I think the problem started with way back with Rav Allegiance when they tried to hide the amount sold and backfired while not selling as fast as last time. They scaled back and made it 100x more desirable. Also, they did something we usually don't get from them which is the amount they gonna make and the statement they will not print more. This created this hype and overreaction which was warranted. People expected it to sell in minutes. Even eBay couldn't handle this.
Although this was a eBay problem, so they should take the culpability, the fundamental flaw of this whole *****show is WotC doesn't know how to handle supply and demand properly. It was very clear that this product would be extremely popular and demanding. It was clear it would generate so much traffic. If they didn't disclosed the print run and said it wouldn't be printed anymore after this batch, maybe it wouldn't generate this anxiety to not missing out. I'm OK in disclosing the amount, but I'm not OK in saying that was just it to make people hyped. EBay dropped the ball, but I think the ball was flawed to begin with. WotC created this avoidable situation and this is the result.
I don't even believe any online outlet would be handle this situation any better. It was the perfect storm for this bad happening and the final fault is with WotC.
Well according to Wizards of the Coast latest tweets it does appear the print run was only 12k and everything else will see their orders cancelled and money refunded, rip.
tbh i dont understand why people were even questioning the 12k number. in what world would a fortune 500 company choose to engage in a premeditated lie to manipulate one sale for a few million dollars of profit while incurring heavy risk of legal action and smearing their brand name (moreso than the muck up it was). the alternative of a last minute decision in response to overwhelming demand (which was the obvious outcome to anyone with a brain) would still not fix mass cancellations and feelbads unless it was printed to demand; regardless the cost of printing isnt free and there is still that whole legal thing. not to mention you destroy consumer confidence, particularly in similar products in the future (effectively killing a golden goose).
anywho, now we just wait and see what qualified people to be included in the 12k with everyone being uncertain until the physical box shows up at their doorstep. those with canceled orders have no hope, and the choice to make a relisting implies that anyone with a confirmed and paid purchase prior to the listing being put up have some higher chance of being one of the selected (otherwise what would compel them to make a listing unless they had some semblance of stock - so purchasing before = they had stock).
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
They updated my ebay order, it say’s paid now and I already got the feedback from them after sending a message to their account so looking good but I don’t know how I was able to order 3.
I'm still in purgatory with my attempt to purchase one box. On one hand, the order went through, has not been canceled, and is listed as paid on my account. On the other hand, the payment is still listed as a "temporary authorization," so I'm on that bubble.
I can't see how they can list these several times (42,826) and another for (4,365) and then say they will cancel the orders over 12k. By the way, the 1st batch said it was out of stock when it hit just under 12k, it was about 11,985. If they didn't continue relisting after that, I could understand. But because they listed again for another batch of close to 12k and then again and than a half batch & than last one for 4,365, they should not be able to cancel that many orders.
Hasbro did not list more than 12000 items. the eBay counter just tracked 42k unique clicks on the buy it now button. This is not a Hasbro issue, this is an eBay issue.
As far as not being able to cancel orders, they only have 12000 boxes. Should they just keep all the money even though they cannot fill the orders? Of course not, so they should refund the people and notify them. They aren't getting more product, it was very clearly stated that "once it's gone, it's gone".
Maybe they need some sort of digital line to wait in while the person(s) in front complete the purchase. I have done stuff like that for pre-season MLB tickets for a very big Northeast franchise. I would literally refresh every second until I could enter the line. Once there I'm in line and then allowed in once it was my turn to make my purchase.
They just made a Black Friday sale (big sales day for US companies to cash in on the beginning of Christmas sales right after US Thanksgiving) that more than 12k wanted and they trampled over eBay. They need to funnel the people into the store orderly to avoid overloading the server.
That's interesting. A digital queue would probably be effective at fixing the sales counter and it would fix the PayPal overload.
I do think it would just create a new point in the system for people to complain about though. It would probably cut back on complaints in total though since we wouldn't be seeing this 42k number thrown around, the relisting, and other purchase related complaints. Likely we'd only be seeing "I didn't get into the queue despite being told I was in the queue", but that's probably not as bad? I don't know.
Any time there's a limited supply like this I'm surprised when people think that everyone is supposed to be satisfied.
Hasbro did not list more than 12000 items. the eBay counter just tracked 42k unique clicks on the buy it now button. This is not a Hasbro issue, this is an eBay issue.
As far as not being able to cancel orders, they only have 12000 boxes. Should they just keep all the money even though they cannot fill the orders? Of course not, so they should refund the people and notify them. They aren't getting more product, it was very clearly stated that "once it's gone, it's gone".
Then why did they relisted the item at least 2 more times?
Maybe they need some sort of digital line to wait in while the person(s) in front complete the purchase. I have done stuff like that for pre-season MLB tickets for a very big Northeast franchise. I would literally refresh every second until I could enter the line. Once there I'm in line and then allowed in once it was my turn to make my purchase.
They just made a Black Friday sale (big sales day for US companies to cash in on the beginning of Christmas sales right after US Thanksgiving) that more than 12k wanted and they trampled over eBay. They need to funnel the people into the store orderly to avoid overloading the server.
This is how San Diego Comic-Con operates, for the most part, and it has been a smooth experience every time I've done it, win or lose.
I see the same kinds of comments with almost every limited edition product sold. People are always mad because they didn't get one. I understand it's frustrating, but if the demand outweighs the supply there is going to be an issue. Same thing would happen if it was a physical sale. I think it's just going to be something we will have to comes to terms with. It's happened how many times now and we keep hearing the same outrage? Between these and the Planeswalker exclusives it should be well known. I think at some point you have to accept that it could never get better.
Maybe they just hold a lotto and pull names from a hat. I know from experience that pisses people off as well.
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Currently Playing: Standard:
Nothing, the format Bores me! Legacy: RBurn (Made on the Cheap!)R RGBelcherRG WSoldier StompyW BReanimatorB EDH: BUGRWSliver OverlordWRGUB BGeth, Lord of the VaultB
A digital queue is also how big music festivals like Coachella work. Anyone who is logged into the site's "waiting room" when tickets go on sale gets dropped into a random spot in line. Anyone who logs in after go time starts at the end of the line. When you reach the front you have five minutes to make your purchase or it goes to the next person in line. Obviously there are more than 12,000 tickets there but there's still crushing demand and things seem to work quite well...
I see the same kinds of comments with almost every limited edition product sold. People are always mad because they didn't get one. I understand it's frustrating, but if the demand outweighs the supply there is going to be an issue. Same thing would happen if it was a physical sale. I think it's just going to be something we will have to comes to terms with. It's happened how many times now and we keep hearing the same outrage? Between these and the Planeswalker exclusives it should be well known. I think at some point you have to accept that it could never get better.
Maybe they just hold a lotto and pull names from a hat. I know from experience that pisses people off as well.
I think it's normal to be frustrated while trying to get a limited product and usually it dies out naturally if it was handled properly. However, if it's not handled properly and similar and new mistakes are created during the process, the frustration becomes outrage. Especially coming from a big corporation like Hasbro.
There were limited products in the past where only a small amount of people can have access to. However, they were mostly handled by distributors and stores (like Commander's Arsenal). I think people's frustration lasted less during these times although complaints existed. Complaints and frustration are always there for sure and with Internet venting it up is a normal reaction. However, having such a bad experience during the process isn't excusable and deserve criticism and outrage.
They shouldn't have marketed it as super limited to begin with. I know they wanted to make sure collectors this item would have low supply because of the past blunder and also create a cheap buzz/hype. However, they misinterpreted this. The problem wasn't the print run. It was the subpar selection. They overcompensated on both ends creating this scare in the process by disclosing the number. Something they normally don't do with consistency. Obviously it would make any potential buyer panic. Also the poorly edited listing probably led to cancellations from people who did really plan ahead for this.
I'm OK in missing out if it was fair and handled professionally. However, poor handling of the situation isn't excusable in any way and this was the case. Complaints and frustration are unavoidable. This whole amateur handling of situation was avoidable from the marketing to the final process.
OK, after my initial order from about 3:05 PM EDT was cancelled I sent them a note asking about it. Later, as I mentioned earlier, I was able to buy 2 on separate transactions. Here is their response to the note I sent after the cancellation.
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us. We recognize that there was an issue with eBay processing orders for Magic The Gathering: War of the Spark Mythic Edition. We are working closely with our partners at eBay to remedy this situation, and anyone affected by this will receive an email notification from eBay. We understand your frustration, but please be patient while we work through these issues.
We greatly appreciate your business. If you have additional questions, contact our Customer Service Center via email at ebaycustomerservice@Hasbrotoyshop.com or phone at 1-800-408-0052 Mon-Fri 8am – 8 pm EST.
Sincerely yours,
Customer Service for HasbroToyShop on eBay
They also included an image and link of my order:
Order status: Paid
Paid $263.24 with PAYPAL on May 01, 2019 12:34 PDT
Estimated delivery: Mon. May. 6 - Wed. May. 8
This is the one I feel very confident will be cancelled based on the time stamp. The other order I got through was around 12:22 PDT. I am guessing there is a chance that one may "stick". I have not seen or heard of anyone who got an order through on initial sale that didn't get cancelled. I am thinking they will refund all sales after a certain time stamp, but who knows what that will be. The one piece that is really baffling is the relist at around 12:40 PDT where they sold another 4300.
I placed an order at the 3:01est mark which had the "payment processing" crap and then got cancelled. I placed a second order at around 3:10 and that went through and also got feedback from hasbro. What i'm wondering, is there any way for them to know about the cancelled order since it was clearly made within the first 12,000 boxes? There was 996 sold when i pressed on buy it now.
Some people need to not go screaming and crying about this product: everyone knew this would be hard to get. The internet can only handle so much traffic at a time like that. Quit blaming wizards, eBay, your mom... magic players literally are the worst when things don’t go perfectly for them
Some people need to not go screaming and crying about this product: everyone knew this would be hard to get. The internet can only handle so much traffic at a time like that. Quit blaming wizards, eBay, your mom... magic players literally are the worst when things don’t go perfectly for them
Yes, you're the white-bordered version aka the worst kind.
Some people need to not go screaming and crying about this product: everyone knew this would be hard to get. The internet can only handle so much traffic at a time like that. Quit blaming wizards, eBay, your mom... magic players literally are the worst when things don’t go perfectly for them
Network traffic or server capacity (cringes) is not an unknown variable, especially with an entity as large, and as experienced, as eBay. eBay clearly has redundancy and scalability as part of their business model.
And yes, you can absolutely blame eBay and Hasbro for this gaff. WotC/Hasbro chose to use eBay because they figured, correctly, Hasbro servers can't handle the load. eBay clearly has the capacity to handle said load and failed to set aside resources for it. Whether this was a miscommunication from WotC to eBay or an overly exuberant estimation of eBay's configuration remains to be seen. Someone, likely an employee on WotC's side, added more boxes or incorrectly configured the eBay page.
You can blame Magic players (and flippers) for their near insane levels of Black Friday behavior, but you can't blame the community for the screw up we're witnessing from the corporations.
I wouldn't blame MTG players even for this insane behavior. WotC hyped this to insane levels by revealing the low print run numbers when they normally wouldn't do (they go out of their way to hide it sometimes) and making strong unnecessary statements like no print run ever just to assure some of the "investor" collectors off their insecurities.
They should have predicted that traffic would be insane after those statements and make sure they at least don't mess up those who got order processed wrongfully during this mess. Now we have a bunch of people with their money tied down for who knows how long while they sort this avoidable mess. A mess bigger than past similar blunders where they should have learnt from.
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Although this was a eBay problem, so they should take the culpability, the fundamental flaw of this whole *****show is WotC doesn't know how to handle supply and demand properly. It was very clear that this product would be extremely popular and demanding. It was clear it would generate so much traffic. If they didn't disclosed the print run and said it wouldn't be printed anymore after this batch, maybe it wouldn't generate this anxiety to not missing out. I'm OK in disclosing the amount, but I'm not OK in saying that was just it to make people hyped. EBay dropped the ball, but I think the ball was flawed to begin with. WotC created this avoidable situation and this is the result.
I don't even believe any online outlet would be handle this situation any better. It was the perfect storm for this bad happening and the final fault is with WotC.
anywho, now we just wait and see what qualified people to be included in the 12k with everyone being uncertain until the physical box shows up at their doorstep. those with canceled orders have no hope, and the choice to make a relisting implies that anyone with a confirmed and paid purchase prior to the listing being put up have some higher chance of being one of the selected (otherwise what would compel them to make a listing unless they had some semblance of stock - so purchasing before = they had stock).
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)As far as not being able to cancel orders, they only have 12000 boxes. Should they just keep all the money even though they cannot fill the orders? Of course not, so they should refund the people and notify them. They aren't getting more product, it was very clearly stated that "once it's gone, it's gone".
"Reveal a Dragon"
They just made a Black Friday sale (big sales day for US companies to cash in on the beginning of Christmas sales right after US Thanksgiving) that more than 12k wanted and they trampled over eBay. They need to funnel the people into the store orderly to avoid overloading the server.
I do think it would just create a new point in the system for people to complain about though. It would probably cut back on complaints in total though since we wouldn't be seeing this 42k number thrown around, the relisting, and other purchase related complaints. Likely we'd only be seeing "I didn't get into the queue despite being told I was in the queue", but that's probably not as bad? I don't know.
Any time there's a limited supply like this I'm surprised when people think that everyone is supposed to be satisfied.
"Reveal a Dragon"
Then why did they relisted the item at least 2 more times?
"Reveal a Dragon"
This is how San Diego Comic-Con operates, for the most part, and it has been a smooth experience every time I've done it, win or lose.
Maybe they just hold a lotto and pull names from a hat. I know from experience that pisses people off as well.
Currently Playing:
Standard:
Nothing, the format Bores me!
Legacy:
RBurn (Made on the Cheap!)R
RGBelcherRG
WSoldier StompyW
BReanimatorB
EDH:
BUGRWSliver OverlordWRGUB
BGeth, Lord of the VaultB
http://www.cubetutor.com/cubeblog/63569
I got a feedback from Hasbro
I think it's normal to be frustrated while trying to get a limited product and usually it dies out naturally if it was handled properly. However, if it's not handled properly and similar and new mistakes are created during the process, the frustration becomes outrage. Especially coming from a big corporation like Hasbro.
There were limited products in the past where only a small amount of people can have access to. However, they were mostly handled by distributors and stores (like Commander's Arsenal). I think people's frustration lasted less during these times although complaints existed. Complaints and frustration are always there for sure and with Internet venting it up is a normal reaction. However, having such a bad experience during the process isn't excusable and deserve criticism and outrage.
They shouldn't have marketed it as super limited to begin with. I know they wanted to make sure collectors this item would have low supply because of the past blunder and also create a cheap buzz/hype. However, they misinterpreted this. The problem wasn't the print run. It was the subpar selection. They overcompensated on both ends creating this scare in the process by disclosing the number. Something they normally don't do with consistency. Obviously it would make any potential buyer panic. Also the poorly edited listing probably led to cancellations from people who did really plan ahead for this.
I'm OK in missing out if it was fair and handled professionally. However, poor handling of the situation isn't excusable in any way and this was the case. Complaints and frustration are unavoidable. This whole amateur handling of situation was avoidable from the marketing to the final process.
Hello,
Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us. We recognize that there was an issue with eBay processing orders for Magic The Gathering: War of the Spark Mythic Edition. We are working closely with our partners at eBay to remedy this situation, and anyone affected by this will receive an email notification from eBay. We understand your frustration, but please be patient while we work through these issues.
We greatly appreciate your business. If you have additional questions, contact our Customer Service Center via email at ebaycustomerservice@Hasbrotoyshop.com or phone at 1-800-408-0052 Mon-Fri 8am – 8 pm EST.
Sincerely yours,
Customer Service for HasbroToyShop on eBay
They also included an image and link of my order:
Order status: Paid
Paid $263.24 with PAYPAL on May 01, 2019 12:34 PDT
Estimated delivery: Mon. May. 6 - Wed. May. 8
This is the one I feel very confident will be cancelled based on the time stamp. The other order I got through was around 12:22 PDT. I am guessing there is a chance that one may "stick". I have not seen or heard of anyone who got an order through on initial sale that didn't get cancelled. I am thinking they will refund all sales after a certain time stamp, but who knows what that will be. The one piece that is really baffling is the relist at around 12:40 PDT where they sold another 4300.
Yes, you're the white-bordered version aka the worst kind.
Network traffic or server capacity (cringes) is not an unknown variable, especially with an entity as large, and as experienced, as eBay. eBay clearly has redundancy and scalability as part of their business model.
And yes, you can absolutely blame eBay and Hasbro for this gaff. WotC/Hasbro chose to use eBay because they figured, correctly, Hasbro servers can't handle the load. eBay clearly has the capacity to handle said load and failed to set aside resources for it. Whether this was a miscommunication from WotC to eBay or an overly exuberant estimation of eBay's configuration remains to be seen. Someone, likely an employee on WotC's side, added more boxes or incorrectly configured the eBay page.
You can blame Magic players (and flippers) for their near insane levels of Black Friday behavior, but you can't blame the community for the screw up we're witnessing from the corporations.
They should have predicted that traffic would be insane after those statements and make sure they at least don't mess up those who got order processed wrongfully during this mess. Now we have a bunch of people with their money tied down for who knows how long while they sort this avoidable mess. A mess bigger than past similar blunders where they should have learnt from.