GoingMadlem

Remember when Wizard's cut off direct sales to stores and jacked the wholesale cost? One of two things will result from this message: A. Exactly what it says and nothing else (unlikely) B. There's another wholesale cost increase coming. https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/no-more-msrp-2019-02-18 …

Magic boosters have been a $3.95 MSRP for over a decade and the wholesale price has been raised a few times in that period, each eroding LGS margins. Magic boosters (at full retail) are already a 44% margin which is lower than most other items game stores carry, worse for boxes

I expect the rescinding of MSRP is a result of two things: tariffs and an incoming price hike (likely to $4.95). Tariffs - Canada retaliated to our steel tariffs by hitting playing cards, Magic was hit as collateral damage. What SHOULD a Magic pack cost in Canada? Exactly.

Price hike - this is Wizards passing the buck to retailers / giving us the leeway to make a fair margin on Magic releases. The average item in a game store has a 50-55% margin... bringing in Magic that returns 45% is often a worse use of a store's dollars.

Being able to sell something like a Guildkit for $21.95 instead of $19.95 "because that's what Wizards said it costs" creates less problems for stores... and Magic players DO FREAK THE FUCK OUT about dumb shit like stores charging 50 cents for a card that is 28 cents on TCGPlayer

Hopes - I hope that an increased price for Magic packs will include implementation of online redemption codes for Arena. Fears - Wizards will continue blowing their product out on Amazon at aggressively low prices making a price increase unbearable for retailers.