Mark Craddock of Comic Book World, Inc. in Florence, Kentucky read the comments regarding the Magic: The Gathering Prerelease allocations (see "Ted Yee of T&N Games on 'M:TG--Innistrad' Prerelease") and had this to say.

I'm responding to Ted Yee's Talk Back comments.  I'm not going to guess what T&N Games' typical Magic: The Gathering tournament schedule is like, and I don't assume he's not working hard and serving his customers.  I know that I run a minimum of three M:TG tournaments each week, and I know that my Prereleases keep growing, and so does the amount of product I get.  If I remember correctly, the number of tournaments you run all year and the number of new players you register contribute to your allocation.

I also want to give Wizards of the Coast credit where credit is due.  While DC Comics seem to have read the market correctly in their New 52 lineup, M:TG has been dominating the market in a renewed way for several years, and like wildfire since Zendikar and the Duels of the Planeswalkers electronic games.  Much of that has to do with WotC understanding their market, their customer base, and our needs as retailers.  Do I have to point out how many publishers don't even do those things 10% as well as Wizards of the Coast?  They keep working on new ways to drive players into our store, and that's while providing industry leading digital content that we don't get any cut of.

Lets all be honest, how many publishers would even still remember it had physical retail channels, especially direct market channels, with even a fraction of the success WotC has garnered between Magic Online and Duels of the Planeswalkers?  And on top of that, I'm truly amazed how well the change over to Planeswalker Points has turned out for top level players who were penalized to a certain degree in playing at home stores under the old DCI rules.  So they keep giving me tools to bring back lapsed players, "top-level" players, and more importantly draw in a new customer base while simultaneously putting as much effort at helping me retain the existing customer base.  It's a perfect storm.

As much as I am grateful for DC's efforts in general, I can't think of anyone in the industry working harder for our stores than WotC.  They deserve a big round of applause.  It's really nice to know that they understand that we are key in efforts to grow their flagship product and sustain long term success, instead of trying to remove us for a quick buck, until the mass market returns come home.

And for those curious, I ran all four prerelease events and I had record attendance with over 80 players on Saturday and close to 40 on Sunday.

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