Thought I’d drop this article, Hasbro stock received a double downgrade based on a “deep dive” into their MTG business. Bank of America has purportely determined that Hasbro’s overprinting is destroying the long term value of the business.
Rudy replying to this on the fly here.
(warning) some language 
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WTF. Did not expect to see that. Now that a major lender has recognized that Hasbro is milking MTG in an unsustainable way to inflate short-term profit numbers, I wonder if this will result in some amount of course correction from Hasbro. Probably wishful thinking on my part…
“Bank of America downgraded toy company owner Hasbro’s stock earlier today after accusing it of ‘killing its golden goose’ with greed.” A-fucking-men.
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Never thought I’d see a company’s stocks crumble from overprinting trading cards. I hope Pokémon doesn’t decide to use this excuse to cut pull rates on their cards. At least they don’t reprint cards to be identical to base set.
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It’s been ridiculous for the past couple years. I mean, look at the amount of releases:
This was just totally unsustainable. No one has time to enjoy any of this. And I never expected the 30th Anniversary set to tank the secondary market, but it appears that it’s got people worried about the future scarcity of the old cards and now you have a panic kicking in. Hasbro has pissed everyone off lately: players, collectors, distributors, retailers, all of them. Basically everyone who made them who they are today, and they have a lot of work ahead to fix this huge mess they’ve created.
Print runs and # of product releases needs to come way down starting now. Secret Lair stuff should just be taken right out as far as I’m concerned. They’re confusing, no one really cares about them, and they’re just another cash grab to me. They’ve never been special like they should have been. They failed to make them like a Pokemon promo or other special release.
Time to go back to the basics again, because the current product release strategy is just not working!
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I tried learning how mtg does products and it was and still is way too confusing.
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If anything, they need to cut printing rates. There is a balance between health/growth of a hobby and oversaturation for short term profit. We are VERY close to the latter and hopefully TPCI takes a note from what’s happening with Hasbro and MTG.
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Question: Will the collapse of Modern Magic have a positive or negative effect on Modern Pokemon?
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Pokemon has done a far better job with the print runs. They have been tight all year. Look how quick things like the Evolving Skies re-print got organically and naturally eaten up by the market. That has yet to happen with any MTG product this year, literally every set has been fire-sold or sold at a loss with very few breaking even because theres just been too much supply and lack of demand. The LGS I buy from is literally writing off stuff from late 2021 as a tax loss this year instead of trying to sell it at a loss. After shipping, they just lose more money than the tax write off. It’s really bad.
Hasbro has made zero effort to cut back on product print rates since 2020 when money was flowing all over the place and people were just buying up whatever they could. This is a huge problem, and now its all come full circle. Not only are they releasing way too many products in a year still, they’re also printing them to oblivion.
Pokemon and others have done everything Hasbro should have been doing a long time ago. They have some serious work ahead of them to fix all this.
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I dont think modern Magic product and modern Pokémon product are bought by similar demographics, or at least not for similar reasons. I play Magic, but aside from the draft format (which doesn’t really exist in Pokémon), I open boosters once in a blue moon. I don’t expect Magic players to suddenly stonck into the Pokémon collectibles market. I don’t expect players to migrate to Pokémon as their cardgame of choice either. What I can see is people losing trust in WotC/Hasbro, selling of their reserved list investments, and spending that money on similar historic Pokémon investments.
I could be wrong though, and all timmies follow Rudy’s example and pile modern Pokémon boxes in their bathroom.
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rudy mad
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Pokemon has a print run of 1 billion cards per set minimum so you’re saying Magic has a larger print run?
I just need Phyrexia: All Will Be One to release. Then Magic can collapse or whatever the hell.
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I don’t know the answer to that, but you have to remember that a lot of MTG product is opened because of limited formats. So the print runs are higher than a lot of people might anticipate.
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I’m guessing none probably. Pokémon is so solid right now. It seems MTG is trying to become more mainstream and it’s backfiring. Pokémon is already mainstream. Idk just thinking out loud here.
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This was totally predictable, and I do not think MTG and Pokemon are at all comparable in terms of the driving forces behind their respective secondary market.
I’ve been playing MTG since 1994, and the major driving force behind the value of cards has always been tied to playability over collectability. The exception to this rule being vintage which does carry a nostalgic value and as a consequence is more skewed towards collectability. Basically there’s pre-2000 MTG, which does carry a collector’s premium, ant there’s post-2000 MTG which is mostly priced for play and scarcity.
Pokemon however has enjoyed collectible status from day one. Pre-2000, plenty of kids (I’d risk to say the majority) watched the anime and bought/traded the cards, just for the sake of collecting, without even getting involved in the game. As a result, Pokemon has these two pronged secondary market valuations in which some cards are valued for their playability, others for their collectability, and a few (looking at you Shining Lugia) for both.
To sum it up, MTG started as a TCG and has recently tried (and failed spectacularly) to morph into a franchise, using gimmicks like Secret Lairs. Whereas Pokemon has always been a franchise, of which the TCG is but one of many drivers of product demand.
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Very interesting. Wonder if this is the downfall of magic?
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For sure not the downfall but they need to correct their path to nowhere.
Lower printing, less releases, cut down the 20 different versions and just release good, fun sets while respecting rarity and scarcity.
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The problem with magic as opposed to Pokémon is there is no anime, no video game and no merchandise. So it all hinges on the card game.
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That hasn’t been a problem for 30 years. It depends on what your audience and goal is.
As many others have said here, comparing Magic to Pokémon is difficult as they are different beasts.
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