Does WotC Care at All About Card Prices?
General forum
Posted on Jan. 25, 2020, 12:36 a.m. by DemonDragonJ
Some cards in this game are very expensive; in some cases, that is because WotC has promised to never reprint them, but, for any cards that are not on the reserved list, there is no reason to not reprint those cards to the point that they become affordable to average players.
I know that WotC cannot reprint every card constantly, and must wait for some time between reprints of cards, but I was confident that they were not deliberately allowing the cards to become too expensive.
However, the recent double feature of Secret Lair and Mystery Booster has me worrying that WotC is not making any attempt to keep this game affordable, since those products have such small print runs that they have not affected card prices. This annoys me, because it costs WotC the same amount of money to print all cards, regardless of their market value, and WotC makes no money from the secondary market. I personally believe that they should make a conscious effort to keep this game affordable for the majority of players.
What does everyone else say about this? Does WotC care at all about card prices?
Gidgetimer says... #3
They have an official policy of not paying attention to the secondary market. So, no they don't care about card prices.
January 25, 2020 5:34 a.m.
Dude, affordable is such an arbitrary term. Some people are happy to drop $50 on a card, others are happy to drop $50 on a deck. And it also depends on what format you're playing and to what level you want to play the game.
Yes, MtG is not the cheapest hobby in the world, but most hobbies have both an initial outlay as well as ongoing costs. Whether its club memberships, raw materials or just replacing worn out equipment, most things have a price. And in any hobby, you can spend infinite money on it depending on how deeply you want to get involved.
But the attitude is "it's expensive, that's not fair because I'm buying cardboard" is a bit weak sorry. Nobody is forcing you to spend money on the game and ultimately you should be the one dictating how deep you want to go.
January 25, 2020 6:26 a.m.
ork_mcgork says... #5
They'll officially say they don't pay attention, but htey quite clearly do care about the secondary market.
All it takes them is a quick search on the online card seller sites to know that, say, Tarmogoyf is a really popular card that players value a lot, so if they put it in a set with some other chase cards like Snapcaster Mage, and then some middling priced cards like Ranger of Eos, then fill, followed up by a huge steaming pile of bulk jank and bam! - a set that will sell like crazy. Then it's just a matter of figuring out which cards make a passable set and at what price point they can get away with it.
Mystery Boosters will be interesting - it's like a chaos draft you won't have to curate (having wanted to do exactly that but not having the money for the boosters I wanted for it). It does nothing to harm card value one way or the other.
Secret Lairs, so far, have been an interesting experiment. Reprint some valuable, but niche, cards and then some middling-lower price non-niche cards and print to demand? We'll likely not see "All 5 Zendikar fetches for $40!" out of it, but the concept is neat I guess.
As mentioned, the biggest thing about affordability is what level of affordability we're stipulating. I, for one, think that no card should be worth more than $20. Is that realistic? No, but I don't expect it to be, either. I've heard people at my game shop who have proudly stated they've had to live on Top Ramen for the month because they spent too much on magic. Which I find pathetic, but that's not my life to live.
WotC will continue to pay attention to the secondary market and use it as a guide to determine what they put in sets for a long time to come, I'm sure. The real question is - how long can they go with giving folks the bare minimum in sets in comparison to set price before they find their balance? Ultimate Masters sold super well, and it was WAY out of my price range... but that tells WotC that the ceiling hasn't been hit yet. When they launch a set full of goodies that doesn't sell well, then they'll know.
January 25, 2020 9:20 a.m.
I disagree with the stance that Wizards can just reprint high-cost cards at will - it is imperative they pay attention to the type of product they are producing and reprint accordingly.
Any draftable releases (which is where most printings come from) need to be playable in draft/sealed - many expensive cards have the propensity of warping draft in favour of the person who pulls that card. Add too many and you’re creating an extremely unstable limited environment where RNG plays a bigger role in victory than skill.
Any Standard-legal set needs to reprint cards that fit with that Standard environment (and also make sure they only add new cards to Pioneer/Modern that work in those respective formats).
Preconstructed decks, like Commander Decks, need to ensure their power level is commensurate with all the other editions of the same type of precon.
I think it’s also important to note that Wizards’ 2020 release schedule does seem to acknowledge the secondary market, particularly for Commander. They are doing a Green Commander staples product later, which likely will see high-value reprints (skin to signature spell books I assume). They’re going to release two versions of that product - a budget, non-foil and a foil one, in a clear indication they want players of various means to be able to purchase. They’ve said their 2020 Commander draft product is going to have some Commander staples in it. They’re doing the secret lair products to ensure players can get more copies of some high-value cards.
January 25, 2020 10 a.m.
fadelightningmm says... #7
Secret lair did not have a small print run. It was print to order. If someone wanted any of the secret lairs all they had to do was order it during the window they gave and you got it.
As for reprints in general I think a print to order kind of deal would be awesome for WOTC to adopt on certain cards. For instance say “January 25th we are doing secret lair fetch land. $50 you get all 10 fetch lands”. Then they make 100% profit on this print run, and anyone that wants it will buy it.
January 25, 2020 10:21 a.m.
Last_Laugh says... #8
They pay attention to the Secondary Market and care about card prices but only while the product is still in print. Chase cards sell packs which makes WotC $$$.
January 25, 2020 11:46 a.m.
They can't can't officially, but they also do things like up shift an uncommon from Three Kingdoms to mythic to protect the "scarcity" of it, so you tell me.
January 25, 2020 1:15 p.m.
I don't really know if they care. I do know that they should. You don't broaden your consumer base by raising the average value of eternal format decks through the roof. When I started playing again it was easy to get all the pet-cards & mana base for around $50... now, not even close. Forget about the look I get from my 10 & 12 year-old nephews & their parents when I want to build new decks with them, it is not happening :( this is a bad thing for WoTC in the long-run. & saying "Magic: it's not for everyone" is a bad business model. That elitist cult-hobby attitude just stinks, if I ran into that in the early 90's I probably would not have kept playing.
January 25, 2020 9:18 p.m.
Reprints have a real cost for WOTC that is intagible - reprint equity - they have a limited pool of "reprintable" cards and any time they draw from it for any product, the water level falls.
Take for example Imperial Recruiter - a very expensive card for basically no reason other than limited availability and being played 1-2 Legacy decks. Reprinting in one of the masters sets slashed its price from 350 usd to about the 100 USD it currently sits at. The card lost 70% of its value overnight basically. Imperial recruiter will not be reprinted for a long time.
This can happen to a lot of cards and once you run out of reprints, you cannot sell products geared towards older formats like Commander, Legacy, etc. So, WOTC has to be very careful and what and when they reprint.
Thus, Secret Lair, Premium Editions, etc. are examples of creating reprint equity - these sets are reprinting old cards in a highly desired variant, thus the old cards lose none of their reprint equity, which is a win for both WOTC and the players, except the players without the money for shinies.
TLDR: For WOTC, card prices on the secondary market are very important - they determine the marketing buzz of a product and are an indication how much would the players pay for a product.
Icbrgr says... #2
Well it is a business so making money is definitely good from their perspective.... and this mainly effects competitive players and hardcore collectors.
Otherwise the flip side of the coin for casual players the game is fine with having plenty of options that are budget friendly for deck construction.... sure they may be "strictly worse" cards in most/many cases but the decks will still function...
That being said please WOTC reprint zendikar fetches.... reprint the reprints that you reprint.....
January 25, 2020 2:14 a.m.