Amazon is playing to win on price on board games for the holiday season, pricing bestselling perennials at wholesale discounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  First alerted by a post on GamesRadar, we took a look at prices on Black Friday and found the prices for Asmodee North America bestsellers on the chart accompanying this article.  We also followed up with a price check on Cyber Monday and found Spot It at a much lower discount, but the others at much the same prices we’d found on Friday.

Amazon Black Friday and Cyber Monday Game Prices
	MRSP	Black Friday	Discount		Cyber Monday	Discount
Spot It!	$12.99	$6.36	51%		$11.69	10%
Catan	$48.99	$25.99	47%		$25.99	47%
Ticket to Ride	$49.99	$24.99	50%		$24.99	50%
Pandemic	$39.99	$19.99	50%		$23.99	40%

Asmodee instituted a Minimum Advertised Price policy last year, which limited discounts to 20% off (see "Asmodee North America Moves to MAP").  We’d been observing occasional dips below that price by Amazon, which seemed to be temporary moves to match third party sellers on Amazon or other platforms that were selling below the MAP.  But now it appears that Amazon is all in on price competition on the line, pricing at what amounts to wholesale discounts for consumer sales.

Asmodee declined to respond to our question asking whether the company still had a Minimum Advertised Price policy and if so, how it applied to the Amazon prices.

Asmodee was not the only company on which Amazon was pricing aggressively; Wizards of the Coast’s Betrayal at House on the Hill was priced at $23.39, a 53% discount from the $49.99 MSRP, on both Friday and Monday.