Rolling for Initiative is a weekly column by Scott Thorne, PhD, owner of Castle Perilous Games & Books in Carbondale, Illinois and instructor in marketing at Southeast Missouri State University.  This week, Thorne looks at two of the announcements made at MagicCon over the weekend.

A couple of major announcements came from Wizards of the Coast at this past week’s MagicCon.  One is that WotC will return to listing a MSRP (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price) for most Magic: The Gathering products, starting with next month’s Foundations set (see "WotC Returns to MSRPs for ‘Magic: The Gathering’’" for complete info).  Foundations products will have the following listed MSRPs:

  • Play Booster: $5.25
  • Collector Booster: $24.99
  • Starter Collection: $59.99
  • Jumpstart Booster: $5.49
  • Bundle: $49.99
  • Beginner Box: $29.99

Wizards of the Coast says the MSRPs for the Foundations' products are set a little lower than the MSRPs for regular sets of Magic: The Gathering.  Aetherdrift, which releases next February (see "’Magic: The Gathering in 2025"), will have the following MSRPs:

  • Play Booster: $5.49
  • Collector Booster: $24.99
  • Commander Deck: $44.99
  • Bundle: $53.99
  • Specialty Bundle: $79.99

And these will be, as far as I can tell, the standard MSRPs for Standard, non-Universes Beyond sets for the foreseeable future.  WotC will only list MSRPs for Play Boosters, Collector Boosters, Bundles and Commander Decks, which is pretty much the entire mix of products which WotC releases for each set.

Booster boxes of Collector and Play boosters will not have a stated MSRP but consumers could calculate it by simply multiplying number of boosters times MSRP giving a retail price of $197.64 for a box of Aetherdrift Play boosters.  With that as the anchor point for the upper end of a booster box, we can now see a race to the bottom in terms how cheaply a retailer will sell a booster box.

WotC's rationale for reinstating MSRP is demand for them from resellers and consumers.  WotC says "By reintroducing MSRPs, we're aiming to create a consistent point of reference that helps both retailers and customers make informed choices."

I rather think it is due to pressure from Amazon and other online retailers who use price as a means to differentiate what is essentially a commodity item that only differs from site to site by price.  Without an MSRP, a retailer using discounting as part of their business model cannot show how much cheaper their price is compared to the MSRP or other retailers.

A second major announcement coming out of MagicCon was that all future Universes Beyond sets will be Standard, rather than Modern, legal from the date of release.  This means six Standard legal sets per year, rather than just three.  That is an awful lot of product for the Standard format to absorb, especially given the problems WotC has seen revitalizing the Standard format over the past couple of years.  Seeing that much product come into the pipeline has the potential to overwhelm current Magic players, causing them to throw up their hands in despair and give up on the format.

Really, given the impact of Magic on Hasbro’s bottom line, I can understand why the company wants to get out more sets (see "Hasbro CEO Reveals More Magic Plans, Secret Lair Volumes, D&D DTC Percentage and More").  The company sees the market continually absorbing increased product levels, so why not produce more?  Releases continuing to sell provide Hasbro an incentive to put out as much product as it thinks the market will bear and the company appears to think it can bear significantly more.

Comments?  Send them to castleperilousgames@gmail.com.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.