Secret Lair: Extra Life 2020

[WWolfe]

WOTC giving $30 for each purchase to Extra Life benefiting Seattle Children's Hospital.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/secret-lair-extra-life-2020-10-19

[WizardSpartan]

They must have planned this knowing the backlash of the TWD secret lair. No way it's a coincidence that they release an obviously controversial Secret Lair and the immediate next one is a massive charity event (there's a lot of merch like shirts, pins, and playmats tied to this event that will all also go to charity, not just the Secret Lair itself) with a bunch of high demand cards.

I'm not complaining about the Secret Lair (I think it's a really great idea) just the timing is a bit sus.

[Marshstepper78]

This is obviously a way to deflect attention away from the negative backlash from The Walking Dead Secret Lair. And they did this by involving a children's charity, which they will get a tax deduction from because it is a charitable donation. On top of it, this is 20$ more than the average Secret Lair drop.

Shameless.

[WizardSpartan]

Yeah I've been reading some comments on Reddit and other platforms, and they are most likely benefitting or at least losing basically nothing from this charity event.

It has always cost them basically nothing to make Magic cards, so pumping them up $20 to give $30 to charity like Marsh said costs them really only $10, and we have no idea how much they are getting in tax deductions and other deals as a result of this being a "charity" event.

This is like stores making retail price on all their products $10 more than usual, then reducing that increased price by $10 dollars and putting everything "ON SALE!!!".

I don't mind that the Secret Lair is $60, as buying the cards individually would be much more expensive, but I take offense with the charade.

[twotontimmy]

I mean if they were going to sell to commander players with much needed reprints like this, it's a solid strategy I think we can all get behind.

What they did before was pretty botched. I don't think I've found a single person that was against saying that those cards should've been silver-boarded or cosmetic reprints. TWD Secret layer sold out simply on the premise that people wanted to flip them for a very nice profit for the time investment. I think that may be always the case here on out from now on. This is what I thought was going to happen. It makes me think that the secondary market investors are really the only people getting in on this stuff.

As for saying it's a PR scheme: maybe? Seems like a viable business strategy for a company that promised to double MTG profits to all of Hasbro's investors. I'm more concerned that WoTC is still producing way too much new product right now and just sending that power level into space. Every sets got free stuff spells and other mana cost circumventing nonsense it seems now. I personally think the writing might be on the wall and it's time to dump my collection, make a profit, and switch to fakes for EDH. Probably won't sell pauper, but I don't know yet. Market is still going up for everything despite the apparently massive backlash. Many people still seem to think they'll turn this nonsense train around. This would certainly be a start if it becomes the norm in my opinion.

[PickleLover]

Personally I think it is better than it is bad. I mean, they're donating half their proceeds to Extra Life already. But I know that it is an extra 20 bucks. However, there is much more to the drop than just the boxes. If you read their official article on the MTG website, they're selling playmats for 22, and 16 is going to Extra Life. Thats much more than half. They're also doing uncut sheet auctions on eBay, and 100% of the proceeds go to Extra Life. 100%. They're also streaming on Twitch to raise money, and holding a contest for all of Twitch to see who can raise the most money. They do have merchandise, but that's strictly optional, and they do need to make money somehow. People need to remember that WoTC is a company, and they need money. They're doing much, much more than they usually do. I see that there's a lot of controversy about the actual boxes with the cards, but even so, they're doing many different things. I don't agree with the timing, how it's right after The Walking Dead. But at least they're trying to redeem themselves, and I think that people shouldn't be mad. They very easily could have done all of this and not donated anything to any hospital, and just raised the prices of the boxes. They could get away with that (though there would be a lot of backlash).

thAnkS For ListEnIng tO mY TEd tALK

I forgot to put the link, here it is: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/secret-lair-extra-life-2020-10-19

[WWolfe]

There was a link to the article in the original post. 

These Secret Lair products goes on sale November 6th. The Extra Life event itself is scheduled to run November 7th so I seriously doubt this was done to "make up" for TWD ordeal.

https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.event&eventID=547

[WizardSpartan]

There was a link to the article in the original post. 

These Secret Lair products goes on sale November 6th. The Extra Life event itself is scheduled to run November 7th so I seriously doubt this was done to "make up" for TWD ordeal.

https://www.extra-life.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.event&eventID=547

True, the fact that the Extra Life event was likely planned independently does make it unlikely that this was planned to make up for TWD.

[PickleLover]

yeah that makes sense (aout being planned independantly). and about the link in the op, i knew it was there, but if someone had scrolled down to my answer, might as well put the link there.

[WWolfe]

Yea, the Extra Life event is something that's been going on since 2008. It's a fundraiser for the Children's Miracle Network that allows you to donate to the hospital of your choice within the CMN.

This is WoTC's way of contributing to it.

[WizardSpartan]

Yea, the Extra Life event is something that's been going on since 2008. It's a fundraiser for the Children's Miracle Network that allows you to donate to the hospital of your choice within the CMN.

This is WoTC's way of contributing to it.

So is the event on the same day every year?

If so, we're back on. Wizards strategically placed TWD SL just before the event and planned the next SL to coincide with the Extra Life event. Easy.

[WWolfe]

Yea, it's around this same time every year.

Maybe it is something to TWD release time. 

[Akira Foxmind]

I was reading the posts silently the last few days but I have to ask:
I'm not sure whether I missed it in any of the posts... but was exactly does TWD stand for? 

[CleanBelwas]

I was reading the posts silently the last few days but I have to ask:
I'm not sure whether I missed it in any of the posts... but was exactly does TWD stand for? 

In this instance, TWD stands for The Walking Dead

[Akira Foxmind]

I was reading the posts silently the last few days but I have to ask:
I'm not sure whether I missed it in any of the posts... but was exactly does TWD stand for? 

In this instance, TWD stands for The Walking Dead

oooohhhhh, okay. One could have figured that out by himself.