Wizards of the Coast has just made an announcement that may trouble fans and collectors of its widely popular trading card game,Magic: The Gathering. Prices are set to increase for a range of booster packs, bundles, and box sets. This price increase is not across the board, however, as many otherMagic: The Gatheringproducts' prices will be remaining the same.
Magic: The Gatheringis a major player in the world of collectible trading card games. It was the first trading card game, a pioneer of the genre that now includes successful games such asYu-Gi-Oh!,Pokémon, and modern digital takes on the genresuch as Blizzard’sHearthstone. With over thirty-five million players and a staggering twenty billion cards printed,Magic: The Gatheringis a juggernaut franchise in both the physical and the digital realms.
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Collectible card games have always had a reputation for being an expensive hobby, and forMagic: The Gatheringplayers, it’s about to get even more expensive outside the digitalMagic: The Gathering Arena. Printing and shipping billions of trading cards is a costly endeavor, and Wizards of the Coast has cited recent operating costs in the past year as the main reason for the price hike. Starting in September, prices forUnfinityandJumpstartproducts, including draft boosters, set boosters, collector boosters, bundles, andJumpstartboosters will be seeing a roughly 11% increase in price. Wizards of the Coast has tried to narrow the scope of this price hike to as few card sets as possible.
Additionally, Commander decks will be seeing a price increase accompanyingStreets of New Capenna,although Wizards of the Coast said it has no plans to increase the price of Commander decks further in July. Players may be happy to note that prices forMasters,Modern Horizons,Secret Lair,ready-to-play Challenger Decks, andUniverses Beyondwill be remaining the same, preserving the price range for a very large portion ofMagic: The Gathering’s enormous catalog. The price increases are variable as well, meaning not every booster will see a full 11% raise.
Price increases have been an unfortunate fact of life over the last few years. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on worldwide shipping and production, bitcoin miners have been buyingAMD and NVIDIA graphics cardsin bulk driving up the prices for PC gamers, and the recent conflict in Ukraine has seen gas prices soar in many countries as Russia is one of the world’s largest oil exporters. Collectible trading card games such asMagic: The Gatheringare yet another victim of the growing instability and uncertainty affecting industries around the globe.
