For those of you who dont know about it. From the Vault Exiled's MSRP was $39 and it was sold to retailers for 3/4th that price. But no place anywhere sold it at the MSRP like they were supposed to. I showed up on launch day to get them. Everyone doubled or tripled the MSRP price.
Starcitygames still sells the set for four tines the MSRP!! For 15 Cards that they pay wizards $30 for, they charge $150. Shouldn't wizard have a policy against stuff like that. Marking up a product $10 above the MSRP I guess is fine. But marking it up to four times the MSRP is just ridiculous. It's price gouging plain and simple. IMO Wizards should either prevent that or print enough that retailers won't jack up the price so much.
And price gouging is becoming ever more common place, just try getting a box of Zendiakar at anything close to the MSRP if you don't believe me. Samething with M10. Should wizards atleast try and come close to printing enough cards to satisfy demand.
And I blame wizards for this as much as retailers. When there are shortages on videogqme consoles for example, Sony, Nintendo etc tell retailers they still can't sell above MSRP. They can bundle with additional games (but never for more than the msrp of the games) and limit it to one per purchase and on a first come first serve basis but straight up jacking up the price well above MSRP at launch is a huge no no in most every other industry. In other industries licenced retailers are expected to sell things at MSRP or atleast close to it high demand or not. Which is why if you waited in line for the Wii or the iPhone or PS3 slim or anyother product, you got it for the msrp and any one that tried to pricegouge were blacklisted by nintendo, Sony etc.
Now I want to post a reply that explains my point better than I ever could:
First of all, the Reserved list ain't doing ****. Almost every card on that list has had it's value affected via being obsoleted over the past ten years. All it's doing is preserving the value of the Power 9 and old Duals. That's literally it; the other cards on it don't matter.
That may help a few dealers, but it doesn't help Wizards, because people only apply this value retention to cards that Wizards hasn't printed in fifteen years. They're not applying it to modern cards (nor can they be expected to).
In fact, the Reserve list is cutting off a huge source of income for Wizards; if they were to reprint the Power 9 and original Duals in some form they could make a killing off of it. Instead it does nothing for them.
Wizards can't serve retailers with a scarce supply. This is exactly the kind of misunderstanding of economics that the author is trying to 'correct'. If the supply is scarce it means that retailers can't get all the product they know they're able to sell. It may help a few retailers who can get their hands on more product; it hurts the majority. Profits aren't decided by percentage but by gross.
FtV: Exiled being super expensive and rare doesn't have a "point". It's simply an economic mistake.
I think that the MSRP is 35, actually. Otherwise, look up earlier threads regarding this. It isn't cool for sure, but there is a reason for everything.
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For those of you who dont know about it. From the Vault Exiled's MSRP was $39 and it was sold to retailers for 3/4th that price. But no place anywhere sold it at the MSRP like they were supposed to. I showed up on launch day to get them. Everyone doubled or tripled the MSRP price.
Starcitygames still sells the set for four tines the MSRP!! For 15 Cards that they pay wizards $30 for, they charge $150. Shouldn't wizard have a policy against stuff like that. Marking up a product $10 above the MSRP I guess is fine. But marking it up to four times the MSRP is just ridiculous. It's price gouging plain and simple. IMO Wizards should either prevent that or print enough that retailers won't jack up the price so much.
What say you guys?
I pre-ordered mine from my local store and got 2 for MSRP. One to open and use, and the other to keep sealed.
lol... you know what they say. if you dont like the price go purchase it elsewhere... no one is colluding to set prices, its shortages... supply demand economics... After all lotus is worth around 2 pennies msrp...
Also they pay half of msrp if they buy from wotc... just wanted to make it more offensive.
Lotus was never $2000 at launch. Alpha sets were sold at MSRP when the set was in print so that's a stupid example. Mycroft, you got extremely lucky. No one near me would let you buy or preorder it for anything close to MSRP.
That's not the Topic though. The topic is, is it acceptable to us players to be price gouged to such ridiculous degree. To the point where we are expected to pay $120-150 for a product with a $35 MSRP, a product that they get from Wizards for $17. It sure as hell isn't cool with me.
And I blame wizards for this as much as retailers. When there are shortages on videogqme consoles for example, Sony, Nintendo etc tell retailers they still can't sell above MSRP. They can bundle with additional games and limit it to one per purchase and on a first come first serve basis but straight up jacking up the price above MSRP at launch is a huge no no in most every other industry. In other industries licenced retailers are expected to sell things at MSRP or atleast close to it.
As long as SOMEONE is willing to pay this, retailers will be able to gouge you on these special items. It sucks, but really, I paid 120 for FTV:E and don't regret it for a second.
There's a reason why MSRP is called Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price.
Retailers can jack up the price as much as they like. As long as people are willing to cough up the dough to get their hands on something they really want, it's basically supply and demand doing its thing.
It's a collectible. People pay $80 for a immovable anime figurine. You pay $30 for a Baneslayer. This happened before with the other FTV, I don't see why there is a big difference now. It was specifically claimed to be a limited print run, which actually justifies what they are doing. You understand how supply and demand works, right?
I don't think it's worth it personally- some of the cards were too niche (Berserk, Lackey), banned in too many formats (Tinker, Skullclamp), to really justify the price. If they all had alt art- at least ones that were good (Tinker and Channel were awesome, Berserk looked dumb), than maybe I'd bite...
As long as idiots are willing to cough up the dough to get their hands on something they really want, it's basically supply and demand doing its thing.
Fixed. I mean, if they jack up the price to 120, then you find another supplier.
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[I was permabanned and all I got to show for it was .... well, nothing.]
Its a non-essential item not regulated by government. That's why. Government price controls are generally applied to things like electric companies and other "essential items"
Dude, if you don't want to pay the price then don't do it. Its that simple. So long as people are willing to pay more for the product, guess what, the product will be at that price.
Not to mention I can pretty much guarantee Star City Games didn't actually get the vast majority of their FTV:Exiled product from Wizards. Far from it. They were buying boxes of it for $100 when they first came out. Why would they buy it for that high? Demand was high, supply was low, and as a consequence the price was driven up. And Star City speculated that they could resell it for even higher. (Speculation - Why gold prices are over $1000 an ounce now.)
As for Zendikar? Well, demand put pressure on the supplies, which caused the price to spike... but when the price spiked, and people like you decided that you would not buy at that price... the price dropped again in response to market forces.
Basic supply and demand is the standard in just about every industry. Companies will charge what they think people will pay.
Edit: Just going to point this out, if you really want the MSRP of a box, then feel free to pay the 143.64 pre-sales tax that it would cost. After all, you want the MSRP, and the MSRP of a box of Zendikar isn't Star Cities watermark high of 114.99, but rather 143.64.
Why is it acceptable practice here when it's unacceptable in just about every other industry?
heres the thing... wotc put out FTV as a special thank you to retailers... They KNOW printing only 10k or so of these is not enough at a MSRP of 39... which means they could have charged 50 for them AND still sold out... Why didnt they? its to help keep there retail stores in business... WOTC finally realized that without brick and mortar stores they lack a business model.
Also the comparison is valid since FTV exiled is NOT in print anymore as it was a VERY limited print run... Same idea as lotus plus they never sold sets of anything... I was just pointing out how ridiculous the argument was. As a last note, zendikar MSRP IS 3.99 a pack. I REPEAT MSRP IS 3.99 A PACK. There is NO bulk discount according to WOTC(in fact they dont give one until you start moving into a SCG size company). So as long as places are charging less than 143 a box your argument is completely and utterly false.
Well retailers are forced to charge what sony and nintendo deem for systems. That is why you can't find any retailers selling the PS3 at 250 or selling it at 350. I think Wizards should step in this idea of supply and demand is fine and good on singles but not on sealed product.
+1 to this. SCG bought 3 from me on ebay when they first came out for $95 a piece.
Plus, dude, your wasting your time here. This is the way it is. And I find it very hard to believe you dont get the concept of supply and demand. If you dont like it, dont buy it. If you think Wizards is this corrupt horrible company then go buy Harry Potter cards or something! You making an argument that has no backing besides "I dont like it, it makes me mad!".
Its a non-essential item not regulated by government. That's why. Government price controls are generally applied to things like electric companies and other "essential items"
Dude, if you don't want to pay the price then don't do it. Its that simple. So long as people are willing to pay more for the product, guess what, the product will be at that price.
Not to mention I can pretty much guarantee Star City Games didn't actually get the vast majority of their FTV:Exiled product from Wizards. Far from it. They were buying boxes of it for $100 when they first came out. Why would they buy it for that high? Demand was high, supply was low, and as a consequence the price was driven up. And Star City speculated that they could resell it for even higher. (Speculation - Why gold prices are over $1000 an ounce now.)
As for Zendikar? Well, demand put pressure on the supplies, which caused the price to spike... but when the price spiked, and people like you decided that you would not buy at that price... the price dropped again in response to market forces.
Basic supply and demand is the standard in just about every industry. Companies will charge what they think people will pay.
Edit: Just going to point this out, if you really want the MSRP of a box, then feel free to pay the 143.64 pre-sales tax that it would cost. After all, you want the MSRP, and the MSRP of a box of Zendikar isn't Star Cities watermark high of 114.99, but rather 143.64.
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Maybe I can shed a little light on why there is a difference in how companies regulate the street prices of their products having worked for stores that both sell new Magic and Video games supplies. Videogames are everywhere and sold by everyone they dont need to worry about distribution and support because there is such a wide fanbase so they are mostly concerned with controling the price structure of their products. On the other hand Magic is dependant on the full support of retailers as without things like instore gaming and aftermarket singles support the game would probably die so they are far more concerned with keeping their web of B&M retailers happy and part of that is not placing price constraints upon them.
I would also say in regards to this debate that running a B&M gaming store is a very marginal business and because of this on the rare occassion that one of their suppliers gives them a chance to make high profit on a small investment thay kinda have to jump at it as profits can be hard to come by in this business when you have the expenses of wages, rent, utilities, insurance etc...
For those of you who dont know about it. From the Vault Exiled's MSRP was $39 and it was sold to retailers for 3/4th that price. But no place anywhere sold it at the MSRP like they were supposed to. I showed up on launch day to get them. Everyone doubled or tripled the MSRP price.
Starcitygames still sells the set for four tines the MSRP!! For 15 Cards that they pay wizards $30 for, they charge $150. Shouldn't wizard have a policy against stuff like that. Marking up a product $10 above the MSRP I guess is fine. But marking it up to four times the MSRP is just ridiculous. It's price gouging plain and simple. IMO Wizards should either prevent that or print enough that retailers won't jack up the price so much.
And price gouging is becoming ever more common place, just try getting a box of Zendiakar at anything close to the MSRP if you don't believe me. Samething with M10. Should wizards atleast try and come close to printing enough cards to satisfy demand.
And I blame wizards for this as much as retailers. When there are shortages on videogqme consoles for example, Sony, Nintendo etc tell retailers they still can't sell above MSRP. They can bundle with additional games (but never for more than the msrp of the games) and limit it to one per purchase and on a first come first serve basis but straight up jacking up the price well above MSRP at launch is a huge no no in most every other industry. In other industries licenced retailers are expected to sell things at MSRP or atleast close to it high demand or not. Which is why if you waited in line for the Wii or the iPhone or PS3 slim or anyother product, you got it for the msrp and any one that tried to pricegouge were blacklisted by nintendo, Sony etc.
See, here is the thing, as others have said, the price wizards and many other manufacturers put on their products is a MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price). This means that wizards and many manufacturers can suggest a retail price for a product, but that the price is not set in stone. What it comes down to is what exists for any capitalist society. Supply and Demand. If supply is high and demand is low, prices will come down because people wont be willing to pay as much in order for all of the supply to be able to be sold at a higher price. However if supply is low and demand is high, there is a much greater likelihood that people will be willing to pay more as people fight over being able to get the product they all want. Inevitably the secondary market will always work based upon supply and demand. Now lets look at something like FTV Exiled. Would you rather have a brick and mortar card shop who all have massively large overhead (Rent/Bills/etc) being allowed to mark up the price on a product when demand is that high and people are willing to pay more, or would you rather they all just price at MSRP and then have all of it bought from them and sold on the secondary market for the much higher prices? I dont know about you, but wizards recognizes that without the brick and mortar stores magic as the game it is today would not exist. So they do promotions like these on products to help out the brick and mortar stores.
The MSRP for a booster box of magic these days is $143.64/box. Boxes can still be gotten online and in most stores I would imagine for at or below that. Yes its true that box prices are much higher right now for m10 and zendikar than they have been in a while because demand is so much higher than it has been.
If people raise the price on a product and people are not willing to pay that price, then the item will not sell, and if they want to actually sell the product they will have to lower the price to a price that people are willing to pay. For certain products the msrp is often too high and many stores will discount the prices to help them to sell quicker or at all. This is part of the reason why booster boxes of magic can often be gotten for well below the full suggested retail price. However for items with limited print runs, whos demand is so much higher than the supply, and for which people are willing to pay more for the product than the suggested retail price, then on occasion the MSRP is too low and prices will go above it.
Its simple supply/demand economics. If people are willing to pay $100 for a FTV Exiled box, then places are more likely to charge that for it.
My only issue (all previous counter-arguments have been sound btw), is that whenever Wizards sells a limited product like this, it encourages stores in areas with limited competition to be douches.
I preordered FTV: Dragons from an online store, the store cancelled my order two days before shipping.
They since changed their distribution so that it is more difficult for online stores to get such product, and now all the physical stores in my area only allowed preorders starting at ~$150 Why? Because most of them broke down all the unsold boxes (quite a lot, I think) and sold them as overpriced singles.
It really makes me not care about the FTV products when I have to fight through such BS just to get some cards.
Bottom line is this is a product for the players, which because of the distribution we get screwed very hard, paying 120-150 for a product that cost the stores 25ish is screwed up and shows most stores do not look out for thier customers. I find it very odd that my local store can push roughly 8 cases of product a month, carry nearly every set for purchase, keep his customers extremely happy, but cannot get 1 copy of ftv:e because he does not run events but a store that only does fnm and pushes barely any product gets 12 copies and does sell it at msrp is beyond me. Who is really supporting magic better?
Bottom line is this is a product for the players, which because of the distribution we get screwed very hard, paying 120-150 for a product that cost the stores 25ish is screwed up and shows most stores do not look out for thier customers. I find it very odd that my local store can push roughly 8 cases of product a month, carry nearly every set for purchase, keep his customers extremely happy, but cannot get 1 copy of ftv:e because he does not run events but a store that only does fnm and pushes barely any product gets 12 copies and does sell it at msrp is beyond me. Who is really supporting magic better?
Whether a store serves the community better by providing cheap product, or providing play space and events, is outside of the scope of the discussion.
Basically, FTV:E is a vanity product, meant to sell to collectors who don't mind being milked for serious cash over a bunch of foil vanity cards.
Somewhere along the line, Wizards figured out how to tap into the rich vein of vanity collectors without disturbing basic access to tournament staples for Standard. So far, it's been a success for everyone involved - Wizards, shops, and serious collectors. A natural consequence of that success is that demand is high enough that stores can mark it up to $150 and it still generates sales.
If you really want those pimp foils, you can expect to have to scrape together the going rate.
And FYI, Wizards seems to think that providing tournaments and play space is a more important service to the Magic community than selling lots of boxes of relatively cheap cards. That's why stores who sanction tournaments get thank-you product, and stores that don't, don't get premier product.
It's up to the vendor to decide if he has the space and logistics to keep his shop open late Fridays and have 8 players, run DCI reporter, find a judge in the area, etc. It's a nonzero investment of time, overhead, and effort. Some perfectly decent retailers just can't or don't want to get involved at that level. They're OK with not getting premier product to sell, because not having to rent a larger shop and get internet service means they can sell cheaper boxes. Don't fault the shop owners, and don't fault Wizards.
Here's another way to look at IF stores were to sell it at MSRP, you'd have someone waiting at the store the day it comes in Buying them ALL and re-selling them for greater profit. So the stores are just skipping a step and marking them up and pocketing the larger than normal profits on a high demand item
My local card shop gets $10 per box sold and about a quarter per booster pack sold. Considering the profit margin, I'm not going to complain that he only sold 80% of his FTV:Exiled stock at retail price.
As for me: I spent $40 and got around $125 back just from selling half the cards. I got alternate art cards I love and a buncha people in France paid their price (I started ebay bidding around $5) for a bunch of cards they wanted.
Anywho, our shop sold most of them at retail, but demanded pre-orders. As a result, only the most loyal customers got them at retail. This is important as there are around 10 card shops within driving distance of his shop. Some of which are more obsessed with magic than his shop, which favors mini-gaming 6/7 days of the week. But we keep coming back due to this amazing customer service such as selling FTV boxes for retail price, allowing tournament prizes to be swapped for the entry fee of the next tournament and $10 draft sets.
Just to clear up a point made earlier in the thread regarding the comparison to game consoles:
It is NOT illegal for stores to sell game consoles at prices other than MSRP. However, the console companies make it very clear that business caught selling the consoles at other prices will have their supplies terminated and won't be able to sell that product in the future, which is enough to keep the stores in line. This is why it is not illegal to sell consoles at a premium or discount on ebay, and why if you looked hard enough you could find small private game stores selling Wiis for $500+ the year they came out. This is also why stores never have sales or temporary price cuts on consoles at holidays etc, other than the worldwide price cuts set by the console companies.
To our knowledge, WotC makes no such attempts to regulate the price. Due to the nature of the marketplace for these cards, it would be next to impossible anyway. Magic isn't primarily sold by the big chains that would really take a hit by having their supplies cut off, but rather by individual stores that are hardly worth WotC's time to micromanage. Thus, prices can climb and lower with supply and demand, and can be drastically different from MSRP.
Here's another way to look at IF stores were to sell it at MSRP, you'd have someone waiting at the store the day it comes in Buying them ALL and re-selling them for greater profit. So the stores are just skipping a step and marking them up and pocketing the larger than normal profits on a high demand item
Starcitygames still sells the set for four tines the MSRP!! For 15 Cards that they pay wizards $30 for, they charge $150. Shouldn't wizard have a policy against stuff like that. Marking up a product $10 above the MSRP I guess is fine. But marking it up to four times the MSRP is just ridiculous. It's price gouging plain and simple. IMO Wizards should either prevent that or print enough that retailers won't jack up the price so much.
And price gouging is becoming ever more common place, just try getting a box of Zendiakar at anything close to the MSRP if you don't believe me. Samething with M10. Should wizards atleast try and come close to printing enough cards to satisfy demand.
And I blame wizards for this as much as retailers. When there are shortages on videogqme consoles for example, Sony, Nintendo etc tell retailers they still can't sell above MSRP. They can bundle with additional games (but never for more than the msrp of the games) and limit it to one per purchase and on a first come first serve basis but straight up jacking up the price well above MSRP at launch is a huge no no in most every other industry. In other industries licenced retailers are expected to sell things at MSRP or atleast close to it high demand or not. Which is why if you waited in line for the Wii or the iPhone or PS3 slim or anyother product, you got it for the msrp and any one that tried to pricegouge were blacklisted by nintendo, Sony etc.
Now I want to post a reply that explains my point better than I ever could:
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I pre-ordered mine from my local store and got 2 for MSRP. One to open and use, and the other to keep sealed.
This is my Trade Binder I check it and update it everyday
Also they pay half of msrp if they buy from wotc... just wanted to make it more offensive.
Yes i am the same guy who trades/sells on MOTL AND Wizards of the Coast and i trade on POJO.
That's not the Topic though. The topic is, is it acceptable to us players to be price gouged to such ridiculous degree. To the point where we are expected to pay $120-150 for a product with a $35 MSRP, a product that they get from Wizards for $17. It sure as hell isn't cool with me.
And I blame wizards for this as much as retailers. When there are shortages on videogqme consoles for example, Sony, Nintendo etc tell retailers they still can't sell above MSRP. They can bundle with additional games and limit it to one per purchase and on a first come first serve basis but straight up jacking up the price above MSRP at launch is a huge no no in most every other industry. In other industries licenced retailers are expected to sell things at MSRP or atleast close to it.
Retailers can jack up the price as much as they like. As long as people are willing to cough up the dough to get their hands on something they really want, it's basically supply and demand doing its thing.
I don't think it's worth it personally- some of the cards were too niche (Berserk, Lackey), banned in too many formats (Tinker, Skullclamp), to really justify the price. If they all had alt art- at least ones that were good (Tinker and Channel were awesome, Berserk looked dumb), than maybe I'd bite...
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Fixed. I mean, if they jack up the price to 120, then you find another supplier.
Dude, if you don't want to pay the price then don't do it. Its that simple. So long as people are willing to pay more for the product, guess what, the product will be at that price.
Not to mention I can pretty much guarantee Star City Games didn't actually get the vast majority of their FTV:Exiled product from Wizards. Far from it. They were buying boxes of it for $100 when they first came out. Why would they buy it for that high? Demand was high, supply was low, and as a consequence the price was driven up. And Star City speculated that they could resell it for even higher. (Speculation - Why gold prices are over $1000 an ounce now.)
As for Zendikar? Well, demand put pressure on the supplies, which caused the price to spike... but when the price spiked, and people like you decided that you would not buy at that price... the price dropped again in response to market forces.
Basic supply and demand is the standard in just about every industry. Companies will charge what they think people will pay.
Edit: Just going to point this out, if you really want the MSRP of a box, then feel free to pay the 143.64 pre-sales tax that it would cost. After all, you want the MSRP, and the MSRP of a box of Zendikar isn't Star Cities watermark high of 114.99, but rather 143.64.
heres the thing... wotc put out FTV as a special thank you to retailers... They KNOW printing only 10k or so of these is not enough at a MSRP of 39... which means they could have charged 50 for them AND still sold out... Why didnt they? its to help keep there retail stores in business... WOTC finally realized that without brick and mortar stores they lack a business model.
Also the comparison is valid since FTV exiled is NOT in print anymore as it was a VERY limited print run... Same idea as lotus plus they never sold sets of anything... I was just pointing out how ridiculous the argument was. As a last note, zendikar MSRP IS 3.99 a pack. I REPEAT MSRP IS 3.99 A PACK. There is NO bulk discount according to WOTC(in fact they dont give one until you start moving into a SCG size company). So as long as places are charging less than 143 a box your argument is completely and utterly false.
Yes i am the same guy who trades/sells on MOTL AND Wizards of the Coast and i trade on POJO.
Feel free to bid on my cards here!
Plus, dude, your wasting your time here. This is the way it is. And I find it very hard to believe you dont get the concept of supply and demand. If you dont like it, dont buy it. If you think Wizards is this corrupt horrible company then go buy Harry Potter cards or something! You making an argument that has no backing besides "I dont like it, it makes me mad!".
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I would also say in regards to this debate that running a B&M gaming store is a very marginal business and because of this on the rare occassion that one of their suppliers gives them a chance to make high profit on a small investment thay kinda have to jump at it as profits can be hard to come by in this business when you have the expenses of wages, rent, utilities, insurance etc...
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See, here is the thing, as others have said, the price wizards and many other manufacturers put on their products is a MSRP (Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price). This means that wizards and many manufacturers can suggest a retail price for a product, but that the price is not set in stone. What it comes down to is what exists for any capitalist society. Supply and Demand. If supply is high and demand is low, prices will come down because people wont be willing to pay as much in order for all of the supply to be able to be sold at a higher price. However if supply is low and demand is high, there is a much greater likelihood that people will be willing to pay more as people fight over being able to get the product they all want. Inevitably the secondary market will always work based upon supply and demand. Now lets look at something like FTV Exiled. Would you rather have a brick and mortar card shop who all have massively large overhead (Rent/Bills/etc) being allowed to mark up the price on a product when demand is that high and people are willing to pay more, or would you rather they all just price at MSRP and then have all of it bought from them and sold on the secondary market for the much higher prices? I dont know about you, but wizards recognizes that without the brick and mortar stores magic as the game it is today would not exist. So they do promotions like these on products to help out the brick and mortar stores.
The MSRP for a booster box of magic these days is $143.64/box. Boxes can still be gotten online and in most stores I would imagine for at or below that. Yes its true that box prices are much higher right now for m10 and zendikar than they have been in a while because demand is so much higher than it has been.
If people raise the price on a product and people are not willing to pay that price, then the item will not sell, and if they want to actually sell the product they will have to lower the price to a price that people are willing to pay. For certain products the msrp is often too high and many stores will discount the prices to help them to sell quicker or at all. This is part of the reason why booster boxes of magic can often be gotten for well below the full suggested retail price. However for items with limited print runs, whos demand is so much higher than the supply, and for which people are willing to pay more for the product than the suggested retail price, then on occasion the MSRP is too low and prices will go above it.
Its simple supply/demand economics. If people are willing to pay $100 for a FTV Exiled box, then places are more likely to charge that for it.
I preordered FTV: Dragons from an online store, the store cancelled my order two days before shipping.
They since changed their distribution so that it is more difficult for online stores to get such product, and now all the physical stores in my area only allowed preorders starting at ~$150 Why? Because most of them broke down all the unsold boxes (quite a lot, I think) and sold them as overpriced singles.
It really makes me not care about the FTV products when I have to fight through such BS just to get some cards.
Whether a store serves the community better by providing cheap product, or providing play space and events, is outside of the scope of the discussion.
Basically, FTV:E is a vanity product, meant to sell to collectors who don't mind being milked for serious cash over a bunch of foil vanity cards.
Somewhere along the line, Wizards figured out how to tap into the rich vein of vanity collectors without disturbing basic access to tournament staples for Standard. So far, it's been a success for everyone involved - Wizards, shops, and serious collectors. A natural consequence of that success is that demand is high enough that stores can mark it up to $150 and it still generates sales.
If you really want those pimp foils, you can expect to have to scrape together the going rate.
And FYI, Wizards seems to think that providing tournaments and play space is a more important service to the Magic community than selling lots of boxes of relatively cheap cards. That's why stores who sanction tournaments get thank-you product, and stores that don't, don't get premier product.
It's up to the vendor to decide if he has the space and logistics to keep his shop open late Fridays and have 8 players, run DCI reporter, find a judge in the area, etc. It's a nonzero investment of time, overhead, and effort. Some perfectly decent retailers just can't or don't want to get involved at that level. They're OK with not getting premier product to sell, because not having to rent a larger shop and get internet service means they can sell cheaper boxes. Don't fault the shop owners, and don't fault Wizards.
Savra, Queen of the Golgari (Green Black Control with Graveyard Advantages)
Standard
Probably Mono Red Sligh
Modern
Dredge
Legacy
Dredge
As for me: I spent $40 and got around $125 back just from selling half the cards. I got alternate art cards I love and a buncha people in France paid their price (I started ebay bidding around $5) for a bunch of cards they wanted.
Anywho, our shop sold most of them at retail, but demanded pre-orders. As a result, only the most loyal customers got them at retail. This is important as there are around 10 card shops within driving distance of his shop. Some of which are more obsessed with magic than his shop, which favors mini-gaming 6/7 days of the week. But we keep coming back due to this amazing customer service such as selling FTV boxes for retail price, allowing tournament prizes to be swapped for the entry fee of the next tournament and $10 draft sets.
Custom Set: Pokemon: Generation 1
My mind numbing DC-10 stack!
It is NOT illegal for stores to sell game consoles at prices other than MSRP. However, the console companies make it very clear that business caught selling the consoles at other prices will have their supplies terminated and won't be able to sell that product in the future, which is enough to keep the stores in line. This is why it is not illegal to sell consoles at a premium or discount on ebay, and why if you looked hard enough you could find small private game stores selling Wiis for $500+ the year they came out. This is also why stores never have sales or temporary price cuts on consoles at holidays etc, other than the worldwide price cuts set by the console companies.
To our knowledge, WotC makes no such attempts to regulate the price. Due to the nature of the marketplace for these cards, it would be next to impossible anyway. Magic isn't primarily sold by the big chains that would really take a hit by having their supplies cut off, but rather by individual stores that are hardly worth WotC's time to micromanage. Thus, prices can climb and lower with supply and demand, and can be drastically different from MSRP.
This shouldn't be legal.
GWU Bant Manifest - The Future Is Here. Or it will be at the end of turn. GWU