Stores REDUCING exposure to Magic The Gathering. 

When everything is premium, nothing is.

WotC: We're releasing all kinds of awesome products that aren't for you Customers: That's OK. We've decided for ourselves that your products are not for us

Mythics rarely feel special, nearly all rares are bulk, showcase common cards that no one wants, higher prices, worse quality... just got back into mtg this year after a decade off and it's brutal what is all going on.

My local Walmart used to have their TCG card shelf be about 35 percent MTG, 35 percent Pokemon, 5 percent Yu GI Oh, and 25 percent sports cards. I've noticed in the last 4-6 weeks it is now 65 percent Pokemon and 5 percent MTG. Quite a noticable reduction.

Magic was a game that you could afford at under $4 a pack and about $10-$12 for a starter back when I began in 2005 with 9th edition and Ravnica block. I literally bought two of the Boros starter decks and some singles and was able to win games and place in top 4 of block and standard constructed events and had so much fun. Those times are long gone. It isn't a game for teenagers. It is a collection for adult whales. I am in my late 30's now and just play commander and D&D. I will buy some cool singles, like when Grim Tutor was reprinted. However, I don't touch much else.

Speaking as my own micro version of this, I've come to the point where I'm no longer interested in picking up most foils, judge foils, promos, and collector booster product knowing that there's probably a flashier, more desirable variant already in the queue for secret lair, supplemental product, or master set. And the more they turn the product velocity up, the more I want to slowly back away from the table with my purchasing dollars.

As a LGS owner I'm considering not ordering sealed product except for absolute event minimums. I rather buy collections and other used products.

My LGS has two doors, but the main door is where all of the FAB stuff is displayed. Multiple tables with the FAB table cover, oversized Monarch heroes on the walls, and a big display case with cards and cold foils. The MTG stuff is on the other side of the counter with a much smaller footprint. The owner has said that he just doesn't get collector's boxes for MTG because no one really buys them.

I don’t understand printing so many different products for one set when there is no competitive magic events all these standard sets and no body playing standard it’s crazy

Been involved with Magic since Revised. When I couldn’t tell the difference between a draft, set, and collector box I knew I was done

I don’t comment frequently but wanted to comment for the RU-vid algorithm because this video is super insightful and very appreciated. Wizards of the Coast is taking their customer base for granted which is fine for now but if any meaningful competition shows up, it’s realistic for them to get wrecked as the incumbent.

I think you've addressed it in another video but man I miss the days where we got a new set and had several months to really enjoy and take in the product but now its card being shoved in every taco hole and the disrespect to players being charged $1000 for something the neighbor kid "accidently" printed.

Given the way MTG's new products have been marketed in recent years, this is a natural progression. Especially in large marts like Wal-Mart, which do not sell individual cards, new MTG products are not only hardly profitable, but are also unsold, putting pressure on backyards.

I feel disappointed what they did with 30 anniversary. It was like they were having a party and they told us "out you are not invited" this is a private party. After been loyal to the game. I don't think we deserved it. It was supposed to be fun and accessible.

Feel kinda bad for the stores who only focus on magic and never settled a Yugioh and Pokémon community

Don’t worry Rudy, wizards is alienating all us players too.

I'm stunned that magic managed to make Rudy not buy their stuff. I feel like he was always the one clapping when everyone else was mad. Now everyone seems unhappy with them.

I want to buy new MtG products, but there's this exclusionary gate keeping me from doing so, called "Common Sense"

It turns out that the only MTG-Killer was MTG itself. It's not a player's market either, there's far too many products releasing at such a breakneck pace that it's overwhelming. Apathy is taking over and players just stop spending their money when it's not exciting. I feel a lot of players are going to go into another (or their first) dark age, it is something most folks go through at least once. Hopefully MTG will still be there when we come back. All I know is, as a consumer of MTG, I've never been less excited to crack packs and play since BNG and BFZ.

MTG was a great investment opportunity... when nobody knew about it. Duals, P9, reserved, old sealed stuff. Now it's a fools errand. As that shop owner said, put it in a bank, invest it and profit doing nothing. Also because they want to sell their cards at the price of secondary market instead of printing to reduce the value, but details...

FAB is the guy listening to all your problems Rudy. Lean on his shoulders and tell FAB everything.

Record highs in new products and record lows in shelf real estate for/exposure to those products. That’s a lot of taco meat trying to pass through a small tortilla wrap.

This is one of your best videos, Rudy. What you say makes a lot of sense. It’s interesting because, here in Canada, the recent supply of MTG products in my local Walmarts has been non-existent. I follow MTG Mox Man on RU-vid and have commented that, as a collector whose amassed a substantial collection of sealed product, I don’t plan to purchase any more releases, aside from singles for my own decks and collection. I still purchase reserved list cards that I like. I will support the secondary market to an extent, but not WOTC directly anymore. To see that the lack of interest is existing with the larger consumers (i.e. businesses, larger LGSs), I find that to be very interesting. It’s not worth taking unnecessary risks with carrying WOTC products. I’m now watching the Hasbro stock and it’ll be interesting to see what Q4 brings. Interesting times, indeed.

My FLGS finally shuttered. It had been doing rough for a while, but magic sales had been the thing keeping its head above water. I don't think it's a coincidence they decided it was time to give up the ghost within a week of the 30th anniversary being announced.

It's funny about you talk about the ecosystem between players, collectors, and LGS since Weiss was basically just a players game before 2020. Looking forward to the corporate debt videos! I'm starting to look into getting some.

i'm glad stores are doing this

I like the new trend toward full art basics themed to the set. That's the ONE thing good that's come from the variant explosion since theros.

I've been playing Magic most of my life, I started when I was 7 years old. My first deck was Beta goblins that were pack fresh. I have never felt this disconnected from a product that I have most of my wealth put in to. Every set, every new gimic, I contemplate selling my collection. I am an active player, twice a week, 4-8 hours a session. This is a major part of my life. I am quickly coming to a closing point where enough is enough and it's time to move on from Magic. I never thought I'd watch the video where Rudy goes over my collection, but I can see in the next couple of years that I might.

Up there with the best of the videos you’ve put out boss. Thanks for the free advice delivered in an entertaining way.

This made total sense to me. I'll really be afraid of Mtg if rates go up another point or two, and they don't adjust print runs. But what an incredible time to be able to make money for people with cash on hand.

"Something better came along" (22:30) reminds me of Michael Porter's 'Business Strategy 5 Market Forces': Buyers, Suppliers, Competitors, Substitute Products, and New Entrants. Back in the day of the 90s there were several other exciting CCGs to try (and plenty of not so exciting ones:) so I agree there is always the threat of something better (in whatever form it takes) coming along.

He better be careful putting all that money in corporate bonds!!! Whole bond market is on a tight rope right now.

30th anniversary was the spark i needed to sell off the vast majority of MTG cards i don't use. Waiting for my local store to give me a call so i can pick up a cheque for 2k. Sure, i still have some investment cards, commander decks, a pauper cube, some sealed stuff, but more than anything 30th anniversary has just made me comfortable with selling my cards, not acquiring more.

We need more long videos like this, Plumber Rudy.

I'm glad you inform us at the start of each video who you are and what channel this is. Last time this didn't happen, I was suddenly on MTGLion's channel, lord knows how I ended up there....

Honestly been feeling this way lately. Gonna see how magic 30 plays out. Great video really love the insight.

What an interesting time to be involved in the hobby right now. It's truly incredible on many levels

I've dubbed the current era the Glitter Age. Because the cards are now like glitter: shiny, abundant, and worthless. Collector boosters are what is killing the secondary market. All the chase variants are criminally overproduced.

If anyone is curious the TCG store he's talking about is Mystery MTG

Wizards and Hasbro owe a lot to the LGS.

Wizards/Hasbro seems to be going all in on selling to speculators with their "30th anniversary 1000 dollars for 60 proxy pack" thing. Who else could they be trying to court with that price tag? People who play with proxies sure as Hell aren't looking for Hasbro's seal of approval. I've got a feeling this is the only trick they're willing to do, too. I can't come up with a better explanation for why they're putting out serialized cards and "extra special transformers cards"(what they're selling it as) aside from them chasing speculators above everything else. It started with collector's packs in general and they clearly have no intention of stopping on their own. It reminds me a bit of the comics crash of the ninety's, but stupider because they should be able to see that this has failed before.

I used to play competitive MTG with aspirations of being a pro player and a judge. Wizards and Hasbro killed that dream. I still really enjoy competitive MTG and commander, but I've gone back to my childhood game of YuGiOh. At least I know what to expect from Konami

This is really informative. I learned a lot.

What Rudy said: "Market diversity provides competition, and if Wizards doesn't change, they will sink" What Rudy meant: "Leave your toxic relationship"

I can't imagine Pokemon has actually cut back print run. Is it really just Magic that hasn't cut print run?

we ALWAYS appreciate you Sir Rudy!!

My go to lgs is like the third store you talked about. They do have a strong magic pressence, in that the front counter is a big showcase of really nice cards. And they offer packs from like, most every standard set, and some masters and so on, that have been released. My first time there I bought Amon-kittykat and got a showcase :3

Thanks for the education Rudy. I really appreciate it.

In my vlog, I compared what was happening in Magic now with what happened to comics in the nineties. Comic companies started marketing their comics as "collectible" and they offered foil covers and multiple versions of the same cover...etc. So, a bunch of non-comic-reading investors went in a bought a ton of books. They were only investing...and either didn't read or even care about the books themselves. Later on, people started trying to sell those books and as soon as they found out that they were worthless, all of a sudden, out of the blue, all of those investors just stopped buying books. The comic book companies didn't adjust to the changes quick enough and across the board, all comic books companies fell into deep financial problems or just died. Because of this, Marvel started selling their IP to movie studios...and that's how the MCU began. Treat your customers with respect...or else you will lose them. If you have employees who refuse to respect your customers, get rid of them as fast as you can...or they may destroy your company. To: Mr. Doom and Gloom - Good episode. Thank you for the information.

Dear Mr Rosewater, We all hear the talk about Hasbro pressuring wizards to perform. Without wizards, Hasbro would look like it's going bankrupt. Their IP is failing, their digital content is failing, their IP is stale and not innovative. No one wants a new skin of monopoly. Hasbro knows nothing about innovation, but you do. You have a gun to your back to perform but I ask you for the whole community's sake, don't let Hasbro make magic another monopoly. Remember in 2003, when you took on lead designer, and you had the passion and drive just to get people to play your game. Magic is successful as it is because its mission was to get cards in front of people and enjoy the product, and have fun designing and producing a game and a community you could be proud of. It wasn't because mtg released a record amount of sets. It was because we the consumer saw the passion and commitment to creating a product that was innovative and evolving.. now wizards is Hasbros cash cow.. don't allow them to make mtg the anikan to your obi wan. Return to the mission statement of players first, get people to play your game and reward them for it. Return to the glory days when your parents came to the workplace at 9pm, and you had developers still there arguing about the new set on salary not because they had to be there but because they wanted to. Hasbro needs wizards more than wizards needs Hasbro, and if wizards separated into it's own publicly traded company, Hasbro would go bankrupt. Stand up to the overlords and leave a legacy where you championed the game for the players, and not to the suits at Hasbro. I've been playing for 30 years. I love the game, and I know you do too. You put your heart and soul into it. It's as much yours as it is Garfield's at this point. Don't let it fall to the dark side.

Thanks for the video Rudy, I started with magic at the beginning of this year. My first set was Kamigawa and I loved it. I even invested some money to buy a couple of boxes. Now I am really worried about the situation because i don't know when everything will fall apart. I agree that the market has changed. At the beginning of the year, I thought that magic is a very cool TCG and I really love TCG. I don't play them very often, but I love to trade and collect all of one Set. But now it is not only too expensive, it is also too much for me. Too many sets too many items too many versions and it is not even profitable anymore.

I’d be screwed if I lived in any of the areas with the stores Rudy used as examples. My LGS has 8 to 12 every week for draft.

I finally finished clearing out my MTG stock. Only holding on to some early relatively worthless but sentimentally valuable cards. I don't trust MTG product at the moment. I think liquidity is going to be king heading into the next few years, whether the deals will be on a crashed MTG market or the bleeding New York. There's money to be made in the upcoming recession if you're liquid and seeking.

That's good analysis. The thing is that there are quite many new kids on the block, Flesh and Blood, Metazoo, and Digimon. Can't say much about Metazoo, but F&B and Digimon seem to have quite fast growth for games that only started few years ago. It seems that pandemic really worked well for them.

I had some great cards from 2X22 and a few other sets. These included textured Ulamog and emrakul, borderless foil vault, etched cavern, borderless foil force of will, etc. Sold them off for duals. Though reserved is shaky, I feel it may be the only thing we can trust…for now.

Wow this popped up on my feed and I found it really interesting. Glad I have sold most of my cards over the last couple of years. I had no idea there were so many versions of products being released.

Treasury I-Bonds were sitting at 10% for awhile. The best deal out there, and safe.

Absolutely right! Scarcity = value. Rare used to mean rare. Now it's just a designation. On top of the fact that they're printing 72 versions of each rare/mythic you have the collector boxes just spilling them all over the mat. I had been away from MTG for years. When I came back and saw this I couldn't believe it. Each pack is like you've opened 5 boosters. Except you're guaranteed mythics and foils so it's more like cracking half a box! Of course the mythics and rares lose their meaning. It could go no other way.

I actually saw some older adults at my local comic book shop come in and only buy 2-3 new packs. They weren't buying boxes or collector boxes or the bundle stuff or anything. The money just isn't there and ppl are watching what they spend. Along with that comic book store and others they have tons of sealed product just collecting dust so they just crack it open and sell the single packs as they can and continue on. But I also noticed the huge amount of product the last few months we have from Magic. So hard to keep up. Even I stopped buying sealed boxes for my collection. Just some Alpha/Beta stuff etc now for single and even then I think twice.

"Its a consumers confidence crisis" sounds like "the consumers are price sensitive" they fucked it

one of my fav videos so far LOVE THIS CHANNEL

Walmarts and Target’s in my area always have a huge stock of MTG, Pokémon, Yugioh, and even Metazoo. On a weekly basis. Although I always see lots of empty boxes thrown in the toy section from theft. I don’t think they care about the theft because it doesn’t effect their bottom line

At every Target/Walmart in my area... 60% poke, 15% sports, 10% magic, 5% digi, 5% yugioh, 4% weird stuff, 1% metazoo (saw unlimited stuff at target only)

good update on the LGS scene - icon out

Finally! We need more video about stock/ bonds, not some cardboard

I agree about all the variants of cards and products. Quantity > Quality has never been a good thing. I don't know what to think about Brother's War now, but I have seen the Phyrexia draft, set and collector boxes (for February 2023). They look so gorgeous!

Pretty much all the reasons you said are all valid. The variants one was a big one for me. How many alternate art/types are there now? I'm a collector and even I don't know anymore. How many people try sending you chronicles thinking they are OG cards? Imagine what this does to them.

Corporate bond videos would be awesome! Bring back the pink visor!!!!

Wow that actually make sense. I was in the thought that my local shops was stocking less products cuz it was becoming less of a game for competitions and more a game for collectors and whales

Good video Rudy. You hit the nail on the head. All of what you said makes good financial sense. We have made some good investments since Fed keeps raising the interest rate. Hasbro has shot itself in the foot with expensive products where you do not get much value, especially with collector's boxes. We cut back on Magic products and buy some singles. The newer Magic cards have lost its uniqueness. We still do drafts and play Commander because it is a lot of fun.

One of the LGS' in my area recently announced on social media that they'd be scaling back in a similar way. Stocking some set booster boxes, and a single draft box just for the shelf. They're willing to order sealed draft for people on request, but won't be buying it buy default. They just can't move the product anymore.

I mean I literally just came back to playing in August and I’m already thinking “Wellp…maybe it’s about time to be moving on”. Like I can’t imagine what more entrenched players and buyers feel right now, like there’s negligible sunk cost for me and I’m totally looking up places to play FAB instead.

This is anecdotal evidence but it's something that has given me pause, my local LGS's I have 5 I know of within about 20 mins of my house aren't restocking singles and they aren't opening nearly as much product, I thought it was just a problem with old cards until I was building a new modern deck and had to order from tcgplayer just to get a playset of portable hole and esper Sentinel and trying to find niche cards from a couple year ago nearly impossible, I remember a couple years back they'd never not have a card I was looking for

I do like that there's a bunch of versions of mountains.

Rudy is dead on, everything you're saying is truth, and it's just so sad in general to watch this unfold like this one of the greatest games ever created is possibly being destroyed.

That store owner sounds exactly like my LGS that I play tabletop war games at. We talk business a lot (I own a gym) and he is fed up with Wizards/Hasbro He’s recently added FAB and has a good Pokémon/Yugioh community

I'm a bit of a whale that has been able to buy a case of collector boxes every single set since they have come out. For my own enjoyment mainly to see what I can get. But watching the prices on singles tank so much the past year on most every card I will no longer buy any after dominaria. You said it best Rudy when you exclaimed that there are more and better options even if it's just my fun money.

I totally just purchased my first flesh and blood blitz decks gonna test the waters and see what it’s about.

The things it hurts is the liquidity of Magic a massive move on key assets of 1993-94 is 100, 1000, 10000 copies and at some point they are not mint or better

Im so sad. I normally only play commander and do pre-release drafts for mtg and my local LGS stopped doing pre-release drafts since the beginning of this year because they don't make enough to justify running a tournament.

Hey Rudy I REALLY think WoTC needs to extend the reserve list with sets after the old reserve list. Your thoughts on this?

We are rapidly approaching $5 haircut zone.

"When everything is special, nothing is special." ~Me years ago when they started doing like 4 different variants of cards in a set.

This video encapsulates every reason I quit playing magic

Interesting climate ... businesses cutting back to take advantage of risk-free rates, which means they have to inflate prices or thereabouts to make it worth their while, which might make the end consumer have to pay more (who also don't have enough capital/savings to make the rates look attractive)

i know a lot of big box stores with mtg packs got tired of the scan 1 bag 2 trick. my local meijer was getting cleaned out pretty regularly.

I was itching to close out this video within a couple minutes, but found the content oddly intriguing and watched through the end. But three ads for 24 minute video? Must be building up for the 30th anniversary boosters.

That last store and second store are saying basically the same thing. The cards are worthless due to the many versions and the cost rose, so why would people buy the sealed product? Lower draft box prices to previously and make the collector boxes have versions only found in them and leave set boxes as is

I've been getting great deals on singles lately, staying away from sealed product besides some secret lairs.

If as stores they are dropping little by little MtG. Me as a consumer was excited for Dominaria and Brothers War but what broke my relationship with MtG was the proxies. Now I'm seeing how to play FaB, or Pokémon or maybe one of those boardgames that you buy once and has a competitive scene like Root or Scythe

I've just started getting into magic these past few months, playing is a ton of fun, going to my LGS is great, and these videos are always so interesting to try and see into the financial side of magic.

Every big box retailer near me stopped selling. It’ll sell out, but at what cost lmbo

Although I agree I doubt WOTC would lose much if it loses the LGS. They still can sell in Amazon. They are ignoring the value of the community and live play.

Rudy apologizing for a long video when really he should be apologizing for a short one 😂

I liked the unintended effect of the microphone being stereo

Don't forget in the 90s, 80s, and 70s the people that made the games were also the biggest players and fans. Not so at Hasbro.

Walking away from the ol MTG table huh... This reminded me of that"me trying to invest in volatile bonds" tick tock

really iteresting conversation. I'm not a "magic investor" in that I buy large, expensive amounts of cards to flip them or sell them. But I do care about the value of my cards that I buy for gameplay reasons, and for collecting reasons. Also this video was made a month ago and now Brother's war boxes are closer to $100 so you really called it.

At exactly @11:00 minutes in the video Rudy says this is the side effect that happens when you give the middle finger to all the stores, investors collector's and it's just the players, I'd like to add that the player's are even more given the finger when WoTC gives us an almost literal sign saying "you can't be poor and play our game"... your player base has really no incentive to stick around after that.

Heaven forbid a game's environment be mainly for the people who play the game. That said - I'd also disagree that the environment is for the players; there's too little down time between products for people to actually chew on and enjoy/process any one given product.