Been thinking about the MSRP for Modern Horizons... about $10 a pack and booster boxes of 36 packs are hovering just south of the $200 mark. These prices seam to be floating between a Masters set and a regular misc. set (like street release prices of Battlebond and Conspiracy sets).
What truly justifies the above mentioned prices? I understand it (somewhat) but think greed is the #1 reason why. So, we will have a lot of throwbacks to sets of eras past. Some powerful cards have been designed; so powerful, they [might] break standard (or at least warp it). But does that justify $10 a pack out the door? Other reasons that would justify a $10/pack would be a premium [read foil] card per pack. And for the $200+ booster boxes, we saw the pack/box go from 36 to 24 {Sir Rudy of the Investments would call this the Greed Monster... Oink!).
Speculation w/in the first two days of spoilers is really tough. But this supplemental spoiler season (like War of the Spark - I presume), will/might have a lot of commons and uncommons being spoiled, so it's a slow roll of visual, nerd-gastic joy each day. I do not anticipate the spoilers will blow the chase rare/mythic wad @ the beginning, so much is left to see. I bring this up because in the past, the chase cards used to be spoiled first, making all of us chomp @ the bit, raising expectation and possibly pre-sale values for the boxes. What this all culminates into is this: will the boxes go up prior to the release date because so much magic [no pun intended there] is in the set, or will the steam run out like the fifth turn of a red aggro deck leading to box values slumping? I don't imagine the latter situation occurring, but snow has appeared in hell.
So, what then justifies such a large tag if there is no premium foil in each pack, no over-hyped reprints, or alternate art box topper (could be wrong here, as nothing has been mentioned "yet")?
Let's look at some facts about the impact of Modern Horizons (take a step back from the trees (the cards in other words) and look at the forest (MH's place in the world):
1) Not standard legal.
2) Is meant to add flavor and change up the stale state of Modern on the Pro Tour level.
3) Will, most likely, not be found on Arena (on Arena, I have noticed, getting chase rares & mythics is much easier, so when they are easier to get, they are easier to play with, giving most a chance to experience the awesomeness of said chase/mythic cards, which in turn makes many want to trade/buy/booster-pack-crack for those chase/mythics).
4) Will find their way into Commander decks, pauper decks & casual kitchen table decks.
5) Will be a print on demand product, so much will be be sold throughout the next 12 months or so.
6) I imagine will have cards reprinted in other supplemental products [Commander sets, Battlebond 2 {not speculating, but c'mon, w/ the popularity of Battlebond, why would a second installment not come along?}, etc...].
When, Sunday night, late, the previews starting coming in, I was ecstatic, think the pre-release will be fun, especially for Two-Headed Giant, as I finally got a friend who would be my better half of the giant. Then I looked up the prices of packs for pre-sale. If this a sign of what is to come, we are looking at $30 drafts and $60 sealed pools... does a shop really think a crowd will be brought in for Two-Headed Giant if the cost is $50-$60 for the team?!?!?! What are they insane in the membrane????
With all of the facts & opinions I just gave, can anyone give me a justifiable reason for such a heavy price tag outside of corporate greed?
Lots of the cards could simply be in a Commander product, as they are build around themes anyway.
But they learned that they can easily ask for more money and people will pay up.
It simply works as people dont think much, they just buy into the hype and someone is clearly willing to overpay for everything (as someone must actually keep the cards for the high price tags, while many others just buy the stuff to sell them again for value, as long as you get them for cheap).
Magic at this point clearly got enough people that are totally willing and able to pay the high prices and there is little to no reason why they shouldnt milk these people (as frankly said, i never bought any of these master set booster packs or any packs that ask for more money, and you can easily get the singles you need for much much cheaper than buying into packs).
----
They could totally throw at you more product for much much less money and still make a high profit, as making cards is NOT expensive and they put up margins that are plainly insane. But it doesnt matter, people pay that money and with that much money in the community, it kinda self-destructs if these people would suddenly vanish ; as it all depends on the bunch of people that actually keep the cards, as the market cant sustain if all would just buy and sell the cards for profit, someone has to pay the "ultimate" price and keep the crap, which will then in almost any case lose a ton of value.
With all of the facts & opinions I just gave, can anyone give me a justifiable reason for such a heavy price tag outside of corporate greed?
There isn't any, because America is a capitalist economy and under capitalism, corporations like Hasbro are only allowed to do one thing: Maximize shareholder value. If an executive takes steps that the board believes do not serve this goal, the executive will be replaced by someone who does. And, of course, actually maximizing shareholder value (instead of merely increasing it) means doing some pretty dirty things to make sure you aren't leaving even a single dollar on the table.
Combine that with how many executives get bonuses tied to quarterly or yearly performance, and you have the makings of a system where exploitation is not only the default mode of economic transaction, but the only one. So Wizards feels like they can get away with Masters-level pricing here, and they're doing it. In a few years, if Magic lives that long, they'll try that again, except the packs will be more than $10. They might even be $15. And executives will keep on pushing that envelope farther and farther, with more supplementary sets and more pointless add-ons like Masterpieces and alternate art Japanese cards, trying to get those bonuses, trying to maximize the profits from each new release, with no regard for Magic's long-term health other than to shrug their shoulders and blame the consumer if it all comes crashing down.
You see it in most industries, and the fundamental problem is capitalism. It's not limited to Hasbro or to Magic in any significant way. They're a symptom, not the problem.
If these premium sets weren't of equal value to their price point, the value of old masters boxes would be plummeting. Instead, a UMA box is about $400 on tcgplayer. Just because YOU cannot afford it, or YOU would prefer to spend less, does not mean that the price is evil.
Here's the reality: if you are right, and the item is overpriced, very few will sell, and in a couple months you will be able to snag a box of MH for substantially less. If it holds its value, as almost every other premium product has, it just means that your concept of value is different from the vast majority of people.
Oh, and capitalism ******* rocks. I'll throw this out there for the above poster:
If these premium sets weren't of equal value to their price point, the value of old masters boxes would be plummeting.
Goods have:
An economic value expressed in units of currency.
A use value, which is very low in Magic cards since they're merely game pieces.
An exchange value, which is trivial, as Magic cards can be sold but in terms of goods and services are mostly just traded for other Magic cards. Note this is not a monetary price.
A selling price, which is often equal or nearly equal to the others, but does not necessarily have to be (and in fact, this is the exact problem, see below).
When you buy these Magic cards, you're paying $10 a pack for cards that, when you open them, aren't very likely to be worth $10 in any of the four values. Hasbro and Wizards have simply decided to set a price that's not reflective of their goods' actual value. While in the long run, such as over multiple cases of booster boxes, your packs might give you an average value close to $10, at the smaller scale most people play at, it's nothing but gambling that you'll get something useful. This is also why new players are universally told "buy singles, not packs." Hasbro's profits can only ever go up with the more inefficiencies and middlemen included in the distribution of Magic cards (there's no reason foil Japanese alternate art planeswalkers need to be in such short supply, for instance, except as a conscious decision to create less supply than expected demand).
A corporation will never have your best interests at heart. If they feel they can squeeze an extra dollar out of you, they'll go for it. Wizards is nobody's friend but their shareholders', and greed is their singular motivator. It's all they're legally allowed to be motivated by. That's not "good" behaviour by any stretch of the imagination.
I'll throw this out there for the above poster
You realize you're talking to the Magic version of Jim Sterling, right?
What truly justifies the above mentioned prices? I understand it (somewhat) but think greed is the #1 reason why. So, we will have a lot of throwbacks to sets of eras past. Some powerful cards have been designed; so powerful, they [might] break standard (or at least warp it). But does that justify $10 a pack out the door? Other reasons that would justify a $10/pack would be a premium [read foil] card per pack. And for the $200+ booster boxes, we saw the pack/box go from 36 to 24 {Sir Rudy of the Investments would call this the Greed Monster... Oink!).
Speculation w/in the first two days of spoilers is really tough. But this supplemental spoiler season (like War of the Spark - I presume), will/might have a lot of commons and uncommons being spoiled, so it's a slow roll of visual, nerd-gastic joy each day. I do not anticipate the spoilers will blow the chase rare/mythic wad @ the beginning, so much is left to see. I bring this up because in the past, the chase cards used to be spoiled first, making all of us chomp @ the bit, raising expectation and possibly pre-sale values for the boxes. What this all culminates into is this: will the boxes go up prior to the release date because so much magic [no pun intended there] is in the set, or will the steam run out like the fifth turn of a red aggro deck leading to box values slumping? I don't imagine the latter situation occurring, but snow has appeared in hell.
So, what then justifies such a large tag if there is no premium foil in each pack, no over-hyped reprints, or alternate art box topper (could be wrong here, as nothing has been mentioned "yet")?
Let's look at some facts about the impact of Modern Horizons (take a step back from the trees (the cards in other words) and look at the forest (MH's place in the world):
1) Not standard legal.
2) Is meant to add flavor and change up the stale state of Modern on the Pro Tour level.
3) Will, most likely, not be found on Arena (on Arena, I have noticed, getting chase rares & mythics is much easier, so when they are easier to get, they are easier to play with, giving most a chance to experience the awesomeness of said chase/mythic cards, which in turn makes many want to trade/buy/booster-pack-crack for those chase/mythics).
4) Will find their way into Commander decks, pauper decks & casual kitchen table decks.
5) Will be a print on demand product, so much will be be sold throughout the next 12 months or so.
6) I imagine will have cards reprinted in other supplemental products [Commander sets, Battlebond 2 {not speculating, but c'mon, w/ the popularity of Battlebond, why would a second installment not come along?}, etc...].
When, Sunday night, late, the previews starting coming in, I was ecstatic, think the pre-release will be fun, especially for Two-Headed Giant, as I finally got a friend who would be my better half of the giant. Then I looked up the prices of packs for pre-sale. If this a sign of what is to come, we are looking at $30 drafts and $60 sealed pools... does a shop really think a crowd will be brought in for Two-Headed Giant if the cost is $50-$60 for the team?!?!?! What are they insane in the membrane????
With all of the facts & opinions I just gave, can anyone give me a justifiable reason for such a heavy price tag outside of corporate greed?
But they learned that they can easily ask for more money and people will pay up.
It simply works as people dont think much, they just buy into the hype and someone is clearly willing to overpay for everything (as someone must actually keep the cards for the high price tags, while many others just buy the stuff to sell them again for value, as long as you get them for cheap).
Magic at this point clearly got enough people that are totally willing and able to pay the high prices and there is little to no reason why they shouldnt milk these people (as frankly said, i never bought any of these master set booster packs or any packs that ask for more money, and you can easily get the singles you need for much much cheaper than buying into packs).
----
They could totally throw at you more product for much much less money and still make a high profit, as making cards is NOT expensive and they put up margins that are plainly insane. But it doesnt matter, people pay that money and with that much money in the community, it kinda self-destructs if these people would suddenly vanish ; as it all depends on the bunch of people that actually keep the cards, as the market cant sustain if all would just buy and sell the cards for profit, someone has to pay the "ultimate" price and keep the crap, which will then in almost any case lose a ton of value.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
There isn't any, because America is a capitalist economy and under capitalism, corporations like Hasbro are only allowed to do one thing: Maximize shareholder value. If an executive takes steps that the board believes do not serve this goal, the executive will be replaced by someone who does. And, of course, actually maximizing shareholder value (instead of merely increasing it) means doing some pretty dirty things to make sure you aren't leaving even a single dollar on the table.
Combine that with how many executives get bonuses tied to quarterly or yearly performance, and you have the makings of a system where exploitation is not only the default mode of economic transaction, but the only one. So Wizards feels like they can get away with Masters-level pricing here, and they're doing it. In a few years, if Magic lives that long, they'll try that again, except the packs will be more than $10. They might even be $15. And executives will keep on pushing that envelope farther and farther, with more supplementary sets and more pointless add-ons like Masterpieces and alternate art Japanese cards, trying to get those bonuses, trying to maximize the profits from each new release, with no regard for Magic's long-term health other than to shrug their shoulders and blame the consumer if it all comes crashing down.
You see it in most industries, and the fundamental problem is capitalism. It's not limited to Hasbro or to Magic in any significant way. They're a symptom, not the problem.
Here's the reality: if you are right, and the item is overpriced, very few will sell, and in a couple months you will be able to snag a box of MH for substantially less. If it holds its value, as almost every other premium product has, it just means that your concept of value is different from the vast majority of people.
Oh, and capitalism ******* rocks. I'll throw this out there for the above poster:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rainerzitelmann/2019/05/14/no-the-rich-didnt-get-rich-at-the-expense-of-the-poor/#3307cd8c38ca
Goods have:
A corporation will never have your best interests at heart. If they feel they can squeeze an extra dollar out of you, they'll go for it. Wizards is nobody's friend but their shareholders', and greed is their singular motivator. It's all they're legally allowed to be motivated by. That's not "good" behaviour by any stretch of the imagination.
You realize you're talking to the Magic version of Jim Sterling, right?