Wizards of the Coast released a Magic: The Gathering Booster Selling Guide, a tabloid that outlines which of their booster products are a fit for certain player types.

With multiple Magic booster types available to choose from, WotC has offered retailers some guidance on what motivates certain types of Magic players buy the different booster products offered per set release. In a recent document, the company essentially lumped the bulk of their player-base into four categories: Engaged Players, Enfranchised Players, New Players, and Interested Players. Engaged Players are customers that consistently play Magic and buy product, and Enfranchised Players are super fans who view Magic as part of a hobby gaming lifestyle. The New Players and the Interested Players are both in early stages of getting to know Magic as a game and exploring the product lines.

WotC assigned a best-fit booster product type to each of these player categories for retailers to offer to them. The suggested products for Engaged Players are Set Boosters and Draft Boosters because they revolve around building constructed and draft decks for events. WotC believes Enfranchised Players should be directed towards Collector Boosters because these offer fancy foils and other unique cards. New Players and Interested Players should be offered Theme Boosters, which help with ideas for basic deck builds.

The Magic: The Gathering Booster Selling Guide avoids mentioning another type of player, best described as an "Investor Player." There is a well-known portion of the Magic player base that buys sealed boxes, from FLGS or online outlets, for the sole purpose of breaking them open and extracting valuable singles to sell or trade for profit. Investor Players also have a tendency to purchase sealed product to sit on for extended periods of time, until they gain enough value to be resold at a higher value.

Investor Players are major buyers of Magic product that are less interested in building decks or the hobby gaming lifestyle choices Magic offers than they are in trading or selling cards for a profit. This group of players shouldn't be discounted, by WotC or retailers, as they tend to purchase a lot of product at once and often preorder a hefty number of booster boxes.  

Wizards of the Coast also updated their event policies in anticipation of starting up in-store play on May 28 (see "Wizards of the Coast Updates Event Policies").

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