If you offer people unlimited time to purchase a premium product, they are less likely to actually purchase the item because they will put off actually spending the money indefinitely.
If you put a time limit on the sale of the premium item, sales spike because people are forced to "buy now or never have the chance to buy it again". Loads of companies use this marketing gimmick. Funko sells con-exclusive Pops. Games Workshop makes limited edition versions of their newest rule books. Forge World (and GW) come out with sales of out of production models that will be made to order but only available for purchase over the course of a single weekend.
Of course they do, which doesnt make it any better.
Banking on people buying your product uninformed just means your product is shady at best.
Good product sells no matter what, bad product requires some shady actions to move.
Doing so is ANTI-consumer and it means the company values its customers less, overall bad business practice (but if enough customers let themselves rip off, it pays of).
In the end you can always buy it later, as the vast majority of orders is to flip the boxes anyway, which just artificially inflates the price of an already overpriced product (and some will buy into this too much, not flip it for profit and run themselves down).
Its flat out bad business practice to make up time pressure to buy a product.
Good products dont need it, only bad product does.
So what should wotc do with secret lair? Make them a FTV series that scalps everyone and can be either over or under printed? Only to benefit parasitic โinvestorsโ?
Pretty easy, print a bunch like for any other set, sell them to LGS stores and let them hand them out.
People that want them go to the stores, the stores make a profit and people play Magic.
Stores order product based on what they decide is appropriate, if they need more product, simply have a 2nd wave ; its the same for all the products WotC produces.
If you want to limit it, sell X amount to a store, keep it low so its special, instead of flooding a market with it (as the vast majority of people buy it to flip them to people that are unaware of the drops and no Magic news).
----
As it is right now, Direct to consumer sells will go up, especially if people buy these in high numbers, that is by nature working against the LGS (which makes sense for the company to rip the rewards for direct to consumer sells, but its a crippling trend that has no future for a LGS if this continues).
To echo Patch, this doesn't really affect stores as much as some people seem to think. I work at a relatively small store. If we're being honest, of the stores in my area, the one I work at would be the first to feel it if the game started to go under. We bought the first flight of Secret Lair Drops, flipped most of the ones we bought for twice what we paid within the first two weeks, have one left as prize support for our Commander League, and are now just sitting on the snow lands and goblins.
We at the shop have plenty to complain about MTG wise, but stuff like Secret Lair isn't even on our radar.
The point is that WotC sells directly to consumers.
The fact that you bought and sold the SLD for double the price (plus shipping) just shows that you happen to have enough customers that are willing to pay an extraordinary premium for what they could simply order themselves.
This entire SLD thing has to be compared to what the FromTheVault sets did as they essentially the same, selling a bunch of premium singles directly.
FTV pushed a bunch of money into stores, as a "thank you" for stores and thats exactly what it was.
This product however leeches on the people are does nothing for the stores in particular, if people still buy the product for a massive extra at a store, great, loyal customers that want the stores are pretty much exactly what a store needs to stay alive at this point in time.
----
And if the "trend" of selling directly to customers and circumventing the Local Gaming Stores is not giving you any creeps, then you might be bit naive for what the future holds for you (especially when WotC starts to sell overall everything directly, then you have to compete against a competitor selling the stuff to you and to customers, which is the worst situation to be as a retailer as it breaks the entire chain of distribution).
Lol, wizards just discovered how to print money, didn't they?
They just milk the market.
If people keep buying overpriced crap they get more overpriced crap.
Anybody else just ignores it.
----
The absolute worst part of it is that it undermines all the stores.
The product a store gets tanks in value and it just keeps going.
All the stores get a massive "FU" and if anybody cares for their store and place to play, this kind of product has to be boycott, its bleeding out all the stores worldwide.
And if people dont think like that, they will wake up and wonder why there are no stores anymore.
Well art is art, you can like it or not.
But these cards are anything but "auto includes", as they are super specific for a deck to be worth including (and strictly casual too).
----
If you get them early and flip them to someone willing to pay the premium you make a profit.
But it always depends on finding someone that is not just going to order themselves if they could.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ #BlueLivesMatter ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ
I sell product to people that make responsible decisions.
Not everyone has to be shady and piss on customers to make a living.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ #BlueLivesMatter ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ
Of course they do, which doesnt make it any better.
Banking on people buying your product uninformed just means your product is shady at best.
Good product sells no matter what, bad product requires some shady actions to move.
Doing so is ANTI-consumer and it means the company values its customers less, overall bad business practice (but if enough customers let themselves rip off, it pays of).
In the end you can always buy it later, as the vast majority of orders is to flip the boxes anyway, which just artificially inflates the price of an already overpriced product (and some will buy into this too much, not flip it for profit and run themselves down).
Its flat out bad business practice to make up time pressure to buy a product.
Good products dont need it, only bad product does.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ #BlueLivesMatter ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ
Pretty easy, print a bunch like for any other set, sell them to LGS stores and let them hand them out.
People that want them go to the stores, the stores make a profit and people play Magic.
Stores order product based on what they decide is appropriate, if they need more product, simply have a 2nd wave ; its the same for all the products WotC produces.
If you want to limit it, sell X amount to a store, keep it low so its special, instead of flooding a market with it (as the vast majority of people buy it to flip them to people that are unaware of the drops and no Magic news).
----
As it is right now, Direct to consumer sells will go up, especially if people buy these in high numbers, that is by nature working against the LGS (which makes sense for the company to rip the rewards for direct to consumer sells, but its a crippling trend that has no future for a LGS if this continues).
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ #BlueLivesMatter ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ
The point is that WotC sells directly to consumers.
The fact that you bought and sold the SLD for double the price (plus shipping) just shows that you happen to have enough customers that are willing to pay an extraordinary premium for what they could simply order themselves.
This entire SLD thing has to be compared to what the FromTheVault sets did as they essentially the same, selling a bunch of premium singles directly.
FTV pushed a bunch of money into stores, as a "thank you" for stores and thats exactly what it was.
This product however leeches on the people are does nothing for the stores in particular, if people still buy the product for a massive extra at a store, great, loyal customers that want the stores are pretty much exactly what a store needs to stay alive at this point in time.
----
And if the "trend" of selling directly to customers and circumventing the Local Gaming Stores is not giving you any creeps, then you might be bit naive for what the future holds for you (especially when WotC starts to sell overall everything directly, then you have to compete against a competitor selling the stuff to you and to customers, which is the worst situation to be as a retailer as it breaks the entire chain of distribution).
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ #BlueLivesMatter ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ
They just milk the market.
If people keep buying overpriced crap they get more overpriced crap.
Anybody else just ignores it.
----
The absolute worst part of it is that it undermines all the stores.
The product a store gets tanks in value and it just keeps going.
All the stores get a massive "FU" and if anybody cares for their store and place to play, this kind of product has to be boycott, its bleeding out all the stores worldwide.
And if people dont think like that, they will wake up and wonder why there are no stores anymore.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ #BlueLivesMatter ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ฎ