The Magic The Gathering player base has today voiced fears that Hasbro-helmed price hikes will eventually lead to fans being unable to afford products outside the United States.
The concerns were sparked after an Italian MTG player crunched the numbers on recent expansion releases, revealing European collectors are having to pay more every set despite their average income failing to keep pace. For many, limited and sealed events have quickly become “a treat” they cannot afford every set, while booster boxes, Commander decks, and even single packets have all become “luxury buys for the vast majority of the world.”
Several countries have already felt the squeeze, with South African MTG fans recently having to fork up upwards of $312 USD for Bloomburrow Play booster boxes. Brazilian players have been left in a similar boat, with box releases regularly costing as much as 1,500 real.
I live in (and obviously play and buy) in Australia, and I’ve felt the pinch personally too. Play boosters have climbed to $259 through all major suppliers, while Collector Booster Boxes are $399 and it costs $259 to get all four Commander releases. This weekend, attending a Duskmourn: House of Horror prerelease would run me up $60 to play once.
None of this is to say MTG players in the U.S. are living it up price-wise either. While the original concerns suggested States-based players were enjoying cheaper prices, American fans were quick to set the record straight. “I’m American and feel like they’re pricing me out too,” one declared, while others agreed they had stopped buying products and were instead sticking to a few singles pickups every expansion. Some said they proxy cards now without feeling bad because “Hasbro is really trying to squeeze every cent out of us.”
“If you’re not playing in sanctioned tournaments, there’s basically no reason to use hundreds or thousands of dollars to play casually,” one fan wrote. “Cardboard is cardboard.”
These surging prices don’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon either. The cost of MTG sealed products were raised by “around 11 percent” in late 2022—a rise Wizards defended by saying production costs were also increasing—and that increased expense was followed by another tick-up a little over 12 months later. All this happened under the shadow of MTG as a franchise actually surpassing $1 billion in annual revenue for the first time.
One solution is, of course, for fans to vote with their wallets and simply not pay the exorbitant prices Hasbro and Wizards seem to continue rolling out. That’s a whole lot easier said than done though, and while some MTG players today said they’ve not been buying physical product, for many the game’s their primary (and in many cases only) hobby.
Some have begun only playing the trading card game’s digital variant, MTG Arena, though the cost to play there isn’t much better; it had price rises around the same time as paper Magic and has long been lambasted for its “grind-to-play” systems.
Eventually, it may be we just have to watch MTG through the green-tinted window. At least Netflix has a television series in the works we can eventually enjoy for a little cheaper.
