profit margin (so far). Further, I am feeling more comfortable with the use of MTGO prices as an ad-hoc "MSRP" in the US. We still have some problems with specialty products such as anthologies or game night (especially if distributors contemplate consolidating/price fixing) but I'm feeling relatively safe as long as this sort of info makes it out there.
Also, I'm not sure why the fear is that lack of MSRP would affect prices at the distributor level.
Obviouslòy they will go down as new sellers make their posts, but that's feels kind of a pretty high starting point.