"Hasbro/MtG going down" Topic

Never reprint cards you said you'd never reprint. Collectors get angry.

Never slap any IP on your cards: it's still just Magic

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Never spend money on something that can be easily reproduced and think you've made a smart investment.

Duh.

I'm with Parzival.
To paraphrase Woody:
"It's a TOY!!!!"

Just wait until WotC starts doing the old "gotta have a license" routine, can't have people buy a book once. The WotC side has some shakeups also.

Wow! How to destroy a product line, quickly, and efficiently… Not into MtG, ever, but this is pretty foolish. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!

I will say that in defense of WotC/Hasbro, why the heck should they care what a "rare" card sells for, especially once they've already sold it? Yeah, that Black Lotus may be worth $$$,$$$ to some idiots out there, but WotC/Hasbro isn't going to get to even sniff that money. So once it's effectively off the market for the people who buy current cards from WotC/Hasbro, what's their incentive to not reprint it to sell a cheaper version to current fans? It's not only zero, it's BELOW zero by the amount of profit they can make over selling a $10 USD reprint to the millions of M:tG players worldwide. Collectors aren't worth a clipped copper to a card maker once the original is sold out. After three decades, bringing back OOP cards with a huge nostalgia market in play makes perfect sense. Stamp the dang thing "Reprint 2022" and sell away. In any case, the "original" still retains value to the sort of person who frames it and puts it on display.

Hey, I bought the new HeroQuest, and am enjoying it. Did its release lower the value of eBay copies of the original? Probably. But what do I care if a bunch of scalpers in the collectibles market get screwed? I just want to play the dang game.

I imagine that an original card would still retain some value for those who are into collectible card games. The same can be said for record albums, books, video games, etc. I would think anyone who had an original high dollar value card was playing with a Xerox copy of it anyway.

Time will tell if they have alienated enough of their base to make a difference in their bottom line.

How many people at TMP have played or still play MtG? I do!

BTW I have printed an awesome collection of color proxy cards--thank you Scryfall.com images and a quality laser copier/printer at work.

This is a tempest in a teapot.

"Time will tell if they have alienated enough of their base to make a difference in their bottom line."

Wait? Hasn't that been the GW business plan since the 90's until recently? Seemed to work for them.

Actually, I agree with the comments on re-issues of past cards. They did it with AD&D books, 1e and 2e reprints; they offer these as POD's, now, as well -- they're fantastic for those of us who use them to game with, as opposed to those who collect them. The collectors still value the originals, while the gamers value the content and play value of the re-issued PDF's and POD's.

The thing that screams greed and idiocy, to me, is their release schedule for future product expansions. They are basically dumping a lot of new products onto the market, in a short period of time.

I bought most of the hardcover AD&D books, as they were issued for 1e. by TSR, during the 1980's. During the 2e era (1989-2000), they produced 20+ new books, hard- and soft-cover. I have slowly been buying up old copies, over the past 10+ years, more than 15 years after they were OOP.

TSR saturated the market with new releases (books, boxed sets, and more), to generate cash flow, both in the 1980's, and again, in the 1990's. The company was going into bankruptcy (again) in the 1990's. WotC bought them out, saving the company's IP, releasing a new version of D&D, 3.0, after the buy-out.

This current release schedule for MtG seems to resemble TSR's debacle. I hope the Board of Directors of Hasbro is keeping a close eye on the company. I loved Hasbro, as a child. I have very fond memories of them, and their products, from my childhood. I would hate to see them go under, like Montgomery Ward, Sears, K-Mart, TSR, etc… Cheers!

It's not a $10 USD USD reprint : (too bad)

"the 30th Anniversary set includes just four booster packs for $1,000 USD"

Yeah, if I'd won the 2 Billion dollar lottery, I'd buy a set or two LOL
And the reprint Black Lotus will be *starting* at a grand, minimum, when it hits eBay.
Stick with the proxy cards… ;-)

$10 USD was just a number pulled out of a hat. Hey, if they can get some schlub to fork over $1,000 USD for a pack of fancy playing cards, more power to ‘em.
Barnum was absolutely right.

I wonder if the release schedule has anything to do with supply chain issues— things originally intended to hit in 2021 got delayed and arrived closer to the releases intended for 2022, so you wind up with a close-together schedule in order to not lose money on warehousing, etc..

In any case, Hasbro's business is not M:tG. They make a heck of a lot more money off of licenses with Star Wars, etc., or even just plain old Monopoly than they do off Magic cards. If owning WotC proves to be a losing position, they'll just sell it. But either way, they aren't going under anytime soon.

I never understood Magic. They're just…cards…I want hills and rivers and troops! I liked GI Joe when I was a kid. Hasbro should stick to GI Joe.