No More MSRP

[ApothecaryGeist]

So Wizards announces today that they will no longer be giving their products an MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price).

What do we all think of that?

I think that for regular expansion booster packs and booster boxes, this will not be noticeable.  Everyone knows what they should expect to pay for a booster pack/box.

But I'm a little concerned about the supplemental products - like Commander decks, the Spellbook series, whatever the predecessor of Masters sets will be.  Without a firmly established baseline, there will be stores that will gouge their customers.

Sure, this is a collectible market anyway.  But there needs to be a baseline when a product is initially released.  Without that, the market will be much more volatile.  Especially upon initial release.  I wouldn't want to pay $40 for a product only to find that the market price settles at $15 a couple weeks later.  Nor would I want to pay $100 for a product that I fell isn't worth more than $40.  (Just example numbers). 

How do you think this removal of a baseline price will impact how you buy Magic cards?

[WWolfe]

I'll likely be waiting a few weeks to see what they settle at unless it's something like a commander set with good reprints (this past year being the first year I didn't buy one because of the reprints sucking and none of the decks themselves interesting me).

I buy mostly singles anyway (22 5-row boxes & 6 trade binders is enough of a collection for me) though I do buy the occasional booster packs/box (who doesn't like cracking packs?).

[Soren841]

It allows for competition which is rarely a negative. Welcome to capitalism/

[redlion145]

It allows for competition which is rarely a negative. Welcome to capitalism/

No, it allows for Wizards and/or one of their distributors to continue selling online under the SportsandMore name at below MSRP direct to consumers. WOTC is either behind that ebay account, or implicitly just sanctioned whichever distributor is liquidating their supplies outside of the normal channels. Local game stores have to buy from a distributor, since they ended the WOTC direct program, so the LGS gets screwed at both ends. LGS don't get the same discount as a distributor at wholesale pricing, and they don't get the sales from end consumers either because a distributor is undercutting them on the open market. Without MSRP, it's a race to the bottom on price.

They've just killed the local game store. So where are we all supposed to play with our expensive pieces of cardboard?

Apparently by ourselves, in a room, staring a a computer screen. But not with the cardboard, but digital representations of them. Oh, and the ones you've already got in cardboard aren't worth anything in pixel cards.

/rant

[robort]

No MSRP means there's going to be some major undercutting going on. However the retail stores won't be able to compete thus other outlets gaining more sales