I’ve mentioned before that Magic the Gathering was unprofitable for me some time ago. In the last 3+ years, I’ve found that overall I’ve lost quite a bit trying to keep up with all the product releases while also dealing with the price increases.
Caverns of Ixalan will see yet another price increase for every sealed product the set is available in. Because of this and because it is simply becoming a logistical nightmare to sort and deal with all the cards, and the fact that virtually every card out of a pack has little to no value, I will be lowering my exposure to Magic the Gathering products even further. Like with Wilds of Eldraine, I may open a few packs here and there to make videos and shorts of out, but I will not be buying or opening any sealed COI products.
This decision is not a slight to the player base or fans of the game. They remain (with the exception of a few horrible people) one of the best player bases in gaming. I have had to may this change for the previously mentioned reasons and it pains me to do so.
I still enjoy playing the game, but if I want to keep the lights on in my business I have to step back from the game in a very serious way. I cannot be asked by Wizards of the Coast to pay $96 for a sealed draft booster box of cards when I can only sell it for about $113. When you calculate in shipping and platform fees, I lose money on this sale every time. I cannot open a sealed set booster box which costs me $98-$104 each and get maybe $65 dollars worth of cards out of it. The value and money simply isn’t there anymore.
I’m not rich. Far from it. I cannot afford to lose money like this on set after set after set. I don’t want to do this. As I mentioned previously it pains me, but in situations like this you have to make hard decisions.
As mentioned, you may still see a few cards from news sets show up in my store from time to time, but nowhere near the numbers I was posting a couple of years ago.
