If you haven’t already heard, a new Secret Lair Superdrop went for sale yesterday. Offering perhaps the worst Secret Lair in the product line’s history, alongside some interesting crossovers and gags, many players were evidently excited to get their hands on these products. At least, that’s what the absurd wait times to purchase one suggested yesterday.
Recently, the business model for Secret Lairs underwent a significant change. While products used to be printed to demand, resulting in disastrous shipping times, Secret Lairs now have a limited supply. While this was done in an effort to speed up shipping times according to Wizards of the Coast, it also makes Secret Lairs much more desirable. Now, these premium products have a chance of selling out, which creates a huge amount of FOMO.
After everything calmed down, it seems that the Secret Lair shelves were truly picked over. One particular Secret Lair, despite having four different variants, is now totally sold out, and it hasn’t even been on sale for 24 hours!
Hatsune Miku is Gone
Despite the Hatsune Miku Secret Lair’s reprint-based secondary market value not being the best in the world, it was definitely the most popular Secret Lair included in the 2024 Spring Superdrop. Despite having English and Japanese variants, as well as foil variants for both languages, all four of these products are now sold out. The Secret Lairs didn’t even last on shelves for a full day, selling out sometime last night.
This also means that the bundle options offering every single Secret Lair in any variant are also no longer available. Since the Hatsune Miku crossover is gone, any bundles that featured this Secret Lair are no longer options for purchase. Due to this, the $479.99 Everything is Blooming Bundle has technically sold out already!
As far as secondary market value goes for the Hatsune Miku crossover, we predicted that the appeal of Hatsune Miku artwork could give these cards a premium. While a subsection of the MTG community would definitely be interested in this product, there could be a draw to these cards outside of just the MTG community.
Now that the Secret Lairs are all sold out, these particular variants are almost certain to garner a premium over the existing variants of the reprints within the product.
Absurd Wait Times
It seems that the rush for players to get their hands on these Secret Lair products was truly insane. Multiple MTG content creators like Pleasant Kenobi and Tolarian Community College reported waiting times of over an hour to even get a shot at purchasing the Secret Lairs one was interested in.
Past this point, long Secret Lair purchase times were even reported on Reddit. Dubbed the ‘Secret Lair Lounge,’ it seems that waiting times approaching an hour were common for players trying to get their hands on products yesterday. With this amount of demand right out of the gate, it is not unusual to see a Secret Lair sold out this quickly.
It’s clear that a lot of players are frustrated with the new sales model that Secret Lairs offer. Multiple comments expressed their annoyance with the FOMO nature of the current Secret Lair sales model. Redditor Salmoncolor_, for example, really wishes “Wizards would go back to pre-orders… this new process is frustrating.”
Some players reported the demand for Secret Lairs yesterday being so severe that the site was freezing up. Kudospop, for example, stated that they are “currently at checkout and the page is frozen.” This started a chain of reporting players who experienced the same issue, only to end up in a 45-minute queue after things stopped freezing up.
Poking around the site personally when writing this article, it appears that there are no longer any queues to check out. As a result, this may be the only Secret Lair we see sell out for the 2024 Spring Superdrop, at least for the next couple of days. That said, it’s impossible to know what the future holds.
With recent Secret Lair sales, it appears that one Secret Lair seems to sell out before the rest. In the Equinox Superdrop, the Tarot card-esque artwork provided by Rovina Cai sold out in record time. The reprint variants from this Secret Lair quickly skyrocketed in price on the secondary market as well, matching the demand suggested by the selling out of this product.
More Anime Crossovers to Come?
It seems clear from recent events that Anime crossovers are not only favored among the Japanese audience but among MTG audiences worldwide. The Cowboy Bebop crossover got a big reaction from the MTG community and is now being made available to the entire world. The Hatsune Miku crossover did not even last on the shelves for a full day.
As a result, I would not be surprised if we see more Anime crossovers in the near future, and perhaps at a larger frequency. If there’s a particular Secret Lair you really fancy with future drops, it may be worth planning your time carefully. If you happen to be after the Secret Lair that sells out, you may be out of luck.
