So where is the evidence or data, you are just saying you want to continue to argue and feel you are in the right.
[Alright, I can concede that Standard sets probably cost more to produce and sell for less. But you are forgetting print windows. The fact that they print standard sets longer indicates that there is more profit there. This is simple business logic. So yes, there is some support but hardly any actual facts. Just some nice things you can claim support your side but nothing concrete. Which is why it belongs in baseless.]
You really don't get what baseless is do you? And you don't get that past practice IS evidence. I can't debate with someone who ignores logic and you do. You say I am right but it is baseless? Which one is it? You are being obtuse. It only matters in scale and length of sale if you are selling buttloads more product. If high margin boxes net you say 100 dollars a box and low margin boxes net you 10 dollars a box you have to sell 10 times the amount!!! And yes this is ALL FREAKIN FACTS not your feelings or thoughts, it is concrete real business numbers and past practices. That makes it BASED!!!
I am not even going to bother with the rest of your crap, it bears little meaning other than what you think and feel. I have given past practice, links, information and numbers. YOU HAVE PROVIDED NOTHING BUT "Nanny nanny boo boo" garbage. Where is it? You don't have it. I shared what I have. I would love to discuss it with some open minded people but you are a lost cause. Join the Ignore list where you belong. Feel free to reciprocate, but I bet you won't will you? No you won't. I know your type, easily recognizable.
So anyone else have any pertinent information to add or discuss. I am open to actual critique, not just dismissive feelings. I really do want to discuss this in a civil and logical manner. And I don't mind defending my position and information for those who will recognize it.
No and Maybe. Magic 2.0 would be a "new" game. You would have to have Magic 2.0 cards to play in any sanctioned events. Magic 2.0 cards would NOT be backwards compatible with Magic the Gathering, Magic the Gathering cards would not be legal in Magic 2.0, they would be separate. BUT.... Magic 2.0 cards could have potentially have the same names and artwork (and functionality) of MTG 1.0 cards.
So CLOSE to a proxy but NOT a proxy as the card has its own game, its own separate collectability. Sure some people would buy to proxy them into Magic 1.0 decks if they were the same card as the original, but they would NOT be tournament legal.
Look at what they just did with proxies, it flopped massively. Now what if you could have bought a 4 dollar pack and pulled a Black Lotus and actually be ABLE TO PLAY THAT CARD in a sanctioned tournament!!! What if you could sell that card for hundreds or thousands of dollars on the secondary market, since it has PLAY VALUE? Would it parasitize money intended for Magic 1.0? Potentially and there is a sticking point. Would it possibly pull in newer (or returning) players? It sure could.
Thank you for asking important questions, I will try my best to answer.
Imagine being able to reprint Power 9 or Reserve list cards into a "rebooted" Magic 2.0 that doesn't break their reprint policy/rule on original Magic.
Think that would sound appealing to WotC and Hasbro? You better believe it.
They have already taken the first step with 30th Anniversary and the reserve list. Printing them into a "new" game is the next logical step.
Anyone could make a new game including cards that resemble the Power 9 or other Reserved List cards. There's nothing inherently lucrative about doing so if they aren't attached to the actual Magic card game.
That is the thing a Magic 2.0 would be attached/connected to Magic the Gathering in general gameplay and rules except, different cardbacks and a "different game". Easy way for WotC/Hasbro to skirt their own reserved list which isn't a legal and binding contract anyway. You have to think outside the proverbial box on this one.
So you found one small piece out of 7 (#1) that may be debatable? That's it one little maybe out of 7, try better. 6 of the 7 are FACT and your opinion of my facts is just that, an opinion. Your rebuttals are all opinions. You disproved NONE of it. You need to review the definition as well and maybe also look up OBTUSE while you are at it as well.
Here you go
ob·tuse
adjective
1.
annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand.
Can you disprove my point #1, go ahead and provide the evidence and we can talk. Other 6 are perfectly valid and BASED in truth.
But tell you what let me give you some simple numbers that anyone that can detect truth and work elementary math should be able to tell. Because NUMBERS are not "assumptions and fallacies" as your baseless opinion would erroneously seem to indicate.
Standard Draft packs retail on average around $4 USD a pack. Standard Set booster packs retail around $6 a pack. Standard Collector Boosters vary but usually average around $15 to $18 an individual pack, when sold during release and shortly thereafter. If the cost to WotC to print, package and ship a booster is say $1 for those 15 or 12 cards then they would make a profit margin of $3 on each pack. Good luck finding this actual information as they do not release cost of production. On top of that there is research and development costs associated with a brand new Set, there are artists fees and licensing on new artwork for Standard Sets. So these costs are baked into the cost of a pack as well when we talk Standard sets. What that amount is they aren't releasing, but it is a FACT that they do so for Standard sets, 100% irrefutable. So that money amount is a fixed cost to produce.
Now Horizons, Masters, Universe Beyond or other specialty sets may average $8 a draft pack, $10-12 a set booster. Collector boosters $30 to $35 (or potentially much more) WITH THE SAME FIXED COSTS OF PRINTING, PACKAGING AND SHIPPING as that of a Standard Set. It doesn't cost WotC one penny more to print, package and ship a Masters Draft booster over say a March of the Machine draft booster. So profit margin is greater per pack. FACT FACT FACT. This doesn't even consider that a reprint Masters set, does not have anywhere near the design, development and art costs that a brand new Standard Set does.
So this answers and supports my #2 and #3 as well.
Lets do my #4 too. Found this one in about .5 nanoseconds on a Search.
That is TARGETING!!!! Read it but here it is for you "Hass claimed their main concern was that “Hasbro has been overproducing Magic cards.” Beyond the confusingly crowded release schedule this created, the overproduction also devalued huge swathes of secondary market products, crippling local game stores. Alongside this, the release of the much-mired 30th Anniversary Edition set was scrutinized by Haas for its “excessively high” price. "
My #5: printing the same amount is not an increase in production, nor a decrease in production. WotC could use the argument that they are printing less Standard product as a reduction in Standard product while simultaneously printing more Specialty product. Would be really easy for them to drop cards per pack (while charging the same amount per pack) and claim they are cutting production. Look at the MOM: Aftermath 5 card booster fiasco if you need evidence for this one.
My #6: They ARE running out of original genres period!!! What is left? Space (and that one has been hit by the latest UN set) and Wild West. Everything else is a reheated leftover they will have to rebrand/tweak as something NEW. So this is my most BASED and VALID point. When you use a new original genre it is GONE from the originality pool. They are running out and will soon be basically doing revisits and diddling with genres to try to create something that looks new but is in essence a copy.
My #7 is still valid as your opinion shares nothing of value. Powerful cards sell packs period. That is NOT debatable. You pack in 4 sets worth of powerful cards into 2 or 3 sets a year and there you have POWER CREEP. More powerful individual sets yet overall the same power in the format. So you lose on that one too.
So you can try to argue my BASED numbers with BASELESS opinion of your own but it won't prove anything. Bring some numbers, bring some actual factual evidence and we can talk. All my 7 points have those.
When my BASED prediction happens in the next one to three years I will have the plate of Crow ready. If not, I will use some sauce on my helping. I can admit when I am wrong (if it happens) can you?
Imagine being able to reprint Power 9 or Reserve list cards into a "rebooted" Magic 2.0 that doesn't break their reprint policy/rule on original Magic.
Think that would sound appealing to WotC and Hasbro? You better believe it.
They have already taken the first step with 30th Anniversary and the reserve list. Printing them into a "new" game is the next logical step.
Now that I got your attention hear me out please. (And this may have been brought up elsewhere but I haven't seen it.)
Standard is now on a 3 year rotation. Why is that? A possible answer is that they only offer 2 or 3 Standard legal sets a year. 4 sets over 2 years is 8 sets in Standard. (There will be 12 or 13 if you count Aftermath at the end of the 3 year cycle currently) 3 sets in 3 years is 9 sets in Standard before rotation. 2 in 3 years would be six sets in Standard.
Now why would they want to print LESS Standard product to make MORE money?
1. Standard sets are more than likely the lowest margin product they produce. (Least profitable)
2. It takes a lot of development money to produce 4 new Standard sets per year over say 2 or 3.
3. Specialty sets (Masters, Remastered, Universe Beyond, Horizons, Secret Lair, 30th Anniversay Proxy, etc.) are where they make the higher margins and greater profit.
4. They have been targeted by financial institutions of overprinting/overproducing/flooding the market with product.
5. So to keep producing product at the same rate, they drop one or two Standard sets a year and replace them with EXTRA Specialty sets I mentioned above. Why charge $4 a draft booster when you could charge 8,10,12 a draft booster or 12, 16 or 18 for a Set booster of Specialty product.
6. They are running out of NEW unique planes. Eventually all new planes will have overlap of theme with preexisting ones. This would slow that process down.
7. With only 2 or 3 sets a year they can BUMP UP POWER CREEP. More powerful, flashy chase cards, sell packs. Sets can now be more highly powered without the risk of having TOO MANY OP cards in the Standard format at a time.
So think about it. I could see this happening coming up on Announcement Day in August. I am not sure this is the correct thing to do but knowing the track record of Hasbro/WotC wanting to squeeze every last dime from their playerbase and minimizing their cash outlay to maximize their profit and please shareholders, it seems likely. Well thought out discussion is encouraged, thanks.
Yes this would be a near total reboot to the older game. Way too much to ask but I think it would be a way to expand playership if you keep it cheaper or true to current Standard pricing.
Other than some artwork concerns this sounds more like a new format rather than a reboot. And this is why there will never be a Magic 2.0. Anything that a full reboot accomplishes can be accomplished better by making a new format.
I could make my own format any time I choose. WotC will never sanction another format that doesn't push high end cards like the one I have proposed. And as I have said as it stands now under their current leadership won't do this either. But, ownership, leadership and direction changes and it could be an option.
Think of it this way, it could sell more cardboard. A new format and many players already own the cards to play. You would "have" to buy the Classic versions to play in sanctioned events. Magic has drifted so far from its inception that younger/newer players have no clue what the game was like. A classic version would just what the Doctor ordered AND could make Hasbro/WotC more money if executed properly. But I don't see any glimmer of hope in the current morass of leadership so maybe we can get a reboot a decade down the line after Hasbro runs the game into the ground and someone else buys it out.
The only new PAPER formats we are ever going to see from this point are ones that feed the greed machine, period. More than likely crap like, foil only format, alternate border format, rare and mythic only format or 1 year Standard format. If it doesn't push new sales it will NEVER be introduced. My proposal introduces new sales. New formats (in paper) make sense but WILL NOT HAPPEN.
I would like to see something like Magic Classic or Magic Throwback (This won't be allowed to happen but it would be fun I believe.)
Different cardbacks. (Slightly larger cards themselves would be cool but that may be a bit much to ask)
Not compatable with any format outside of Magic Classic/Throwback
Same basic rules as the main game.
Cards not designed for anything other than duels.
Reprints of current or past Magic main set cards would be entirely possible.
New artwork for everything. (This one could be nixed in case of it being cost prohibitive)
2 releases/sets a year.
NO MYTHIC RARITY. Only C, U and R
NO PLANESWALKERS!!!
Eliminate at least one of the following card types. (Battles, Sagas or Tribal)
RESTRICTIONS on deck builds, X amount of Rares and X amount of Uncommons MAX!
If and if Mythics exist they are limited to ONE mythic of a card name per deck and only 2 to 4 mythics are allowed in a deck.
No or extremely limited alternate card artwork/types.
One foil per pack, preferably etched foil as they curl as bad.
Draft and Set boosters, NO COLLECTOR BOOSTERS!!! Bundles, Prerelease kits and a return of Tournament Packs/Decks.
As for formats you would start with Standard Classic and go from there.
Frankly starting in a different "Multiverse" would be preferable as there would be NO crossover worlds or characters within the current Magic multiverse.
Yes this would be a near total reboot to the older game. Way too much to ask but I think it would be a way to expand playership if you keep it cheaper or true to current Standard pricing.
Here are some truths that some may find hard to listen to...
Don't buy sealed product from this set period. The prices are obscene and gross, greed turned up to 11. Resist, don't give into FOMO, don't justify it as "I am helping out my LGS in buying sealed product".
Here is one of the hard truths, LGS, distributors and online sellers ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!!! They buy this overpriced product directly from WotC. WotC gets their money regardless if not a single end-user consumer/player buys a single pack. Your ONLY and I mean ONLY way to send a message is to NOT purchase sealed product from Commander Masters PERIOD!
Now another hard truth and this one is going to be even harder to swallow. "Well I only buy singles and that doesn't help WotC/Hasbro." Wrong, dead wrong. It only encourages the LGS, distributors and online retails to continue to purchase this overpriced junk to open for singles sales. On top of that instead of lowering prices as demand wanes they do the exact opposite to try to recoup the money they spent and jack up singles prices because they are sitting on tons of single product that isn't moving and they have bills to pay. So the message here is Don't buy any of this product PERIOD, sealed or singles. Let it sit folks. Its the only way to affect change. Griping about it and then buying it means NOTHING!
Last truth, Do NOT watch ANY opening of Commander Masters product online, ANYWHERE ONLINE. Don't click on them, don't watch them. Every view you give monetizes that person opening the product. Don't do it.
To stop the abuse you have to quit agreeing to be the abused. Take charge. If enough people wise up it could make a difference. Or don't and watch the greed machine keep rolling along year after year.
Tough stuff to hear but you will be better off for it in the long run. I know this is a tough sell to the clientele of MTG but its the only way to (potentially) stop this price madness.
UPDATE: Do yourself a huge favor and watch this from Mike Hatcher on YouTube. What he says is absolutely true. Problem is whether he will practice what he preaches. If he opens sealed CM product on his channel he is a hypocrite. I don't think he will but words only mean something if there is a corresponding action that backs it up.
Because I assume JK Rowling still controls the rights of Harry Potter where the Tolkien Trust has decided to sell out and cash in. Personally I hope Rowling holds out.
Maybe Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro is holding back on doing a Harry Potter crossover in Magic: The Gathering due to the recent controversy surrounding Hogwarts Legacy.
Again Rowling I assume is in the driver's seat here. If her ideology and WotC's don't line up it will never happen. So my comment on hoping Rowling holds out. WotC already screwed around with Tolkien inserting their ideology into his work, don't think for a minute they wouldn't do it again and ratchet it up a notch or two.
Because I assume JK Rowling still controls the rights of Harry Potter where the Tolkien Trust has decided to sell out and cash in. Personally I hope Rowling holds out.
So where is the evidence or data, you are just saying you want to continue to argue and feel you are in the right.
[Alright, I can concede that Standard sets probably cost more to produce and sell for less. But you are forgetting print windows. The fact that they print standard sets longer indicates that there is more profit there. This is simple business logic. So yes, there is some support but hardly any actual facts. Just some nice things you can claim support your side but nothing concrete. Which is why it belongs in baseless.]
You really don't get what baseless is do you? And you don't get that past practice IS evidence. I can't debate with someone who ignores logic and you do. You say I am right but it is baseless? Which one is it? You are being obtuse. It only matters in scale and length of sale if you are selling buttloads more product. If high margin boxes net you say 100 dollars a box and low margin boxes net you 10 dollars a box you have to sell 10 times the amount!!! And yes this is ALL FREAKIN FACTS not your feelings or thoughts, it is concrete real business numbers and past practices. That makes it BASED!!!
I am not even going to bother with the rest of your crap, it bears little meaning other than what you think and feel. I have given past practice, links, information and numbers. YOU HAVE PROVIDED NOTHING BUT "Nanny nanny boo boo" garbage. Where is it? You don't have it. I shared what I have. I would love to discuss it with some open minded people but you are a lost cause. Join the Ignore list where you belong. Feel free to reciprocate, but I bet you won't will you? No you won't. I know your type, easily recognizable.
So anyone else have any pertinent information to add or discuss. I am open to actual critique, not just dismissive feelings. I really do want to discuss this in a civil and logical manner. And I don't mind defending my position and information for those who will recognize it.
So CLOSE to a proxy but NOT a proxy as the card has its own game, its own separate collectability. Sure some people would buy to proxy them into Magic 1.0 decks if they were the same card as the original, but they would NOT be tournament legal.
Look at what they just did with proxies, it flopped massively. Now what if you could have bought a 4 dollar pack and pulled a Black Lotus and actually be ABLE TO PLAY THAT CARD in a sanctioned tournament!!! What if you could sell that card for hundreds or thousands of dollars on the secondary market, since it has PLAY VALUE? Would it parasitize money intended for Magic 1.0? Potentially and there is a sticking point. Would it possibly pull in newer (or returning) players? It sure could.
Thank you for asking important questions, I will try my best to answer.
That is the thing a Magic 2.0 would be attached/connected to Magic the Gathering in general gameplay and rules except, different cardbacks and a "different game". Easy way for WotC/Hasbro to skirt their own reserved list which isn't a legal and binding contract anyway. You have to think outside the proverbial box on this one.
Here you go
ob·tuse
adjective
1.
annoyingly insensitive or slow to understand.
Can you disprove my point #1, go ahead and provide the evidence and we can talk. Other 6 are perfectly valid and BASED in truth.
But tell you what let me give you some simple numbers that anyone that can detect truth and work elementary math should be able to tell. Because NUMBERS are not "assumptions and fallacies" as your baseless opinion would erroneously seem to indicate.
Standard Draft packs retail on average around $4 USD a pack. Standard Set booster packs retail around $6 a pack. Standard Collector Boosters vary but usually average around $15 to $18 an individual pack, when sold during release and shortly thereafter. If the cost to WotC to print, package and ship a booster is say $1 for those 15 or 12 cards then they would make a profit margin of $3 on each pack. Good luck finding this actual information as they do not release cost of production. On top of that there is research and development costs associated with a brand new Set, there are artists fees and licensing on new artwork for Standard Sets. So these costs are baked into the cost of a pack as well when we talk Standard sets. What that amount is they aren't releasing, but it is a FACT that they do so for Standard sets, 100% irrefutable. So that money amount is a fixed cost to produce.
Now Horizons, Masters, Universe Beyond or other specialty sets may average $8 a draft pack, $10-12 a set booster. Collector boosters $30 to $35 (or potentially much more) WITH THE SAME FIXED COSTS OF PRINTING, PACKAGING AND SHIPPING as that of a Standard Set. It doesn't cost WotC one penny more to print, package and ship a Masters Draft booster over say a March of the Machine draft booster. So profit margin is greater per pack. FACT FACT FACT. This doesn't even consider that a reprint Masters set, does not have anywhere near the design, development and art costs that a brand new Standard Set does.
So this answers and supports my #2 and #3 as well.
Lets do my #4 too. Found this one in about .5 nanoseconds on a Search.
https://mtgrocks.com/new-bank-of-america-report-slams-hasbro-for-mtg-monetization/
That is TARGETING!!!! Read it but here it is for you "Hass claimed their main concern was that “Hasbro has been overproducing Magic cards.” Beyond the confusingly crowded release schedule this created, the overproduction also devalued huge swathes of secondary market products, crippling local game stores. Alongside this, the release of the much-mired 30th Anniversary Edition set was scrutinized by Haas for its “excessively high” price. "
My #5: printing the same amount is not an increase in production, nor a decrease in production. WotC could use the argument that they are printing less Standard product as a reduction in Standard product while simultaneously printing more Specialty product. Would be really easy for them to drop cards per pack (while charging the same amount per pack) and claim they are cutting production. Look at the MOM: Aftermath 5 card booster fiasco if you need evidence for this one.
My #6: They ARE running out of original genres period!!! What is left? Space (and that one has been hit by the latest UN set) and Wild West. Everything else is a reheated leftover they will have to rebrand/tweak as something NEW. So this is my most BASED and VALID point. When you use a new original genre it is GONE from the originality pool. They are running out and will soon be basically doing revisits and diddling with genres to try to create something that looks new but is in essence a copy.
My #7 is still valid as your opinion shares nothing of value. Powerful cards sell packs period. That is NOT debatable. You pack in 4 sets worth of powerful cards into 2 or 3 sets a year and there you have POWER CREEP. More powerful individual sets yet overall the same power in the format. So you lose on that one too.
So you can try to argue my BASED numbers with BASELESS opinion of your own but it won't prove anything. Bring some numbers, bring some actual factual evidence and we can talk. All my 7 points have those.
When my BASED prediction happens in the next one to three years I will have the plate of Crow ready. If not, I will use some sauce on my helping. I can admit when I am wrong (if it happens) can you?
Think that would sound appealing to WotC and Hasbro? You better believe it.
They have already taken the first step with 30th Anniversary and the reserve list. Printing them into a "new" game is the next logical step.
Then you can use it to fix the spelling of your Username, although the misspelling is very fitting for the definition itself.
I have laid out several points that have basis in fact, would love to discuss them if anyone has legitimate questions about them or anything to add.
Standard is now on a 3 year rotation. Why is that? A possible answer is that they only offer 2 or 3 Standard legal sets a year. 4 sets over 2 years is 8 sets in Standard. (There will be 12 or 13 if you count Aftermath at the end of the 3 year cycle currently) 3 sets in 3 years is 9 sets in Standard before rotation. 2 in 3 years would be six sets in Standard.
Now why would they want to print LESS Standard product to make MORE money?
1. Standard sets are more than likely the lowest margin product they produce. (Least profitable)
2. It takes a lot of development money to produce 4 new Standard sets per year over say 2 or 3.
3. Specialty sets (Masters, Remastered, Universe Beyond, Horizons, Secret Lair, 30th Anniversay Proxy, etc.) are where they make the higher margins and greater profit.
4. They have been targeted by financial institutions of overprinting/overproducing/flooding the market with product.
5. So to keep producing product at the same rate, they drop one or two Standard sets a year and replace them with EXTRA Specialty sets I mentioned above. Why charge $4 a draft booster when you could charge 8,10,12 a draft booster or 12, 16 or 18 for a Set booster of Specialty product.
6. They are running out of NEW unique planes. Eventually all new planes will have overlap of theme with preexisting ones. This would slow that process down.
7. With only 2 or 3 sets a year they can BUMP UP POWER CREEP. More powerful, flashy chase cards, sell packs. Sets can now be more highly powered without the risk of having TOO MANY OP cards in the Standard format at a time.
So think about it. I could see this happening coming up on Announcement Day in August. I am not sure this is the correct thing to do but knowing the track record of Hasbro/WotC wanting to squeeze every last dime from their playerbase and minimizing their cash outlay to maximize their profit and please shareholders, it seems likely. Well thought out discussion is encouraged, thanks.
I could make my own format any time I choose. WotC will never sanction another format that doesn't push high end cards like the one I have proposed. And as I have said as it stands now under their current leadership won't do this either. But, ownership, leadership and direction changes and it could be an option.
Think of it this way, it could sell more cardboard. A new format and many players already own the cards to play. You would "have" to buy the Classic versions to play in sanctioned events. Magic has drifted so far from its inception that younger/newer players have no clue what the game was like. A classic version would just what the Doctor ordered AND could make Hasbro/WotC more money if executed properly. But I don't see any glimmer of hope in the current morass of leadership so maybe we can get a reboot a decade down the line after Hasbro runs the game into the ground and someone else buys it out.
The only new PAPER formats we are ever going to see from this point are ones that feed the greed machine, period. More than likely crap like, foil only format, alternate border format, rare and mythic only format or 1 year Standard format. If it doesn't push new sales it will NEVER be introduced. My proposal introduces new sales. New formats (in paper) make sense but WILL NOT HAPPEN.
Different cardbacks. (Slightly larger cards themselves would be cool but that may be a bit much to ask)
Not compatable with any format outside of Magic Classic/Throwback
Same basic rules as the main game.
Cards not designed for anything other than duels.
Reprints of current or past Magic main set cards would be entirely possible.
New artwork for everything. (This one could be nixed in case of it being cost prohibitive)
2 releases/sets a year.
NO MYTHIC RARITY. Only C, U and R
NO PLANESWALKERS!!!
Eliminate at least one of the following card types. (Battles, Sagas or Tribal)
RESTRICTIONS on deck builds, X amount of Rares and X amount of Uncommons MAX!
If and if Mythics exist they are limited to ONE mythic of a card name per deck and only 2 to 4 mythics are allowed in a deck.
No or extremely limited alternate card artwork/types.
One foil per pack, preferably etched foil as they curl as bad.
Draft and Set boosters, NO COLLECTOR BOOSTERS!!! Bundles, Prerelease kits and a return of Tournament Packs/Decks.
As for formats you would start with Standard Classic and go from there.
Frankly starting in a different "Multiverse" would be preferable as there would be NO crossover worlds or characters within the current Magic multiverse.
Yes this would be a near total reboot to the older game. Way too much to ask but I think it would be a way to expand playership if you keep it cheaper or true to current Standard pricing.
Dude you are using simplistic and naive thought dude bro. They love lemming customers like that brah bro dude.
PS dude, read line 2 in my signature below dude. VVVVVVV below VVVVVVV
Don't buy sealed product from this set period. The prices are obscene and gross, greed turned up to 11. Resist, don't give into FOMO, don't justify it as "I am helping out my LGS in buying sealed product".
Here is one of the hard truths, LGS, distributors and online sellers ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!!! They buy this overpriced product directly from WotC. WotC gets their money regardless if not a single end-user consumer/player buys a single pack. Your ONLY and I mean ONLY way to send a message is to NOT purchase sealed product from Commander Masters PERIOD!
Now another hard truth and this one is going to be even harder to swallow. "Well I only buy singles and that doesn't help WotC/Hasbro." Wrong, dead wrong. It only encourages the LGS, distributors and online retails to continue to purchase this overpriced junk to open for singles sales. On top of that instead of lowering prices as demand wanes they do the exact opposite to try to recoup the money they spent and jack up singles prices because they are sitting on tons of single product that isn't moving and they have bills to pay. So the message here is Don't buy any of this product PERIOD, sealed or singles. Let it sit folks. Its the only way to affect change. Griping about it and then buying it means NOTHING!
Last truth, Do NOT watch ANY opening of Commander Masters product online, ANYWHERE ONLINE. Don't click on them, don't watch them. Every view you give monetizes that person opening the product. Don't do it.
To stop the abuse you have to quit agreeing to be the abused. Take charge. If enough people wise up it could make a difference. Or don't and watch the greed machine keep rolling along year after year.
Tough stuff to hear but you will be better off for it in the long run. I know this is a tough sell to the clientele of MTG but its the only way to (potentially) stop this price madness.
UPDATE: Do yourself a huge favor and watch this from Mike Hatcher on YouTube. What he says is absolutely true. Problem is whether he will practice what he preaches. If he opens sealed CM product on his channel he is a hypocrite. I don't think he will but words only mean something if there is a corresponding action that backs it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfI_zCBOU5o
They are out of their ever lovin minds. And whoever buys at that price is equally guilty.
Again Rowling I assume is in the driver's seat here. If her ideology and WotC's don't line up it will never happen. So my comment on hoping Rowling holds out. WotC already screwed around with Tolkien inserting their ideology into his work, don't think for a minute they wouldn't do it again and ratchet it up a notch or two.
I find this artistic theme dull and gross. Just one persons opinion.