So I'm relatively new to MTG starting last August(though I did play for about 6 months in 1995) but I keep hearing over and over that WotC does not acknowledge the secondary market exists or talk card prices(directly). My question is why? Is it a legal reason? Just a company policy?
It's clear they release products to help with card prices(modern/eternal masters, conspiracy type reprints, masterpiece series etc) just they never address it directly. Just curious as to why.
It probably has to do with gambling laws and that if they acknowledged that the prices of cards vary from pack to pack that they would be subjected to said laws.
So I'm relatively new to MTG starting last August(though I did play for about 6 months in 1995) but I keep hearing over and over that WotC does not acknowledge the secondary market exists or talk card prices(directly). My question is why? Is it a legal reason? Just a company policy?
It's clear they release products to help with card prices(modern/eternal masters, conspiracy type reprints, masterpiece series etc) just they never address it directly. Just curious as to why.
It's been an internal policy for years. However, it's not true that they are ignorant of the secondary market, or that they don't acknowledge it. Like you said, Masters editions and things like Masterpieces definitely have the secondary market in mind. And several articles cite it, from Aaron's article about Modern Masters to MaRo's article about Masterpieces, you'll notice that they both talk about card availability, and prices. No explicit examples, but the secondary market is definitely acknowledged.
As far as why they don't talk card prices, well, that's not what they do. They make the cards; they don't sell (individual) cards. So there isn't really a point to them talking card prices.
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It probably has to do with gambling laws and that if they acknowledged that the prices of cards vary from pack to pack that they would be subjected to said laws.
This is what I also believe to be the main cause. If they admit that different cards have different monetary value then they've implied a long list of things they'd rather not (varying degree of seriousness here):
Booster Packs are lottery tickets
Drafts are gambling events
Promos are monetary compensation
MTGO objects are virtual currency
Presale of singles is blind shorting
Anyone with knowledge of banlist decisions or future releases are potentially insider traders
These implication might not hold water for any particular jurisdiction, but Magic is a global brand so WotC want to stay on the right side of the law in every country it's involved in. That is, they want to abide by the gambling laws of the country with the strictest gambling laws, and so on for each point. The risk might be low, but since there's probably very little profit in acknowledging the secondary market there's little reason to accept any risk.
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It's clear they release products to help with card prices(modern/eternal masters, conspiracy type reprints, masterpiece series etc) just they never address it directly. Just curious as to why.
It's been an internal policy for years. However, it's not true that they are ignorant of the secondary market, or that they don't acknowledge it. Like you said, Masters editions and things like Masterpieces definitely have the secondary market in mind. And several articles cite it, from Aaron's article about Modern Masters to MaRo's article about Masterpieces, you'll notice that they both talk about card availability, and prices. No explicit examples, but the secondary market is definitely acknowledged.
As far as why they don't talk card prices, well, that's not what they do. They make the cards; they don't sell (individual) cards. So there isn't really a point to them talking card prices.
This is what I also believe to be the main cause. If they admit that different cards have different monetary value then they've implied a long list of things they'd rather not (varying degree of seriousness here):
These implication might not hold water for any particular jurisdiction, but Magic is a global brand so WotC want to stay on the right side of the law in every country it's involved in. That is, they want to abide by the gambling laws of the country with the strictest gambling laws, and so on for each point. The risk might be low, but since there's probably very little profit in acknowledging the secondary market there's little reason to accept any risk.