The Good, The Bad, The Ugly!!
As I write this, The Magic Stone War – Zero has been out less than a week, and from a retail standpoint it is INSANE!!!!! The box price was $85 for pre-order. Then $90 on 2/26 when it went live. By the end of the weekend, it was Selling for over $180 a box. What happened? This is the kind of increase in value that a Magic set might see for a good set in around 6 months. Force did it in a weekend.
I know this firsthand as I was selling sealed product. I listed 12 boxes at $100 each on the street date. I usually post a little higher so they will sit around. Normally the product will sit around a month or so until it moves, like it did with EDL. Not this time, by day two all my $100 boxes were gone.
Thing is, I was sitting on a case to crack for singles if they moved a little fast. I usually do this, open some packs to sell as singles, keep a case, and sell the other boxes. When I saw that all remaining MSW boxes were not only listed at $190+, but were selling at that price, I moved my remaining stuff to online. It has been 2 days and I have 2 boxes left, so they are selling at $185 for me. Why?
The Art of the Sale
Eye Spy may have inadvertently hit the trifecta here, as well as the player base hitting another one.
The first thing that happened is the usual suspect. Eye Spy printing to demand, and not much more. So, the rule of scarcity comes in. The second thing is the power level, the third is the uniqueness of the set. Having 2 rulers in play is new, and they added a lot of stuff to ramp up the WOW factor. All of these things are good, it’s what a company should do to get people to want and buy their stuff.
The community’s trifecta is a mixed bag. The under ordering is first, but hard to blame anyone as the secondary market usually settles and cards can be nabbed easily for less than the case price to build a deck one wants. Also, most orders need to be in before a set is spoiled, so it’s hard to know if it’s going to be worth it.
Number two on this list is knowing there would be 2 rulers per box. That makes the issue of getting them easier, at least in people’s minds, before the set comes out. No $90 rulers this time, but we need 2 instead of one, so it adds up.
Number three is likely the pandemic. Financial instability, lack of events and so on. This trilogy makes it hard to get a feel for the next set, which has already been announced, along with a mini set. We aren’t sure how long the mess that we are in will last, but the game will just chug along. This is good and bad. It’s good, because it will be there on the other end, but bad in the realm of getting the cards.
Everyone is still trying to get a feel for how all this will finally come together. When it does though, it should be fine. It’s like trying to figure out your in-laws. It’s messy at first, but when you finally do get it, things are at least tolerable.
In an odd turn of events, I think MSW will actually get a grade of a B- for investing, as the price has jumped so much so fast. The price is likely to hit $250 to $300 before it might settle down a bit. I have a feeling that there might have been some shipping issues and more of the stuff is out there. It won’t drop below $150 a box though if that product does show up.
The long-term pricing will go back up but won’t top $300 for a while. The lower grade for something like this is because you likely can’t find it for less than $175 right now, so trying to nab it to sit on won’t be easy. If you can get it for under $100 a box, then grab it up, as MSW has already shown its value.
Shorter article today, but it seemed relevant to get something out about the set. Next time, Alice Cluster, the least investable cluster.
Dan Rowland
Top Scrub
Owner CCGPrime.com
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