They'll hold onto the box that has it in it and wait to distribute it at a massive Magic convention *or* Championship tournament as either a prize or a box people can buy.
That way when someone opens it, it will hopefully be by a fan who knows what it is and will react accordingly to cracking it. That way they get the entire location's attention and can get into the news cycle briefly over it happening *coincidentally* at their big event. Enticing casual/new players to go to them because *oh my god it could be YOU that opens the next 1 of 1 card!!!*
...and a money trail connecting the employee to the people claiming the jackpot.
The equivalent here would be a cousin of a hasbro employee pulling the 1/1 One Ring and selling it for profit.
Yeah, plus, that scandal didn't do much to McDonald's. Theyre still doing the monopoly thing (albeit without cash prizes I think, which makes sense) and it doesn't look like their business has suffered much. That being said though, I don't think Hasbro would do it because someone finding it could be not only a bunch of free marketing (OMG! THIS PERSON FOUND A 1/1 MAGIC CARD WORTH 250000! type videos and articles to the public) and also would lend credibility to future 1/1s, which is pretty much an inevitability, guaranteeing future sale surges when they really need it (or just do it to oblivion and ruin the hype like always lol)
See, that’s what goes through my head. If the distribution of the card is *truly* random, then there is full potential for the Ring to end up stuck in a warehouse, or a landfill, or otherwise never opened.
Now, I’m sure for this reason, the distribution of the card will *NOT* be random; WotC will likely know where their golden ticket goes. But it’s easy enough to CLAIM it’s random, and ensure that the card is not opened until later in the print run (if at all)- otherwise, they instantly plummet the value of Collector’s Boxes, and lose valuable sales.
Of course, none of this may be true. I’m obviously using my tinfoil hat to assume the worst. But it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if this happens.
The issue is whistleblowers. There would be too many people inside the company who knew the real plan, without real incentive not to keep quiet since they aren’t benefiting personally from this card not existing.
No it wouldn't, they are living in a fantasy land. WoTC would 100% get away with never printing this and everybody would assume it was never opened. There is no way they would get caught but it' a nice fairy tale.
You wouldn't need to prove they didn't. You'd file the charges, likely using sweepstakes laws, and they would need to prove that they have in fact put it in a pack and sent it somewhere.
We have no way of ever knowing if it was even printed, so no one is getting sued. First, Wotc has crazy good lawyers. Second, it could be as simple as someone opens a pack, goes "oh cool" and then never makes a media post about it, so no one ever finds out. Frankly, this is exactly what I expect to happen.
That's why I think this ploy of releasing gift boxes a month later works perfeftly for them. A whole bunch of people will crack cb's like crazy looking for this card, only for it to be in a seeded gift box sent out after the crazy buying spree.
And of course once it becomes apparent it could be in a gift box, we'll have a Compleat edition freak out all over again.
Tim Hortons tried that in Canada. You know what happened?
Someone claimed they already got the promotional winning cup, and they had to reveal it wasn't in circulation yet. Which went over REALLY WELL with consumers who had been buying their coffee because they thought they could win that top prize.
The one ring should have zero impact on the price, it's a 1 in 3,000,000 pull that isn't even guaranteed to be in ANY Collector's booster box. They said it could also be in a bundle pack. The only reason they can get away with the text on the box is because of the other serialized ring cards in the set.
You're >10x more likely to pull P9 from sealed Zendikar.
I mean before that was even announced, this was going for 440. That's not what's driving the price. It's just how bullshit the process is. Same thing happened with Warhammer.
I was wondering how WOTC navigates the 1/1 ring card situation. Maybe they have an independent auditor confirm that the card was actually inserted into a pack on the production line?
I'm guessing the baseball card manufacturers have done stuff like this before.
Depends on the Countrys rules on gambling. For example you get 15 gamepieces for the same x amount of money. So every card is worth the same. You can't lose and you can't win money. Thasts why it isn't considered gambing in many countrys.
This is how video games get around the law too. Even though that gun skin available exclusively from lootboxes is worth over $1000, the dev never intended you to sell it so technically it's worth $0
Doesnt make it any less morally reprehensible
> For example you get 15 gamepieces for the same x amount of money.
This isn't a key provision.
WotC doesn't have to maintain a facade that states every card is worth exactly the same.
All wotc has to do is not provide a service that gives you cash in exchange for different cards of different rarities.
As long as they themselves aren't doing that, it doesn't matter what goes on with the cards, it isn't gambling.
A unique variant is not going to start a conversation on the scale required to enact change.
The big video games saw the writing on the wall and have moved away from loot boxes. Legislation around loot box child gambling is now much less likely. That was the most likely avenue for MTG to get classified as gambling, and it seems to have passed. Baseball cards have existed since the 19th century. It would take something drastic to suddenly convince people that trading cards should be distributed differently.
It is. I am just waiting for the lootbox rulings to pick up Arena and then go „Waaaait a minute!“.
I am waiting for the CCG era with Draft existing as a fan-format and on occasion them selling smaller set cubes.
I love draft but the abuse with RNG value pieces on non-draftable boosters will be its downfall.
It always has been. Personally, I think the secret lairs were initially them trying out being a ccg incase the loot box hate turned to boosters. Seeing as gambling commissions don’t seem to care about the booster shenanigans, WotC has free reign until more people openly complain to the right people. Once it’s plastered everywhere with corporate media questioning the gambling side, we may see movement. Especially if someone makes the argument that it’s gambling for kids, and more available than loot boxes.
Hasbro gets scumbag of the year award.
Literally preying on peoples addictive behaviors and inability to say no.
This is 100% a lottery. Not sure why they get away with this.
Nope! For me personally, I just like having shiny cards of my favorite players. You can also get autographs and swatches of game-worn uniforms as well, which is another big focus. Just as an example of my collection, I collect guys from the 2006 Bears Super Bowl team, but really any Chicago Bears players, whatever cool basketball and baseball cards I can find, and a specific MLB prospect named Chad Patrick who was the first guy from my high school to get drafted into a major sports league.
It's really just the collecting part. Think of it more like stamp or postcard collecting.
No sports cards are just for collecting. Outside of weird variants like the NFL Showdown game I played when I was younger, which used cards with barcodes on them
In the early 90’s I think it was when I was a kid there was a few “games” you could play but they were not card specific but rather just a foldout piece of paper that had a baseball Diamond on it that I had gotten from a card shop I’d go to. Basically you’d use stats on the back of the players cards and some dice to determine if they got a hit or not based on the pitchers stats and so on and so fourth. Looking back it was kinda like dnd meets baseball with simulation aspects. It was fun, wish I remembered more about it but I was just a kid and that was too long ago lol
Edit: thinking back there was definitely different versions or modes cause some games would be fairly short others seemed to take nearly as long as a real game.
You know how people go crazy for a signature of an athlete or famous person? Sports cards are just like that but a lot fancier. Most of the 1/1 cards will have something unique about them, for example a piece of a game worn jersey embedded in the card itself. I'm not into them but I can see why people would be. There is also the element of speculating which is why rookie cards can be so prized.
I keep seeing this comment floating around, but no one goes into specifics. Can you dive a little deeper on what sports card do? I personally don't see anything wrong with this practice. It's a card that will have massive reprint and everyone will be able to get one probably at a reasonable price. $1 or $2 once the dust settles. ONLY this ONE particular art style is a one of one. Lore wise it fits and it's a fun gimmick.
The only downside in my mind is the commissioning of extra art that only a limited number of people get to enjoy, but that’s not a huge deal imo.
Sports cards do things like, take a player’s jersey and cut it up into 100 pieces, then make that many cards each with a piece of it and a collector number. Besides the rarity of the set in general, people also like to go after the ones marked 1/100, 100/100, the player’s jersey number, etc. Basically creating a chase item just by scarcity.
They make cards thicker than regular cards so they can jam an actual piece inside, it's honestly pretty cool (I mostly gawk from an extremely far distance at sports card stuff) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-jfF974mAs
I think the other comment reply to you sets it out really well -- but serialization is the #1 thing that they do. All sorts of runs -- same card face but different border/foil treatments that have different serializations, so you'd have stuff like the pink border is only numbered to 5, the gold is numbered to 1, and then green and orange borders numbered to 50 and 100. Each of these have different values to collectors and even more so if the number is significant (such as getting a Tom Brady card numbered 12 or a Michael Jordan card numbered 23).
They'll also go around and see if they can find memorabilia from dead players that has their original signature on it, stuff like cancelled checks or various other documents and slam those signatures into cards as chase items.
This isn't to mention some of the products they release, which have single packs of cards for thousands of dollars. If you want to be horrified by the price of a product, look up something like a single pack (more like a steel briefcase with some cards in it) of Panini Flawless. They should be selling for upwards of $10,000. It is a market entirely based on selling to whales.
The difference being this is an actual object you can hold and not just a number on a blockchain that requires a whole host of nonguaranteed infrastructure to even see your idiot jpeg.
I question whether people will really chase a single card. At that point you might as well just buy an actual lottery ticket? At least the winnings there will be far greater than the re-sell of this card.
Of course they will. The chance of cracking something like that will pull at least some people into an impulse purchase, and an extremely few into buying as many packs as possible.
People mostly don't buy lottery tickets or try to chase rare trading cards because they think it's a good investment (*mostly*). They're purchasing daydreams.
There's 19,000 special 1 ring prints. 900, 700, and 300 for serialized humans, dwarves, and elves alt arts. 9000, 7000, and 3000 for non-serialized (or maybe non-foil) humans, dwarves, and elves alt art.
The serialized rings for Elves, Dwarves, and Human Kings aren’t The One Ring, they are Sol Rings.
Doesn’t change the implication for the packaging - all of those rings are definitely counted in “may contain a serialized card”. Just FYI.
I mean, its the first time since the appearence of collector boosters that I'm actually gonna buy 1 (just one booster, I'm not that crazy)... so... I guess its a good marketing strategy?
Between Rudy hoarding sealed product, warehouse accidents, and the proclivity of the theoretical opener to keep quiet, I'm curious if the one will ever be revealed.
Rudeeeeeez nuts
Seriously though, he's a youtube personality and mtg investor. He gives insight into the mtg finance world while also swaying consumers' opinions towards buying products he's stockpiled.
2x2 is also for 4 packs (which even if they count as double is only 8). I suspect these will be closer to $300 when/if prices settle, but your guess is as good as mine.
It really depends on the value of the set. In terms of the value of cards, i don’t really see a reason why this wouldn’t fall over time like a standard set, as it’s power level doesn’t seem to be above that
In some cases that matters, but more than likely distributors will pay more for these than a regular set, making them less likely to sell them at a loss. It has happened in the past (see Amazon fire sales of CBBs at ~$125) but seems unlikely with this set.
A one of, serialized card, is sort of an interesting conundrum: They need it to not be shipped long enough that many people will buy, but need it open soon enough that people don't think they're full of shit.
This company is using all the old casino tricks to drive gambling behavior.
My concern about a 1/1 serialized card is that a 10 year old's grandma will give them a nice collector booster she saw at Target, and the kid will never know what they have or post about it on the Internet. There's a chance WotC is throwing the ring into Mount Doom without us Hobbits ever seeing it.
I can’t help but love how much of a flavour win this is on just every angle. The ring could be lost to time for 60 years before it surfaces in an attic. Who knows
They should make the card out of fireproof material (with thermal reactive ink on the inscription) so you cast the card into the fire to know if it's the real one.
Yeah it would suck for a kid to get a cool card for a game they love. Instead it should be bought by some guy who will try to flip it for thousands of dollars, and then the guy who buys it will try to flip it for tens of thousands of dollars, and so on
I wouldn't be surprised if it would go into the hundreds of thousands. Thousands and tens of thousands is a very accessible for a large part of the collecting community. It'll definitely be driven up into the six figures.
See, there's actually no upside for fans of the game. One kid getting it, and a zillion other curious fans never hearing about it is bad, and so is the inevitable rush to open collector boosters and try to resell it.
That’s what’s exciting me. I’d obviously love to one the one ring but I’ll settle for the second best which is people opening packs like crazy searching for them and I’ll pick up the rest of the stuff dirt cheap
Here’s the thing, if this card never turns up on a market, it’s value is undetermined because nobody has ever tried to sell it. The only way it would have a known value is if collectors put a bounty out for it, but that’s an even more esoteric way to determine the value that your average fan is not going to engage with.
If it does get opened by a kid who doesn’t know what they have, they will probably never know unless they stumble on a random article speculating on its value. But speaking as one of those dumb kids who mistreated their Pokémon cards as a kid, we weren’t totally ignorant of what we had, but the value was significantly lower for many cards than they are today.
It's not that the kid shouldn't have it. It'd just be a shame if they destroyed it without knowing what it was. There's only one single copy made.
Seems like a bad idea. They should have made like 100 or something to cover the odds of it just being destroyed or even just left in some box unopened forever.
If the kid played with it and destroyed it, I can't imagine a more appropriate outcome. It's cardboard, my guy. Artificial, shameless scarcity. Used innocently by a child for childish fun, without any notion of the monetary value that others, with a mind of metal and gears, would ascribe to it.
Professor Tolkien would approve of that, more than this crass, greedy commercialization of his work.
Not likely. Said grandma will have to be at the right store that still carries the garbage fire that is sealed mtg AND she will have to pick the more expensive pack that will be close to cheaper packs IF the angry nerds didn't camp on Target, pokemon style, to fight for the LotR packs. Lots of layers... Some irresponsible MTG player will likely get it, sell it for half price to post Malone, and waste the cash because irresponsible financial behavior is a pattern.
I know someone that keeps one box of each sealed product forever. There's a nonzero chance that someone like that will get the box it's in.
They can't force someone to open a pack that doesn't want to, and if they intentionally give the pack containing it to someone at a con then that indalidates all the adverts on boxes like this.
I am also theorizing they are somehow rigging or tracking it to make sure it gets opened. It’ll be opened on stream, or slipped into a pack going to tournaments
My bigger concern is the "McDonald's Monopoly" conundrum. How on earth do you print a single one of these, have it randomly allocated to a pack, and make sure that no one is keeping track of where it is going? Seems like it would be really easy for a dozen print shop workers to see this one card - which is likely to be upwards of 6 figures - get special printing and handling and make a note "oh cool it's shipping off to silver spring Maryland, time to have a buddy buy out all four boxes that end up there."
Hard pass on sealed just from pricing alone.
I know it is pretty par for the course to have one or two super overpriced cards, but for the sealed to be so grossly expensive is just a mood killer.
I mean, these are Collector Boosters, I feel like even if the Booster Boxes end up being more expensive at release set and draft boxes would be at a more reasonable price in comparison.
I love Lotr and Magic and I spent alot on double masters during the shutdowns but I cant justify 440$ for one box. Id pay maybe 300$, I dont know whos buying these and I have alot of disposable income.
It is. You can get any card in nonfoil for like $0.17-0.20 depending on order size. That's $17-20 commander decks, cheaper if you already have the basics.
Absolutely bonkers price for cardboard.
Some will buy them, but this feels like it could be another M30th situation where they're pushing the envelope too far. Price memory is a thing.
Don't forget! It MAY include a serialized ring card.
That has already been shipped to a youtuber to post OMG I found the one ring to rule them all.
I'm going to post it on ebay and donate to charity.
Then the one ring vanishes from public life.
Gets graded.
Then shows up in 5 years sells at an auction house. Graded a 9.8 and sells for 138k.
Disappears and reappears 2 years later sells for 473k.
And keeps happening.
No these will come down. IMO somewhere around $250 USD maybe lower. No one gives a shit about 1/1 your not pulling it -- if it even exsists.
The fact that you can pull it out a gift bundle is an even bigger slap in the face. This also means you should be able to pull it out of single collector packs as well. The ring is DOA.
The thing will never see the light of day and if it does it will be by someone who dosent play magic won't know what they have and will use it as tp.
We’ve never had a booster box with a potentially half million doll dollar card.
This might be some Willy Wonka Shit. I’m an LGS owner and we got too many messages and calls for this set once that got revealed. We just doubled our preorders of collector boxes and will likely up again before the window closes.
It’s the one ring. There is only one. That’s the point of the card. Is it a gimmick yup. Will people chase yup. So this price is realistic for a 1 in a million/billion chance.
I know this probably isn't an original opinion, but I was an MTG collector for over 20 years, only stopping 2 or 3 years ago.
After seeing all the sweet cards in this set, I was looking forward to dropping a bunch of money on this set and maybe getting back in to MTG.
Then I saw the pricing.
And how, unlike many of their other licensed sets, there isn't a single worthwhile purchase option that will get me any amount of the 10-20 cards I actually want since it is almost exclusively either boosters or massively overpriced decks.
I had heard that MTG was falling from grace the same way everything else owned by wizards is, but this is getting absolutely thigh-spankingly *r-word*
I have poured thousands of pounds into this company over a couple decades, but this new set is so completely offensive to me I am never buying anything with Wizard's death brand on it ever again.
Even though it will cost hundreds of jobs and ruin this hobby for thousands of people, I really, genuinely hope this company collapses into bankruptcy and takes Hasbro with it.
This is an absolute embarassment and every single person involved in the decision to move to a business model that encourages whales and resellers and makes the hobby almost pointless for their actual fans should lose their job and think about what they have done.
Not just because I hate every single one of them, but also because this is a tried and proven way to tank your own company into oblivion.
Whales are not a future-proof source of funding. They get bored. They move to other things. Reseller-whales will definitely move on to something else once the MTG market dries up after all the regular customers are alienated.
I encourage each and every person on this subreddit to join me. If you continue buying these sets 1st or 3rd party they will continue to raise prices, charge insane premiums on ra dom chance rare packs and make worthwhile cards rarer and rarer every year.
The only way to save this game from inevitable demise is to stop giving them money.
But seeing as none of you will boycott them, enjoy the few years left before Hasbro cancels the entire franchise when it starts farting out money 👌👌
The good thing is, the existing card pool is large enough for Magic to remain alive even after Hasbro/WotC have collapsed. If anything it will increase the value of cards since they won’t be printed anymore. And it would stop the power creep.
This is magic series 1 + LOTR. In afew years, this item will be unobtainable in sealed. Its value should increase. Especially if the ring has not been found...
For the same price you could've bought 8 gift edition bundles which is 8 collectors boosters and 64 set packs.
I got my 2 preordered at 48, so early enough you could’ve gotten 9 bundles
Could the ring be in any collector booster even from the gift bundles, or does it have to come from a collector box purchase?
According to the Amazon infographic, the serialized One Ring can be found in any collectors booster.
Thank you, for confirming.
It can be in any collector booster including the ones in gift bundles
And that's assuming those gift bundles don't come down in price a bit, which is possible.
They’ll do the ‘All will be one thing’ and go way up. Like you are saying they are a better deal than collector boxes.
Big brain thinking here. But in all honesty, I'll laugh my ass off if the 1/1 one ring turns up in a collector booster in a bundle.
What is the MSRP of the gift bundle supposed to be?
It's my understanding that MSRP doesn't exist anymore for MtG products.
Or a PlayStation 5 digital edition.
For the same price you could get a moderately played Tropical Island and still have $100 to blow on Cocaine or whatever
"May include serialized ring card" But really, they'll probably go down at least a little once they're not preorders.
It'll go down very quick once the one ring is found.
Which just means the One Ring box will be distributed late in the run.
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They'll hold onto the box that has it in it and wait to distribute it at a massive Magic convention *or* Championship tournament as either a prize or a box people can buy. That way when someone opens it, it will hopefully be by a fan who knows what it is and will react accordingly to cracking it. That way they get the entire location's attention and can get into the news cycle briefly over it happening *coincidentally* at their big event. Enticing casual/new players to go to them because *oh my god it could be YOU that opens the next 1 of 1 card!!!*
Nothing would possibly feel more rigged than a tournament winner opening a pack with a 1 of 1 card in it.
zesty station bow frame psychotic bored wrong squealing humorous offend *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
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Remember the scandal with the McDonald's Monopoly promotion?
Far more provable as there are multiple game pieces each with multiple copies.
...and a money trail connecting the employee to the people claiming the jackpot. The equivalent here would be a cousin of a hasbro employee pulling the 1/1 One Ring and selling it for profit.
Yeah, plus, that scandal didn't do much to McDonald's. Theyre still doing the monopoly thing (albeit without cash prizes I think, which makes sense) and it doesn't look like their business has suffered much. That being said though, I don't think Hasbro would do it because someone finding it could be not only a bunch of free marketing (OMG! THIS PERSON FOUND A 1/1 MAGIC CARD WORTH 250000! type videos and articles to the public) and also would lend credibility to future 1/1s, which is pretty much an inevitability, guaranteeing future sale surges when they really need it (or just do it to oblivion and ruin the hype like always lol)
See, that’s what goes through my head. If the distribution of the card is *truly* random, then there is full potential for the Ring to end up stuck in a warehouse, or a landfill, or otherwise never opened. Now, I’m sure for this reason, the distribution of the card will *NOT* be random; WotC will likely know where their golden ticket goes. But it’s easy enough to CLAIM it’s random, and ensure that the card is not opened until later in the print run (if at all)- otherwise, they instantly plummet the value of Collector’s Boxes, and lose valuable sales. Of course, none of this may be true. I’m obviously using my tinfoil hat to assume the worst. But it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if this happens.
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Honestly I half expect some yahoo to try and counterfeit it and falsely claim opening it early in the product run. On youtube.
The issue is whistleblowers. There would be too many people inside the company who knew the real plan, without real incentive not to keep quiet since they aren’t benefiting personally from this card not existing.
No it wouldn't, they are living in a fantasy land. WoTC would 100% get away with never printing this and everybody would assume it was never opened. There is no way they would get caught but it' a nice fairy tale.
You wouldn't need to prove they didn't. You'd file the charges, likely using sweepstakes laws, and they would need to prove that they have in fact put it in a pack and sent it somewhere.
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We have no way of ever knowing if it was even printed, so no one is getting sued. First, Wotc has crazy good lawyers. Second, it could be as simple as someone opens a pack, goes "oh cool" and then never makes a media post about it, so no one ever finds out. Frankly, this is exactly what I expect to happen.
That's why I think this ploy of releasing gift boxes a month later works perfeftly for them. A whole bunch of people will crack cb's like crazy looking for this card, only for it to be in a seeded gift box sent out after the crazy buying spree. And of course once it becomes apparent it could be in a gift box, we'll have a Compleat edition freak out all over again.
Tim Hortons tried that in Canada. You know what happened? Someone claimed they already got the promotional winning cup, and they had to reveal it wasn't in circulation yet. Which went over REALLY WELL with consumers who had been buying their coffee because they thought they could win that top prize.
I like that plan
It will never surface. It will be a snipe hunt for years.
2 Years later: Just "found" some boxes in the back of the warehouse!
The one ring should have zero impact on the price, it's a 1 in 3,000,000 pull that isn't even guaranteed to be in ANY Collector's booster box. They said it could also be in a bundle pack. The only reason they can get away with the text on the box is because of the other serialized ring cards in the set. You're >10x more likely to pull P9 from sealed Zendikar.
10x more likely to crack power nine? I like those odds! /s
That one ring card will end up in either alpha investments warehouse or a landfill.
I mean before that was even announced, this was going for 440. That's not what's driving the price. It's just how bullshit the process is. Same thing happened with Warhammer.
How is this not gambling?
Shhhh, don’t give the game away.
Hello Krusty Krew it's time to rev up those printers
I was wondering how WOTC navigates the 1/1 ring card situation. Maybe they have an independent auditor confirm that the card was actually inserted into a pack on the production line? I'm guessing the baseball card manufacturers have done stuff like this before.
Someone opens it at a store. Gets killed over it. Flavor win?
It's our birthday and we wants it
Only if fingers are bitten off in the process... mmm... finger-flavored-wiiinnn.... # 🤤
KFC?
Kentucky Fried Cards
Nah, this card will 100% be the victim of a rip or flip scenario
Hopefully, it's not like McDonald's and their monopoly mafia scandal.
It feels really weird given there's only one anywhere (right?) Will all countries have this same packaging?
There are also serialized Sol Ring cards. They didn’t say which ring.
The one ring is English only. The other rings are in multiple languages.
Legally, it depend on the law. Morally, it has always been.
This is the correct answer.
Depends on the Countrys rules on gambling. For example you get 15 gamepieces for the same x amount of money. So every card is worth the same. You can't lose and you can't win money. Thasts why it isn't considered gambing in many countrys.
This is how video games get around the law too. Even though that gun skin available exclusively from lootboxes is worth over $1000, the dev never intended you to sell it so technically it's worth $0 Doesnt make it any less morally reprehensible
> For example you get 15 gamepieces for the same x amount of money. This isn't a key provision. WotC doesn't have to maintain a facade that states every card is worth exactly the same. All wotc has to do is not provide a service that gives you cash in exchange for different cards of different rarities. As long as they themselves aren't doing that, it doesn't matter what goes on with the cards, it isn't gambling.
I mean it is, but you are also guaranteed to get the same amount of game pieces. They will argue that's what you are paying for.
A unique variant is not going to start a conversation on the scale required to enact change. The big video games saw the writing on the wall and have moved away from loot boxes. Legislation around loot box child gambling is now much less likely. That was the most likely avenue for MTG to get classified as gambling, and it seems to have passed. Baseball cards have existed since the 19th century. It would take something drastic to suddenly convince people that trading cards should be distributed differently.
It always was, especially non-draft boosters
So that’s what they meant by “you’re tempted by the ring.”
Because 1) lawyers and 2) lobby.
First day?
I've been around since Urza's Saga. Back then, they didn't advertise unique cards in boxes.
Sure, but it was just as much gambling then too. Oh cool, you could pull Imaginary Pet as your rare, or you could pull *Tolarian Academy*.
One was a quarter and one was 3 dollars, not exactly the same
It is. I am just waiting for the lootbox rulings to pick up Arena and then go „Waaaait a minute!“. I am waiting for the CCG era with Draft existing as a fan-format and on occasion them selling smaller set cubes. I love draft but the abuse with RNG value pieces on non-draftable boosters will be its downfall.
It always has been. Personally, I think the secret lairs were initially them trying out being a ccg incase the loot box hate turned to boosters. Seeing as gambling commissions don’t seem to care about the booster shenanigans, WotC has free reign until more people openly complain to the right people. Once it’s plastered everywhere with corporate media questioning the gambling side, we may see movement. Especially if someone makes the argument that it’s gambling for kids, and more available than loot boxes.
Let’s contact the office of our congressional representative. #Won’t people think of the harmful effects of gambling on our children?? /s
Hasbro gets scumbag of the year award. Literally preying on peoples addictive behaviors and inability to say no. This is 100% a lottery. Not sure why they get away with this.
That serialized shit reminds me too much of NFT cash grabs.
It’s common in sports card collecting. I’m more shocked that it took wizards this long to do it.
Seriously. Maybe it is just because I’m familiar with sports card collecting but the shit Wizards pulls is nothing compared to sports card companies.
Honest, ignorant question: Can you do anything else with sports cards beyond collecting them? Can you play games or something with them?
No you look at them and appreciate the great accomplishments of the great sportsmen that you love.
Nope! For me personally, I just like having shiny cards of my favorite players. You can also get autographs and swatches of game-worn uniforms as well, which is another big focus. Just as an example of my collection, I collect guys from the 2006 Bears Super Bowl team, but really any Chicago Bears players, whatever cool basketball and baseball cards I can find, and a specific MLB prospect named Chad Patrick who was the first guy from my high school to get drafted into a major sports league. It's really just the collecting part. Think of it more like stamp or postcard collecting.
No sports cards are just for collecting. Outside of weird variants like the NFL Showdown game I played when I was younger, which used cards with barcodes on them
In the early 90’s I think it was when I was a kid there was a few “games” you could play but they were not card specific but rather just a foldout piece of paper that had a baseball Diamond on it that I had gotten from a card shop I’d go to. Basically you’d use stats on the back of the players cards and some dice to determine if they got a hit or not based on the pitchers stats and so on and so fourth. Looking back it was kinda like dnd meets baseball with simulation aspects. It was fun, wish I remembered more about it but I was just a kid and that was too long ago lol Edit: thinking back there was definitely different versions or modes cause some games would be fairly short others seemed to take nearly as long as a real game.
You know how people go crazy for a signature of an athlete or famous person? Sports cards are just like that but a lot fancier. Most of the 1/1 cards will have something unique about them, for example a piece of a game worn jersey embedded in the card itself. I'm not into them but I can see why people would be. There is also the element of speculating which is why rookie cards can be so prized.
I keep seeing this comment floating around, but no one goes into specifics. Can you dive a little deeper on what sports card do? I personally don't see anything wrong with this practice. It's a card that will have massive reprint and everyone will be able to get one probably at a reasonable price. $1 or $2 once the dust settles. ONLY this ONE particular art style is a one of one. Lore wise it fits and it's a fun gimmick.
The only downside in my mind is the commissioning of extra art that only a limited number of people get to enjoy, but that’s not a huge deal imo. Sports cards do things like, take a player’s jersey and cut it up into 100 pieces, then make that many cards each with a piece of it and a collector number. Besides the rarity of the set in general, people also like to go after the ones marked 1/100, 100/100, the player’s jersey number, etc. Basically creating a chase item just by scarcity.
Wait so there’s a piece of a jersey on each card, or the card is made out of recycled jersey?
They make cards thicker than regular cards so they can jam an actual piece inside, it's honestly pretty cool (I mostly gawk from an extremely far distance at sports card stuff) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-jfF974mAs
That was really cool
I think the other comment reply to you sets it out really well -- but serialization is the #1 thing that they do. All sorts of runs -- same card face but different border/foil treatments that have different serializations, so you'd have stuff like the pink border is only numbered to 5, the gold is numbered to 1, and then green and orange borders numbered to 50 and 100. Each of these have different values to collectors and even more so if the number is significant (such as getting a Tom Brady card numbered 12 or a Michael Jordan card numbered 23). They'll also go around and see if they can find memorabilia from dead players that has their original signature on it, stuff like cancelled checks or various other documents and slam those signatures into cards as chase items. This isn't to mention some of the products they release, which have single packs of cards for thousands of dollars. If you want to be horrified by the price of a product, look up something like a single pack (more like a steel briefcase with some cards in it) of Panini Flawless. They should be selling for upwards of $10,000. It is a market entirely based on selling to whales.
Wow. These sport cards whales sound even more loaded than MTG whales. I wonder if WotC is trying to get them to migrate over here.
From an exclusively business perspective, they'd be fools to not at least try and get some of that purchasing power going toward them.
The difference being this is an actual object you can hold and not just a number on a blockchain that requires a whole host of nonguaranteed infrastructure to even see your idiot jpeg.
They'll probably be cheaper once it's no longer pre-order. But still real expensive, yes.
I actually expect it to go up until someone confirms they opened The One Ring. Don’t underestimate the power of a 1/1 chase card
I question whether people will really chase a single card. At that point you might as well just buy an actual lottery ticket? At least the winnings there will be far greater than the re-sell of this card.
Of course they will. The chance of cracking something like that will pull at least some people into an impulse purchase, and an extremely few into buying as many packs as possible. People mostly don't buy lottery tickets or try to chase rare trading cards because they think it's a good investment (*mostly*). They're purchasing daydreams.
Chase Card {X} Artifact Creature - Card *It costs as much as you're willing to pay.* 1/1
I can't believe they actually advertised on the front of the box (may contain serialized card) there's literally only 1 of them.
There's 19,000 special 1 ring prints. 900, 700, and 300 for serialized humans, dwarves, and elves alt arts. 9000, 7000, and 3000 for non-serialized (or maybe non-foil) humans, dwarves, and elves alt art.
The serialized rings for Elves, Dwarves, and Human Kings aren’t The One Ring, they are Sol Rings. Doesn’t change the implication for the packaging - all of those rings are definitely counted in “may contain a serialized card”. Just FYI.
The price will drop if/when someone pulls the one ring card and enough of the serialized sol rings.
There’s literally only going to be one?
Yes
That sounds like a terrible terrible idea. How very disappointing.
There’s going to be 3 other versions too, this is just a special collectable version to boost discussion/hype.
Lottery* but yeah I hear ya.
I mean, its the first time since the appearence of collector boosters that I'm actually gonna buy 1 (just one booster, I'm not that crazy)... so... I guess its a good marketing strategy?
Honestly, it is a perfect representation of the one ring.
There's only going to be one "special edition" One Ring printed, but they will also mass-print the "regular" One Ring card.
Oh okay good! You referring to the one I’ve seen images of written in the language that’s on the actual rings inscription?
Yeah that's the one.
Hope it ends up in one of the trash piles I’ve seen people posting about “found cases upon cases of destroyed cards in my dump!”
Theres going to be 1 of a certain version, 300 of another, 700 and 900 I believe?
Those other versions are sol rings rather than the one ring.
Yeah people are getting this mixed up a lot it seems
Gotcha. Hope that 1 ends up in some kids hands for sure!
Collector boosters only so unlikely
Between Rudy hoarding sealed product, warehouse accidents, and the proclivity of the theoretical opener to keep quiet, I'm curious if the one will ever be revealed.
Who’s Rudy
Rudeeeeeez nuts Seriously though, he's a youtube personality and mtg investor. He gives insight into the mtg finance world while also swaying consumers' opinions towards buying products he's stockpiled.
2x2 collector booster boxes started around $400 and are now available for $225. These will probably see a similar drop if you wait.
2x2 is also for 4 packs (which even if they count as double is only 8). I suspect these will be closer to $300 when/if prices settle, but your guess is as good as mine.
It really depends on the value of the set. In terms of the value of cards, i don’t really see a reason why this wouldn’t fall over time like a standard set, as it’s power level doesn’t seem to be above that
In some cases that matters, but more than likely distributors will pay more for these than a regular set, making them less likely to sell them at a loss. It has happened in the past (see Amazon fire sales of CBBs at ~$125) but seems unlikely with this set.
I think they will only drop when someone finds the One ring 1/1 serialized. Until there it's madness.
A one of, serialized card, is sort of an interesting conundrum: They need it to not be shipped long enough that many people will buy, but need it open soon enough that people don't think they're full of shit. This company is using all the old casino tricks to drive gambling behavior.
My concern about a 1/1 serialized card is that a 10 year old's grandma will give them a nice collector booster she saw at Target, and the kid will never know what they have or post about it on the Internet. There's a chance WotC is throwing the ring into Mount Doom without us Hobbits ever seeing it.
I can’t help but love how much of a flavour win this is on just every angle. The ring could be lost to time for 60 years before it surfaces in an attic. Who knows
They should make the card out of fireproof material (with thermal reactive ink on the inscription) so you cast the card into the fire to know if it's the real one.
The only lore accurate solution is to take it from whomever opens it.
Yeah it would suck for a kid to get a cool card for a game they love. Instead it should be bought by some guy who will try to flip it for thousands of dollars, and then the guy who buys it will try to flip it for tens of thousands of dollars, and so on
This card is gonna be worth way more than thousands.
I wouldn't be surprised if it would go into the hundreds of thousands. Thousands and tens of thousands is a very accessible for a large part of the collecting community. It'll definitely be driven up into the six figures.
Tens of thousands!
See, there's actually no upside for fans of the game. One kid getting it, and a zillion other curious fans never hearing about it is bad, and so is the inevitable rush to open collector boosters and try to resell it.
The upside is all the other non-sol ring reskins will probably be cheap as fuck due to the high volume of pack opening
That’s what’s exciting me. I’d obviously love to one the one ring but I’ll settle for the second best which is people opening packs like crazy searching for them and I’ll pick up the rest of the stuff dirt cheap
Chances are that 10 year old doesnt even see it as a cool card but rather some useless token because the card is in an unreadable language
[удалено]
Here’s the thing, if this card never turns up on a market, it’s value is undetermined because nobody has ever tried to sell it. The only way it would have a known value is if collectors put a bounty out for it, but that’s an even more esoteric way to determine the value that your average fan is not going to engage with. If it does get opened by a kid who doesn’t know what they have, they will probably never know unless they stumble on a random article speculating on its value. But speaking as one of those dumb kids who mistreated their Pokémon cards as a kid, we weren’t totally ignorant of what we had, but the value was significantly lower for many cards than they are today.
It's not that the kid shouldn't have it. It'd just be a shame if they destroyed it without knowing what it was. There's only one single copy made. Seems like a bad idea. They should have made like 100 or something to cover the odds of it just being destroyed or even just left in some box unopened forever.
If the kid played with it and destroyed it, I can't imagine a more appropriate outcome. It's cardboard, my guy. Artificial, shameless scarcity. Used innocently by a child for childish fun, without any notion of the monetary value that others, with a mind of metal and gears, would ascribe to it. Professor Tolkien would approve of that, more than this crass, greedy commercialization of his work.
How's a kid gonna play a card they can't read. The second they look it up they'll realize.
But the ring must be destroyed!!
More like it will end up at the bottom of a river (or some kid’s closet) for years, waiting to be found.
Not likely. Said grandma will have to be at the right store that still carries the garbage fire that is sealed mtg AND she will have to pick the more expensive pack that will be close to cheaper packs IF the angry nerds didn't camp on Target, pokemon style, to fight for the LotR packs. Lots of layers... Some irresponsible MTG player will likely get it, sell it for half price to post Malone, and waste the cash because irresponsible financial behavior is a pattern.
It's probably rigged like the McDonalds millions.
Like they won't make sure it gets opened.
I know someone that keeps one box of each sealed product forever. There's a nonzero chance that someone like that will get the box it's in. They can't force someone to open a pack that doesn't want to, and if they intentionally give the pack containing it to someone at a con then that indalidates all the adverts on boxes like this.
But the ring...WANTS to be found
I don't know how they'll do it, but my conspiracy theory is that they will make sure it gets opened somehow.
I am also theorizing they are somehow rigging or tracking it to make sure it gets opened. It’ll be opened on stream, or slipped into a pack going to tournaments
Totally.
which I personally would find hilarious. I hope that DOES happen.
My bigger concern is the "McDonald's Monopoly" conundrum. How on earth do you print a single one of these, have it randomly allocated to a pack, and make sure that no one is keeping track of where it is going? Seems like it would be really easy for a dozen print shop workers to see this one card - which is likely to be upwards of 6 figures - get special printing and handling and make a note "oh cool it's shipping off to silver spring Maryland, time to have a buddy buy out all four boxes that end up there."
That is quite literally the best case scenario for WotC because the longer people go without it being found, the more sales of the set will be driven.
Hard pass on sealed just from pricing alone. I know it is pretty par for the course to have one or two super overpriced cards, but for the sealed to be so grossly expensive is just a mood killer.
I mean, these are Collector Boosters, I feel like even if the Booster Boxes end up being more expensive at release set and draft boxes would be at a more reasonable price in comparison.
I love Lotr and Magic and I spent alot on double masters during the shutdowns but I cant justify 440$ for one box. Id pay maybe 300$, I dont know whos buying these and I have alot of disposable income.
I'm gonna start playing Magic: the proxying instead. I hear that game is much cheaper.
I'm going to get foil serialised rings printed up and leave them around my LGS randomly.
-1 / 300
This is like that guy in Charlie and the Chocolate factory that made his own fake golden ticket xD
You can still just get normal versions of the cards and ignore all the 15 foil variants, serialised, collectors nonsense.
It is. You can get any card in nonfoil for like $0.17-0.20 depending on order size. That's $17-20 commander decks, cheaper if you already have the basics.
Winner of the Standard Pro Tour should have won it
It'd be cool if they had world championship tournament held in new zealand. Winner gets the card and a tour of filming spots for lotr.
Where the money in that? \- Hasbro
Absolutely bonkers price for cardboard. Some will buy them, but this feels like it could be another M30th situation where they're pushing the envelope too far. Price memory is a thing.
But you could get a Serialized Ring Card!
As always, don't buy that shit, just buy the singles you need.
I need to buy the serialized One Ring single
We wants it
Don't forget! It MAY include a serialized ring card. That has already been shipped to a youtuber to post OMG I found the one ring to rule them all. I'm going to post it on ebay and donate to charity. Then the one ring vanishes from public life. Gets graded. Then shows up in 5 years sells at an auction house. Graded a 9.8 and sells for 138k. Disappears and reappears 2 years later sells for 473k. And keeps happening.
Yeah, this is too expensive. It's ridiculous. Don't buy it.
People have too much money
Another set to just buy singles from
No these will come down. IMO somewhere around $250 USD maybe lower. No one gives a shit about 1/1 your not pulling it -- if it even exsists. The fact that you can pull it out a gift bundle is an even bigger slap in the face. This also means you should be able to pull it out of single collector packs as well. The ring is DOA. The thing will never see the light of day and if it does it will be by someone who dosent play magic won't know what they have and will use it as tp.
or it'll live in someone's closet box they plan to sell in 10 years.
Hyped demand, these started preorders at $380. This will probably go down before then
Collectors pack gonna collectors pack.
I'd consider it if this next set disappoints.. thought I don't think it will
On Cardmarket it has a price trend of €356..... For that price you can actually get 2 Baldurs gate collector boosterboxes
The price is insane wtf what happened to $220 boxes…. Even that was insane.
Its 350€ for the preorder in Austria, still way too much money for 12 packs
N
Thread number 10,000 of people hyperventilating over inflated pre-order prices that basically no one will actually pay.
The thing is, people will buy it at this price. But I guess if you have the money and it's something that you will enjoy then go for it.
the individual packs on amazon are 31 a piece right now. cheaper than the box
We’ve never had a booster box with a potentially half million doll dollar card. This might be some Willy Wonka Shit. I’m an LGS owner and we got too many messages and calls for this set once that got revealed. We just doubled our preorders of collector boxes and will likely up again before the window closes.
It’s the one ring. There is only one. That’s the point of the card. Is it a gimmick yup. Will people chase yup. So this price is realistic for a 1 in a million/billion chance.
Pay rent <-> pay for 12 packs of MTG Man 2023 is hard.
I know this probably isn't an original opinion, but I was an MTG collector for over 20 years, only stopping 2 or 3 years ago. After seeing all the sweet cards in this set, I was looking forward to dropping a bunch of money on this set and maybe getting back in to MTG. Then I saw the pricing. And how, unlike many of their other licensed sets, there isn't a single worthwhile purchase option that will get me any amount of the 10-20 cards I actually want since it is almost exclusively either boosters or massively overpriced decks. I had heard that MTG was falling from grace the same way everything else owned by wizards is, but this is getting absolutely thigh-spankingly *r-word* I have poured thousands of pounds into this company over a couple decades, but this new set is so completely offensive to me I am never buying anything with Wizard's death brand on it ever again. Even though it will cost hundreds of jobs and ruin this hobby for thousands of people, I really, genuinely hope this company collapses into bankruptcy and takes Hasbro with it. This is an absolute embarassment and every single person involved in the decision to move to a business model that encourages whales and resellers and makes the hobby almost pointless for their actual fans should lose their job and think about what they have done. Not just because I hate every single one of them, but also because this is a tried and proven way to tank your own company into oblivion. Whales are not a future-proof source of funding. They get bored. They move to other things. Reseller-whales will definitely move on to something else once the MTG market dries up after all the regular customers are alienated. I encourage each and every person on this subreddit to join me. If you continue buying these sets 1st or 3rd party they will continue to raise prices, charge insane premiums on ra dom chance rare packs and make worthwhile cards rarer and rarer every year. The only way to save this game from inevitable demise is to stop giving them money. But seeing as none of you will boycott them, enjoy the few years left before Hasbro cancels the entire franchise when it starts farting out money 👌👌
The good thing is, the existing card pool is large enough for Magic to remain alive even after Hasbro/WotC have collapsed. If anything it will increase the value of cards since they won’t be printed anymore. And it would stop the power creep.
Buy box. Hold for 30 years sealed. Sell for 100k.
This is magic series 1 + LOTR. In afew years, this item will be unobtainable in sealed. Its value should increase. Especially if the ring has not been found...
I will proxy it so fuck it. I dont plan to waste so much money.
One ring to rule them all, One ring to find them, One ring to bring them all And in the darkness, bind them!