Is WoTC heading down the path of DC Comics in the 1980s...

Is WoTC heading down the path of DC Comics in the 1980s? The situation with Commander 2016 seems eerily similar to what happened with Death of Superman.

Explain for those of us who aren't into comics?

In the 1980s, DC went out of their way to appease "collectors", which ended up creating a market bubble where investing in comics was a craze and casual readers were being priced out of the market. Eventually, people caught on to the fact that these comics weren't actually rare, and buyouts were making them artificially scarce. It was the Death of Superman comic that really made people catch on, as it was so massively printed that the investors were unable to buy enough to hike the price. This led to a major market crash.

I'm not really getting the analogy from what I know about that event.

>Superman is super big
>They decide to do a controversial event where he dies
>People freak
>He dies
>It's controversial, to say the least
>People think he's gone forever
>Lolaliensresurructhim
>People realize that nothing really matters in comics
>The status quo will always return
>Since the plots really don't matter, because only unpopular, obscure characters (or characters that need to stay dead for plot purposes, and even then those guys will come back sometimes for shits and gigles) will die and stay dead
>So people stop buying comics
>Cue a huge comics crash that nearly destroyed the big two

Due to the fact that this is plot related, and no one gives a shit about the commander plot, if there is one... I don't know.

Commander 2016 isn't supposed to be for collectors, though. I don't understand the analogy.

If we're using this analogy, then FTV:20 was wizards' Death of Superman. They printed JUST enough that Star of David games couldn't corner the market and they are heavy losses on it (MSRP 40, they were buying for 550 and selling for 900, but the lack of monopoly kept the value around 200)

Not that it stopped them.

Neither was DoS. Commander 2016 just became a product for collectors, not even at the will of SCG, but at the will of MTGLion and James Chillcott.

FTV20 is more like the holofoil cover Superman Issue #1 reprint.

Not about the plot. About the artificial scarcity.

>a product still available on mass retailer shelves is somehow "for collectors"
You're losing me.

>Breed Lethality $100
>"available"

I found two at Wal-Mart yesterday. Maybe you should expand your search.

I think the point is not that its for collectors, but that collectors are trying to buy stuff up to create unnatural price spikes and force every mtg product to be "for collectors." But the new products are being printed enough that no one can really buy out C16 like they bought out Commanders Arsenal or the original decks. I know idiots who bought multiple copies of atraxa based on speculation, and now they have a bunch of precons worth 35 dollars. Inflate that to a large scale and you get your market crash, just like te dc comics thing. At least thats my uderstanding of it

I don't think it'll happen with commander, but I certainly think that it might happen eventually. When it does the secondary market will experience a crash and that will either kill the game or save the game, depending on how much you believe Rudy or not.

I found a Japanese/Korean (I don't fucking know) Breed Lethality deck at Walmart. I was there for groceries though, so I didn't pick it up.

>Walmart keeps getting these in Japanese for some reason

Where in the world are you two because I want some moonrune cards.

America.

Yes. WoTC abandoned their real fans the moment they closed the loophole on the Reserved List. They have been strictly in the collectibles market for about 7 years now.

Stores order them in a bundle of all 5, but only 3 of them are worth having so the price gets crazy on those 3 because stores don't want to have that much of the other 2 that no one will buy. They have yet to reprint the other generals that they made in the older decks so it's very difficult for some to get generals that they want because they were only available through the commander pre-cons

They didn't do that for shiggles though, there was real outrage and threats of suits because they violated the spirit of the lost by making what is defined as a "collector's item" mass produced.

There was a very real possibility of a ruling against WotC, so they caved.

WotC has a fetish for doing the shady crap that kicked other companies in the nuts, so most likely yes.

>In the 1980s

You really should not talk about things you have no idea of.

Is there anywhere in Canada that's like this? Our Walmart doesn't carry magic.

I, too, want to know how to get overcosted decks very easily as a Leaf.

Makes sense, seems like a lot of people were trying to hop on the secondary market train, realizing it's hard to be profitable (because you have to actually move the cards and the margins are pretty small) decided to try and force scarcity+spike prices through speculative bulk buying. This then works because everyone prices their singles based on the tcgplayer prices which are in turn based on average listed prices instead of price of sale.
So:
>bulk buy of one or two cards that are speculated to go up
>card sellers/shops/retailers sees these cards are being purchased en masse so tries to hop on the gravy train by raising prices
>tcgplayer listed price rises
>card sellers/shops/retailers think their losing money if too far below listed price and raise it accordingly
>tcgplayer listed price rises
>speculate on a new card
>etc.
Please correct me anywhere I'm wrong, my understanding of the situation is limited.

The seller/tcgplayer relationship is a little different than what you've listed, from what I hear, but besides that you've hit the nail right on the head.

>In the 1980s
Wrong decade.

>implying Marvel's and Image's glow-in-the dark holographic edible gummy cover FIRST ISSUE COLLECTOR'S ITEM rags weren't the major cause of the crash

Marvelcucks with the revisionist history, making ol' Funky Flashman proud.

So the question remains; can it be fixed, will it be fixed, and if not, should I still bother with this hobby as someone who had only dabbled over the years?

>can it be fixed
Easily. WotC could either reduce the print-runs of their products (making them true collectors items) or increase the print-runs while lowering the prices and market them to the general consumer.

>Will it be fixed
Fuck no. Both solutions require WotC to be more competent than they are greedy, and that's never gonna happen

>Will this bother you
Maybe. Depends entirely on whether you care about the pro scene (and live vicariously through it). It's likely that some formats won't be hit as hard as others. Most likely, though, you'll be fine. The worst case scenario is the complete death of magic, but that would require a market crash the likes of which we're never gonna see, I assure you.

They don't make money off the secondary market though, right? At least not directly.
If more people want their products, why not then make more to sell?
Disclaimer:
I know that you and other anons likely don't have the answers, and that this is just frivolous bitching about problems that a company, that you've already pointed out is incompetent, won't solve.

>They don't make money off the secondary market though, right? At least not directly.
Consider, if you will, the situation taken to the extreme: Wizard makes a set where they're reprinting all the expensive cards, and this reprint set has a truly MASSIVE print-run. Spoilers come around for the set, and when people realize just how badly the price of these cards is gonna tank, people sell their product like there's no tomorrow. Prices fall dramatically and the market crashes.
But this won't affect sales of the reprint set, right? Wrong. If prices crash hard enough, anyone interested in buying will just buy it really cheaply from the secondary market (that is now in shambles). Stores loses a hell of a lot of money, after losing money from the singles market crash, but WotC loses even more money. Hasbro, being as short sighted as they are, decides that MtG just isn't profitable anymore and ceases producthion.
This is an extreme case, but it shows you how the primary market can fuck up the secondary market and vice versa.

Hm fair point user. You've given me some food for thought. I hadn't considered how interdependent the systems are. Thanks.

Mhm. Just remember, user: Rudy may be an asshole, but he's not wrong.

I can't stop watching creepy Rudy

I know, right? He's like Travis Woo, but without the blatant ADHD

Your interpretation is the opposite of reality.

Wizards is reprinting cards to drop their value to allow more players to play. Collectors have lost a lot of value since the modern masters and commander reprints started. Retailers and players have benefitted, and Wizards has their highest sales volume ever.

>stores losing money on singles from disassembled retail products

Shops should be punished for their outrageous greed. What other retailers buy products at wholesale prices, break the products down into smaller parts and then sell the parts for more than the cost of an entire retail unit?

Every retailers. That's why it's called a retailer.
Do you think Walmart bought those Doritos you've been shoving into your maw in single packs?

1. Lots of singles come from customers trading in
2. Stores often get too much product for them to sell as is, so they disassemble the purchased product that they probably won't sell and expand their market bredth (the people who buys packs are not the same people who buy singles)
3. Meat is an industry where retailers sell the parts for more than the whole :^)

Well shit, they should just unpack individual Doritos and put them in a glass case until their value increases.

There is no parity between the value added to the individual products derived from a disassembled carcass and the labor value invested by a card shop owner cracking packs.

elaborate

Nah, they're going down the path of Mousevel in the 2010s. Forcing teams of bland, rehashed mass market quipsters into the spotlight to try and sell more product and inadvertently fucking over their own setting and stories for a demographic that couldn't give a single shit about them, while dumbing everything down for the lowest possible common denominator (trample is too complex guys).

The best part is that the shit eating faggot new wave geeks eat it all up like the consumerist whores they are. Fuck it man lets print more kicker variants and retarded blue creatures.