So apparently I'm buying another Kaladesh Holiday Gift Box this year. This years product is so bad. Such a senseless cash grab it reminds me of the premium foil packs back in Alara block. Look at what a success they were, and somehow they, in retrospect, seem a much better buy then this junk.
Lets see 15th anniversery had a special life counter, a special dice, a promo Kamahl, Pit Fighter, Legends in the core set, a black boarder core set, and a promo Char. 10th had a special life counter and a promo Rukh egg. Both had a ton of specially marked product. This year...um...
I find it interesting that in all the drafts I've been in I've only seen 3 decks. White/Black Life Gain, Green/Red aggro, and the occasional Blue decking deck. Was in one draft where there were only 3 slivers opened. This core set just seams unfun to play. Think they needed to take more time to develop it. I always buy at least one box of the core sets, my play group always buys at least 3 boxes, between the group we didn't buy a single box. That's how underwhelming this set is in relation to other core sets.
The phrase you used was "print the **** out of them."
That implies, to a reasonable person, that you want WotC to flood the market with reprints and depress secondary market prices to the point that no cards exceed an arbitrary limit.
The point I made was that WotC don't want to do that - indeed, explicitly acknowledged that your proposed strategy causes problems.
Whether WotC have formally promised never to reprint a specific card or not is beside the point. Do you really believe they'll ever reprint Skullclamp or Mind Twist again? Neither have ever appeared on any version of the Reserved List, but we won't see their like again. Variants yes, but not the card itself.
Magic is still marketed as a collectible - that was one of the reasons for introducing foils. Collectors (that is, people who buy Magic cards just to collect) do so in the expectation that the company won't wantonly destroy the value of a collection. Crashing a $100 dollar card to less than $10 certainly would be seen that way, and it would discourage people from collecting for collection's sake.
Mind Twist was in introduced in MTGO via Masters III. Skullclamp was reprinted in commander. Just thought I would point that out.
From the rulings found in the description of the card on magiccards.info
"If you cast a card “without paying its mana cost,” you can’t pay alternative costs such as overload costs. You can pay additional costs such as kicker costs. If the card has mandatory additional costs, you must pay those."
It's intentionally limited. We don't want everyone to have new jackets. Then a new jacket wouldn't be a big deal. Premium magic cards are not a commodity, and for good reason. There is so much excitement, both good and bad, built up about this products. I get it; you're super entitled and don't want them to be expensive. But exclusivity is what makes markets operate. They could probably make more money by doubling the production and selling them at $40, but this isn't a money grab. It's brand building and injecting excitement into the first and secondary markets for an exclusive product. Get. Over. It.
Also why didn't you just preorder one? I get it that I'm lucky at getting one preordered for retail, but I also did the legwork and begged for it weeks and weeks before preorder so that I would be assured to get one. Anyone can do this. Anyone with singles can sell them to get $75 or $100 to preorder one if they want it badly enough. This isn't an arm and a leg. It's what many spend on magic in a month or a week. This hobby isn't free and it was never intended to be.
Been trying to preorder. Four shops in the area and no ones selling. Everyone's either sold out or they are giving the opportunity to buy as a prize.
Wizards keeps the msrp lower so that the distributors don't go crazy on marking things like this and FTV up on the stores and so that if the stores want to mark it up all the profit will go to them. If there wasn't an msrp on FTV products distributors would charge stores an arm and a leg, which in turn means the store would require you to give up your first born. Having a higher msrp does the exact opposite of what you think it does.
Ok, I worked in the book industry. Publishers sold to distributors at I can only imagine the discount. We got 45% off msrp from the distributor. we sold at msrp. everyone was happy. This is the only product that I know of that the producer almost encourages the retailer to sell at above msrp. I don't remember this being done frequently when I started, It seams to be a new thing from my perspective. wotc is also pretty selective about who does and does not qualify as a TO or retailer. We were a brick a mortar store and I was told dealing with wotc was not worth the trouble. I tried opening my own store and needed pricing info for my business plain, wizards writ me off. I now work for a library and I gave up on trying to organize tournaments. They are extremely protective of there product, as they should be. I'm sure they have their reasons for the msrp stuff. It just seems to help the bigger stores then the locals who may feel a loyalty to their customers to only charge msrp. It doesn't make a fair playing field for players or shops.
Also, there's that whole ex-starcity current wotc employee overlap. There's always been a bit of an incestuousness relationship between wotc and the secondary market. Then again, where can you go to look for employees that really know the game. Secondary market people, those that write for sites like starcity get the most exposure.
***I'm not saying this is the reason, I'm pointing out why people are sometimes suspicious of the whole wotc getting as involved with the secondary market as they sometimes do. Obviously not everyone at wizards worked for these companies. Most probably haven't, its because those people get more exposure when and before they move that I think some believe that hiring from the secondary market is more of the norm then it is.
You still missed the mark here. Part of the "cultivation" process is to also keep the brick and mortar storefronts going, and this is another one of those products that "throws them a bone" during the holiday season. The simple fact that this product will be able to sell for more than MSRP shows the store owners that if they wanted/needed to, they could make a few more dollars off these. Much like the From the Vault series, these small print run items help stimulate sales for small businesses.
Also, I'm 99.99% sure that if a player wants any card from this box set as bad as they are claiming, there will be more than enough for sale online via SCG, TCGPlayer, etc...
Umm...I worked in retail. The best way that Wotc could help the retailers (brick and mortar), rather then the secondary market would be to increase the mspr of the product and to give the retailer a higher discount on that product. That would make things simple and less would feel cheated by the whole retailers pricing product above msrp. Wizards is a hellish company to deal with, due to their standards. I'm really surprised that they haven't cracked down on that behavior. Some of their Wizards Play Network notices even seem to encourage it (yes, FTV I'm looking at you). This is just a bizarre practice almost just meant to annoy the customer base and the virtuous few.
btw the Pro Tour Collector Set's msrp was $125. Big difference, those wern't tournament legal and that was for 8 decks.
If you're looking for affordable staples, this is not the product for you. $75 MSRP is obviously a luxury item, intended for collectors and possibly holiday gift-buyers.
IIRC, they clearly stated in the original announcement that it would be "a limited print run product, meant for the collectors and the avid Commander players". I don't really see how that's unclear.
That announcement did say limited print run. The San Diego Comic-Con announcement sounded more for the common player. Either way no one...I mean no one expected it to be so much rarer than FTV.
1. Will, mouahahaha!, get his copy for less than MSRP.
2. Use long winded paragraph to hide that all he's saying is that the product is intended for people who will buy the product.
3. Is down on anyone who doesn't annoint the floor of his store?
4. Consider that the only successful limited run product is one that will sell out *and* he can overcharge for.
Jeebsus.
You forgot about the cursing and rude responses implying that posters that are upset are somehow not allowed to be upset. The cursing actually is kind of upsetting to me because this should be civil conversation. Telling someone that they should not be upset generally just makes people more upset. And yes, if you come on super strong questioning your motives/figuring out you own a store and am going to sell this for above msrp is a separate issue and is allowed.
but, back to the product. I'm going to laugh if the rest of the pack are like cheep uncommons or $1 rares. This sold out everywhere before anyone even knows what is in it.
Mind Twist was in introduced in MTGO via Masters III. Skullclamp was reprinted in commander. Just thought I would point that out.
thanks
Been trying to preorder. Four shops in the area and no ones selling. Everyone's either sold out or they are giving the opportunity to buy as a prize.
Ok, I worked in the book industry. Publishers sold to distributors at I can only imagine the discount. We got 45% off msrp from the distributor. we sold at msrp. everyone was happy. This is the only product that I know of that the producer almost encourages the retailer to sell at above msrp. I don't remember this being done frequently when I started, It seams to be a new thing from my perspective. wotc is also pretty selective about who does and does not qualify as a TO or retailer. We were a brick a mortar store and I was told dealing with wotc was not worth the trouble. I tried opening my own store and needed pricing info for my business plain, wizards writ me off. I now work for a library and I gave up on trying to organize tournaments. They are extremely protective of there product, as they should be. I'm sure they have their reasons for the msrp stuff. It just seems to help the bigger stores then the locals who may feel a loyalty to their customers to only charge msrp. It doesn't make a fair playing field for players or shops.
***I'm not saying this is the reason, I'm pointing out why people are sometimes suspicious of the whole wotc getting as involved with the secondary market as they sometimes do. Obviously not everyone at wizards worked for these companies. Most probably haven't, its because those people get more exposure when and before they move that I think some believe that hiring from the secondary market is more of the norm then it is.
Umm...I worked in retail. The best way that Wotc could help the retailers (brick and mortar), rather then the secondary market would be to increase the mspr of the product and to give the retailer a higher discount on that product. That would make things simple and less would feel cheated by the whole retailers pricing product above msrp. Wizards is a hellish company to deal with, due to their standards. I'm really surprised that they haven't cracked down on that behavior. Some of their Wizards Play Network notices even seem to encourage it (yes, FTV I'm looking at you). This is just a bizarre practice almost just meant to annoy the customer base and the virtuous few.
btw the Pro Tour Collector Set's msrp was $125. Big difference, those wern't tournament legal and that was for 8 decks.
That announcement did say limited print run. The San Diego Comic-Con announcement sounded more for the common player. Either way no one...I mean no one expected it to be so much rarer than FTV.
You forgot about the cursing and rude responses implying that posters that are upset are somehow not allowed to be upset. The cursing actually is kind of upsetting to me because this should be civil conversation. Telling someone that they should not be upset generally just makes people more upset. And yes, if you come on super strong questioning your motives/figuring out you own a store and am going to sell this for above msrp is a separate issue and is allowed.
but, back to the product. I'm going to laugh if the rest of the pack are like cheep uncommons or $1 rares. This sold out everywhere before anyone even knows what is in it.