Gary Burton of Burdin's Comics in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) read the recent interview with Wizards of the Coast CEO Greg Leeds (see "Interview with WotC CEO Greg Leeds--Part 1") and couldn't help but wonder why he's experiencing so many Magic: The Gathering product allocations.I’m curious to see what the CEO Greg Leeds has to say about my problem. I've been selling Magic: The Gathering since early 1994. I basically did my own thing as far as gameplay and tournaments for years but last year I decided to finally become a Core Retailer and did.
I order my product from a distributor but I never seem to get what I order. They tell me Wizards allocates it. I have a large EDH or Commander following in the store so I ordered 24 cases of the Commander decks. I got 4 and they were sold out in 2 days. I found out last week that I won't be getting the rest of my order. Talk at the game tables is that Walmart has plenty in stock. Most of my customers went there to pick up the Commander decks. So now I supply the game area, the lighting, the air-conditioning and solve any conflicts or arguments that arise while they're playing with the cards that I didn't get the sale for.
A couple weeks ago Nicol Bolas vs. Ajani set came out. It was allocated. I didn't receive any. Again Walmart steals my sales. I thought you had to be Core Retailer to even order it but I guess not. Unless there's a Walmart somewhere that runs gaming and that qualifies the whole chain. Either that or rules simply don't apply to the giant retailer.
I understand the desire of Hasbro to want Walmart to distribute WotC product but why does it have to be at the costs of other retailers? If it wasn't for us helping to make the game big, Walmart wouldn't even be interested in it. Allocating products to us while supplying the big chain with all it wants is unfair, giving the giant an advantage it doesn't need.
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