People will always find reasons to be angry about cool stuff
If you read anything else I had written in this thread, you would see I'm not angry because of this "cool stuff," in fact, I think this was a WONDERFUL thing for Wizards to print. I think the more alternate arts / types of alternate arts the better. The artwork is one of the best parts of MTG and expanding what's available is a good thing.
Again, I'm not angry about cool stuff, I'm angry about Wizard's method of distribution to the playerbase.
Dude, you live in California. Just accept that you got to go on the ride first. If they continue making cool promos for SW USA exclusively, fine, then get upset on principle. As long as future exclusives get spread around to the rest of the world this really isn't an issue.
Before someone from outside NA gets pissed that they won't get a turn, I'll remind you that Wizards has done cool things outside the States in the past. Portal 3 Kingdoms and Hebrew Glory come immediately to mind. I'm sure there are other examples. They'll continue to reach their main audience in the US more than others, but that's to be expected when the majority of their customers live there.
Yes, if this were the start of Wizards releasing a promo at EVERY national and international convention they attended, many of my arguments would be invalid. However, that's not what this is here, Wizards only printed this promo due to the proximity of it to the M14 event. The closest Wizards has come to this previous was to sell the FTV:Dragons at a convention, however, those promotional cards were available (albeit in a limited supply <-- Which I'm FINE with) to the public at large.
(1) Hebrew Glory.
This has to be one of my all time favorite promos, Hebrew is gorgeous and I'm glad they experimented with it for the promo. However, I think you have some of your information about the Glory promo incorrect. For a number of pre-releases from 2001-02, the promo was of a foreign language for everyone. Prelease cards in Latin, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Arabic, and more were made (people just don't really remember the other, less impactful cards)
(2) Portal 3-Kingdoms (P3K)
First of all, the P3k was given a distribution, that, while not perfect, found its way in to several different markets with various language printings. It was sold across the Asian-Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand. Like the portal iterations before it, it was meant as a way to introduce players to the game. This was Wizards attempt to bring MTG to Asia, and (partially because of this) Wizards did a phenominal job at it. Today, many of the top teams originate from the region and there is a large MTG scene across the Asian Pacific.
Additionally, P3K was released in 1999, almost 15 years ago. Saying, "but look, Wizards did this 15 years ago" isn't going to be the best argument. Wizards is a different company (literally:) ) now, and Magic has grown significantly. Most importantly, P3K was done when Wizards was trying to expand MTG expansion across the globe, and this was specifically designed to help them break into a new market. It was done with a specific goal in mind, in a way analogous to Custom promos for large tournaments, for the benefit of MTG. Also, despite not making a great distribution, Wizards did make an effort to release the cards to everyone they thought would benefit from it (see above). Finally, when released, P3K (along with the rest of the Portal cards), was not legal for tournament play. It wasn't for another half decade that Wizards reversed themselves on the issue, and by then, the damage from P3K was done (and the prices of eternal format staples was astronomical).
Anyway, these seem both fairly distant (over a decade ago) and not distinguishable counterexamples compared to what Wizards has done here with the Black on Black promos. This is the first time that they have singled out, for a specific, non-magic event, a special promo.
Would it be better for them to not print them at all? No promos? What about foil mythics? Those can be a huge pain to find at a reasonable price, is it fair for me to complain about them?
Personally I just don't buy the arguments here. It sounds like jealous whining coming from people who want all the cool stuff but don't want to have to pay for it. If the was a Mana Crypt situation I could understand, but it isn't. Not even close. You don't NEED a promo Garruk.
If they had been just foil mythics, that would be fine in my opinion (IMO). They gave out FTV:Dragons (similarly rare to foil mythics) at a convention and that was similarly fine IMO. It has NOTHING to do with them giving away expensive cards. It has EVERYTHING to do with them giving out EXCLUSIVE cards.
I don't care about the promos, I'm not going to want a single one of them (unless Chandra ends up being legacy playable . . . lol). I have virtually every MTG card I want, and could just buy ones I don't have. That's not the case for everyone; many people can't afford to pay $1000 (if that guy was right about their prices) for a set of planeswalkers (especially when they could be had for $30 in non-foil). I am making the principled argument for their sake (as well as a couple of other principled arguments that aren't super relevant to your comment, which primarily concerned the monetary aspect of the cards).
Let me rephrase. It is easy to see that someone is feeling "darn, there is something cool that I want because I can't/am not willing to pay or travel for it". It is easy to see that some magic players feel entitled to all cards and not JUST all cards that they could want to play and be competitive, but that they should have easy cheap access to all foil, limited edition, rare versions of said cards. I've been a part of the community long enough (it takes a good 10 seconds for this to seep in) to recognize that this is the primary "feeling" of the online crowd. Oh, and they also usually want "their" cards to have some sense of value, go figure.
What I cannot understand, despite your post is that someone thinks they have a reasonable point here. They. Just. Don't.
There is an argument to be made against the limited print run of Modern Masters, since the cards are needed to play in the format. Still, most reasonable people seem to agree that wizards tried to balance the balls and get the best of all worlds. Plus it was a test since it hadn't really been done before.
This promo is strictly for aesthetic reasons, there is literally NO argument for any wrongdoing or unfairness. Unless you count, "but I want one and feel like I deserve it because I want it" as an argument.
Now if they were only giving it away to people based on their skin color we'd have a problem. This is just freaking advertising!
lol,
"Now if they were only giving it away to people based on their skin color we'd have a problem."
What about if they were only giving it out based on people's religion? What about if they were only giving it out based on people's gender? What about if they were only giving it out to people based on their sexual orientation? Ironically, Wizards, by discriminatory effect, though almost certainly not in purpose, has done exactly all of those things, particularly apparent (or at least easy to pull up the stats on) is the race analysis. Every region has its own specific demographics (California's for reference).
Comparing to just the USA, and (for simplicity) assuming everyone at the event is from California, Wizards will be releasing the promo disproportionally to Hispanics (at the detriment of primarily Whites and African Americans). Supreme Court jurisprudence dictates that discriminatory effect is (usually) unconstitutional. NOW, none of this means anything, because there's a fair bit that I failed to go through that would end up making this just fine. I just thought your statement was a little funny all things considering.
As for the bulk of your comment, I've addressed the issue multiple times above.
Reminds me of FTV Dragons where they had given people copies of it entering the door and then they had people with booths set up to just buy them from the entrants and just resold those boxes online on the secondary market. This basically hurt the smaller shops that could have had more product to sell as secondary distributors for a limited print run.
Some of these do hurt brick and mortar in terms of the quality of these special cards. I have little problem with chase cards, but there comes a time whenever these chase cards need to be placed in areas where they'll economically benefit the businesses who make the game profitable. The shows do not do this, but do often get flashier specials.
"Black on Black" Promos for the event, yet M14 prerelease we see people get Great Whale and the Megantic Sliver and the one Game Day top 4 card. Instead of having top 4 on prerelease day also get some Black on Black Promos would promote more people to show to draft thus making those drafts more profitable for small scale stores.
I'm not against capitalism, but localization and quality do impact the bottom line for brick and mortar stores who face increases in operating costs like property taxes and decreased sales from people who are unemployed in certain regions.
It's a business decision, but having higher quality promotional cards without creating mudflation is fair. Incentivizing and making things more exicting for people like having a Black on Black Garruk for top4 doesn't make the whole game flooded the market but makes it so that the best of the best at a tournament can win big and not just some random person who goes to Gencon.
I want the small entrepreneur rewarded and profitable, not the large events with higher quality cards.
More or yes, yupers. Particularly the parts about localization
I think the fact that there will be more promos makes it LESS of an issue. GenCon will get one and the PTs will get something and the GPs get some and it becomes a non-issue as promos have often been region specific or tied to a specific event.
Some people stood in line for 4 hours in Vegas and didnt get a playmat that will be almost as rare (if not as valuable) as these, is it less of an issue and if so why?
You are essentially demanding equal rarity and collectibility which basically destroys the idea of an item that is "exclusive" or "collectible" get over it, some things are more rare and some things are more available.
There will literally be thousands of event exclusives at SDCC, it has never been, and never will be an issue.
How do you know that GenCon will get one? (and MTG tournmanents - which, btw, are usually done across the world, meaning non-localized distribution for across the globe - have always historically gotten promos). GenCon hasn't had an exclusive promo in the past. My point, nearly my entire point, is that this is something Wizards hasn't done before (since DragonCon), and that it's wrong for a variety of reasons.
The quality of a promo card is linked to its playability and its rarity. Throwing black on black cards out at every pre release will make them next to worthless, and it sounds like you guys are begging for the equality of worthlessness.
I am going to comic-con. I am making HUGE sacrifices to be able to attend. I am saving money, cutting down on luxuries and working a lot of extra hours to come up with the thousands of dollars it is costing me, and because I was willing to do that I get some exclusives. I'm not wealthy, I am going above and beyond, for these and anyone else could have as well. And if you couldn't? You probably shouldn't be so serious about a game that is fairly expensive to play in the first place.
I actually could go, but that's not the point. Playability and rarity of the promo are not the point (if they gave everyone at San Diego ComiCon 1000x copies of the box, I would still have the same complaint). MY ISSUE IS THE LOCALIZATION OF THE DISTRIBUTION. No one outside the state gets a chance at them.
I like promos / pimp, I think these are a great step Wizards is going in, I just think for that one step forwards, they took about 10 steps back by only giving them out to one region (which btw I am roughly part of).
Before they announced this, you didn't have a black on black promo. Now you still don't, but you have the opportunity to buy one on ebay for some price. You are strictly better off than you were before. Not seeing the point in whining.
The wining is not about the promos, it's about the localization of the distribution.
my final thought - I am already out of pocket 1500 for travel and hotels for comic con. I will be in line for the Hasbro booth for probably hours. If I walk out with 2 of these I will be lucky. If you buy one on Ebay for $300 you saved yourself a lot of time and money.
Would you rather pony up a couple grand to attend the event to have a chacne to pay the price of these? Or buy one for far far far less?
I couldn't care either way, I don't want the cards and if I did, I wouldn't care about the cost of buying them. I'd much rather they just be given out to the winners of each GP (so like 50 copies total) though than this. I'm making the argument about the principle of distributing a particular card to a particular region (localization of distribution)
$850 for a foil black on black promo? It's a damn promo!! I don't care if they make JUST 1. It can be a MILLION dollars for all I care. I don't want it and don't have a desire to own every single thing WotC puts out. I can get the exact same card function on the exact same non promo card by *gasp* opening a booster pack of M14..
Why even care is what I ask. Wanna waste money? Go for it. Or better yet, pay someone you know who's working hard, struggling, and doing everything the right ways power bill for the month.
Cool story bro. See above (where I've explained about 50 times I don't care about the promos themselves).
It is an investment that is less volatile than stocks in many ways. Cards have risen at a given % (rate) each year. Most of the time this % outperforms bank, bonds, and stock rates. Now that magic is more popular than ever that % py is going up even higher.
If this is truly going to be an exclusive it is worth the buy. These type of cards have no competition driving their price down and are a luxury which makes them even more appealing to collectors (which is who drives the price for these type of cards).
I would expect to see the starting price to be very high then dip as these will all come on the market at the same time. The price will be locked in after that. If you were to invest in a card this would be one of them. Though I am leery of investing into anything that is not on the reserve list.
1st) Magic as an investment is like real estate. It's a great idea until it's not. If were were in 2006, I could show you a graph of housing prices rising year-after-year for (more or less) decades. That graph would look very different in 2008. Wizards almost lost MTG after Saga block. MTG cards only hold their current prices because of demand, if demand were to plummet. . . Just saying (oh, you'd be just as screwed as that Angel in the art)
2nd) Ironically what you've just described is the exact trend that eternal format staples follow post-standard rotation.
Though again, the prices of the cards are not my concern. I think everyone should have something expensive they want to get later in life, including pimp mtg cards.
prosis - I don't really get this line of thinking:
"If they had been just foil mythics, that would be fine in my opinion (IMO). They gave out FTVragons (similarly rare to foil mythics) at a convention and that was similarly fine IMO. It has NOTHING to do with them giving away expensive cards. It has EVERYTHING to do with them giving out EXCLUSIVE cards.
I don't care about the promos, I'm not going to want a single one of them (unless Chandra ends up being legacy playable . . . lol). I have virtually every MTG card I want, and could just buy ones I don't have. That's not the case for everyone; many people can't afford to pay $1000 (if that guy was right about their prices) for a set of planeswalkers (especially when they could be had for $30 in non-foil). I am making the principled argument for their sake (as well as a couple of other principled arguments that aren't super relevant to your comment, which primarily concerned the monetary aspect of the cards)."
So it would be better to have no exclusive promo cards? Just because everyone can't have one? (despite the fact that many people, like me, think they are cool to see but really don't care about actually owning one?)
The great thing about this is that if you can't afford one...it does not matter. You can get the exact same function for a fraction of the price.
I guess what I am really wondering is: What exact principal are you standing up for here? Who is being unfairly treated and how?
Why is it that so many MTG players feel that they are entitled to *every* printing of *every* card ever produced by Wizards?
What's the point in having something specifically designed to be "special" if everyone has it? Exclusivity is why we want it in the first place.
If so many players want every card how is "we" in this statement defined? Wizards has been making many changes lately (good or bad) that target the majority and that is what people have come to expect from them. This promo is out of place and that is why people are upset, because Wizards has been justifying so many changes lately as the majority wanted it and now this targets an extreme minority. The exclusiveness of these cards can come from them being the only cards printed black on black.
The fact that no person in the world besides those in the Southwest region of the United States means that the vast majority of the MTG community has no access to the cards.
Why are you so hung up on this region issue? The purpose of this promo is that it is only made available for a specific event. That is why it is called a convention exclusive. Why do you see the need to have a more "fair" way of distributing this promo? That isn't the point at all. Its to incentivize and reward people for attending a certain event. That's pretty much it.
As a promo collector, I am somewhat mad that I won't get to see these amazing things in my binder. By releasing them as extremely limited products, they are cutting their sales off significantly. Just like they did with Commander's Arsenal and Modern Masters.
And as a guy who knows a bit about business, I can say that there is no reason to not continue supplying when there is this high of a demand. I don't know what the Hasbro/WotC marketers are thinking when they thought of these designs.
And once the cards hit the secondary market, absolutely no profit is made by Wizards/Hasbro.
If so many players want every card how is "we" in this statement defined? Wizards has been making many changes lately (good or bad) that target the majority and that is what people have come to expect from them. This promo is out of place and that is why people are upset, because Wizards has been justifying so many changes lately as the majority wanted it and now this targets an extreme minority. The exclusiveness of these cards can come from them being the only cards printed black on black.
Not sure where you get this. Wizards has made a habit of doing some extremely limited print runs for a while now. Between things like Judge Promos, FTV sets, and Commander's Arsenal we have seen a number of products that are extremely difficult to acquire w/o resorting to EBay or some other secondary market source. This promo is no different.
I have a buddy that's going to get the limit of them for me. (so lucky) I am super stoked to get my hands on these but I understand the frustration that goes along with not being anywhere near San Diego and having to play the secondary market.
A note on SDCC's HasbroToyShop exclusives though.... Some people pay their mortgage in this market and the competition/line waiting/hoop jumping involved in obtaining these items borderlines on masochistic. Obviously anyone that's willing to go over the top and grab these items after waiting in line for 6 hours to get a ticket to wait in another line??? They deserve it. Honestly it would be much more fair if they sold them on their online store after the event until they were all gone.
"If fetch lands are reprinted I really believe they will be in allied colors (aka Onslaught fetches). If the fetch lands are reprinted you better believe that we'll all be fetching up basics. This would lead me to believe that the set after THS may have a reprint as the temples can't be fetched but it's pure speculation." - posted 03/22/2014 proved correct during Khans spoiler season.
"The set releases for fall 2015 (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and fall 2016 (Lock, Stock and Barrel). One or both of those 2 blocks (I'm betting) are going to contain either Fetch reprints or (more likely) Filter reprints. Filter lands still need a reprint. They are getting pretty high up there and it's been longer than ZEN so it makes a little more sense that Filter lands would see print earlier that fetches." - posted 03/22/2014 proved incorrect about filters coming earlier than fetches, still pending on filters in Origins block.
I'm glad that my brother is attending all the days at Comic Con so he can get me the promos. I just wish I knew how much they are selling them for.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
If you read anything else I had written in this thread, you would see I'm not angry because of this "cool stuff," in fact, I think this was a WONDERFUL thing for Wizards to print. I think the more alternate arts / types of alternate arts the better. The artwork is one of the best parts of MTG and expanding what's available is a good thing.
Again, I'm not angry about cool stuff, I'm angry about Wizard's method of distribution to the playerbase.
Yes, if this were the start of Wizards releasing a promo at EVERY national and international convention they attended, many of my arguments would be invalid. However, that's not what this is here, Wizards only printed this promo due to the proximity of it to the M14 event. The closest Wizards has come to this previous was to sell the FTV:Dragons at a convention, however, those promotional cards were available (albeit in a limited supply <-- Which I'm FINE with) to the public at large.
(1) Hebrew Glory.
This has to be one of my all time favorite promos, Hebrew is gorgeous and I'm glad they experimented with it for the promo. However, I think you have some of your information about the Glory promo incorrect. For a number of pre-releases from 2001-02, the promo was of a foreign language for everyone. Prelease cards in Latin, Hebrew, Cyrillic, Arabic, and more were made (people just don't really remember the other, less impactful cards)
(2) Portal 3-Kingdoms (P3K)
First of all, the P3k was given a distribution, that, while not perfect, found its way in to several different markets with various language printings. It was sold across the Asian-Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand. Like the portal iterations before it, it was meant as a way to introduce players to the game. This was Wizards attempt to bring MTG to Asia, and (partially because of this) Wizards did a phenominal job at it. Today, many of the top teams originate from the region and there is a large MTG scene across the Asian Pacific.
Additionally, P3K was released in 1999, almost 15 years ago. Saying, "but look, Wizards did this 15 years ago" isn't going to be the best argument. Wizards is a different company (literally:) ) now, and Magic has grown significantly. Most importantly, P3K was done when Wizards was trying to expand MTG expansion across the globe, and this was specifically designed to help them break into a new market. It was done with a specific goal in mind, in a way analogous to Custom promos for large tournaments, for the benefit of MTG. Also, despite not making a great distribution, Wizards did make an effort to release the cards to everyone they thought would benefit from it (see above). Finally, when released, P3K (along with the rest of the Portal cards), was not legal for tournament play. It wasn't for another half decade that Wizards reversed themselves on the issue, and by then, the damage from P3K was done (and the prices of eternal format staples was astronomical).
Anyway, these seem both fairly distant (over a decade ago) and not distinguishable counterexamples compared to what Wizards has done here with the Black on Black promos. This is the first time that they have singled out, for a specific, non-magic event, a special promo.
If they had been just foil mythics, that would be fine in my opinion (IMO). They gave out FTV:Dragons (similarly rare to foil mythics) at a convention and that was similarly fine IMO. It has NOTHING to do with them giving away expensive cards. It has EVERYTHING to do with them giving out EXCLUSIVE cards.
I don't care about the promos, I'm not going to want a single one of them (unless Chandra ends up being legacy playable . . . lol). I have virtually every MTG card I want, and could just buy ones I don't have. That's not the case for everyone; many people can't afford to pay $1000 (if that guy was right about their prices) for a set of planeswalkers (especially when they could be had for $30 in non-foil). I am making the principled argument for their sake (as well as a couple of other principled arguments that aren't super relevant to your comment, which primarily concerned the monetary aspect of the cards).
lol, What about if they were only giving it out based on people's religion? What about if they were only giving it out based on people's gender? What about if they were only giving it out to people based on their sexual orientation? Ironically, Wizards, by discriminatory effect, though almost certainly not in purpose, has done exactly all of those things, particularly apparent (or at least easy to pull up the stats on) is the race analysis. Every region has its own specific demographics (California's for reference).
Comparing to just the USA, and (for simplicity) assuming everyone at the event is from California, Wizards will be releasing the promo disproportionally to Hispanics (at the detriment of primarily Whites and African Americans). Supreme Court jurisprudence dictates that discriminatory effect is (usually) unconstitutional. NOW, none of this means anything, because there's a fair bit that I failed to go through that would end up making this just fine. I just thought your statement was a little funny all things considering.
As for the bulk of your comment, I've addressed the issue multiple times above.
More or yes, yupers. Particularly the parts about localization
How do you know that GenCon will get one? (and MTG tournmanents - which, btw, are usually done across the world, meaning non-localized distribution for across the globe - have always historically gotten promos). GenCon hasn't had an exclusive promo in the past. My point, nearly my entire point, is that this is something Wizards hasn't done before (since DragonCon), and that it's wrong for a variety of reasons.
I actually could go, but that's not the point. Playability and rarity of the promo are not the point (if they gave everyone at San Diego ComiCon 1000x copies of the box, I would still have the same complaint). MY ISSUE IS THE LOCALIZATION OF THE DISTRIBUTION. No one outside the state gets a chance at them.
I like promos / pimp, I think these are a great step Wizards is going in, I just think for that one step forwards, they took about 10 steps back by only giving them out to one region (which btw I am roughly part of).
The wining is not about the promos, it's about the localization of the distribution.
I couldn't care either way, I don't want the cards and if I did, I wouldn't care about the cost of buying them. I'd much rather they just be given out to the winners of each GP (so like 50 copies total) though than this. I'm making the argument about the principle of distributing a particular card to a particular region (localization of distribution)
Cool story bro. See above (where I've explained about 50 times I don't care about the promos themselves).
1st) Magic as an investment is like real estate. It's a great idea until it's not. If were were in 2006, I could show you a graph of housing prices rising year-after-year for (more or less) decades. That graph would look very different in 2008. Wizards almost lost MTG after Saga block. MTG cards only hold their current prices because of demand, if demand were to plummet. . . Just saying (oh, you'd be just as screwed as that Angel in the art)
2nd) Ironically what you've just described is the exact trend that eternal format staples follow post-standard rotation.
Though again, the prices of the cards are not my concern. I think everyone should have something expensive they want to get later in life, including pimp mtg cards.
Cool Story Bro.
Edric | Skithiryx | Merieke | Talrand
--------------------------
Well except for pauper EDH
Garruk's Packleader | Inkfathom Witch | Gelectrode | Sigil Captain | Glider Barin | Sludge Strider | Paragon of the Ameshsa
I wasn't even referring to you, but okay, continue on your angry rants.
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
"If they had been just foil mythics, that would be fine in my opinion (IMO). They gave out FTVragons (similarly rare to foil mythics) at a convention and that was similarly fine IMO. It has NOTHING to do with them giving away expensive cards. It has EVERYTHING to do with them giving out EXCLUSIVE cards.
I don't care about the promos, I'm not going to want a single one of them (unless Chandra ends up being legacy playable . . . lol). I have virtually every MTG card I want, and could just buy ones I don't have. That's not the case for everyone; many people can't afford to pay $1000 (if that guy was right about their prices) for a set of planeswalkers (especially when they could be had for $30 in non-foil). I am making the principled argument for their sake (as well as a couple of other principled arguments that aren't super relevant to your comment, which primarily concerned the monetary aspect of the cards)."
So it would be better to have no exclusive promo cards? Just because everyone can't have one? (despite the fact that many people, like me, think they are cool to see but really don't care about actually owning one?)
The great thing about this is that if you can't afford one...it does not matter. You can get the exact same function for a fraction of the price.
I guess what I am really wondering is: What exact principal are you standing up for here? Who is being unfairly treated and how?
What's the point in having something specifically designed to be "special" if everyone has it? Exclusivity is why we want it in the first place.
If so many players want every card how is "we" in this statement defined? Wizards has been making many changes lately (good or bad) that target the majority and that is what people have come to expect from them. This promo is out of place and that is why people are upset, because Wizards has been justifying so many changes lately as the majority wanted it and now this targets an extreme minority. The exclusiveness of these cards can come from them being the only cards printed black on black.
I Stream MTGO on Twitch: broodwarjc
I also post recordings of those streams on Youtube: broodwarjcavidgamer
Standard Deck:
BUPirates
Modern Deck:
B8-Rack
Why are you so hung up on this region issue? The purpose of this promo is that it is only made available for a specific event. That is why it is called a convention exclusive. Why do you see the need to have a more "fair" way of distributing this promo? That isn't the point at all. Its to incentivize and reward people for attending a certain event. That's pretty much it.
Legacy: Death and Taxes, U/B Reanimator
And as a guy who knows a bit about business, I can say that there is no reason to not continue supplying when there is this high of a demand. I don't know what the Hasbro/WotC marketers are thinking when they thought of these designs.
And once the cards hit the secondary market, absolutely no profit is made by Wizards/Hasbro.
Current Standard Decks:
BRVampiresRB
Not sure where you get this. Wizards has made a habit of doing some extremely limited print runs for a while now. Between things like Judge Promos, FTV sets, and Commander's Arsenal we have seen a number of products that are extremely difficult to acquire w/o resorting to EBay or some other secondary market source. This promo is no different.
A note on SDCC's HasbroToyShop exclusives though.... Some people pay their mortgage in this market and the competition/line waiting/hoop jumping involved in obtaining these items borderlines on masochistic. Obviously anyone that's willing to go over the top and grab these items after waiting in line for 6 hours to get a ticket to wait in another line??? They deserve it. Honestly it would be much more fair if they sold them on their online store after the event until they were all gone.
"The set releases for fall 2015 (Blood, Sweat and Tears) and fall 2016 (Lock, Stock and Barrel). One or both of those 2 blocks (I'm betting) are going to contain either Fetch reprints or (more likely) Filter reprints. Filter lands still need a reprint. They are getting pretty high up there and it's been longer than ZEN so it makes a little more sense that Filter lands would see print earlier that fetches." - posted 03/22/2014 proved incorrect about filters coming earlier than fetches, still pending on filters in Origins block.
$65 at the booth. Whatever limited amount they put on the website after are $59.99+Tax