It’s no secret that Secret Lair drops now have a long history of selling out incredibly quickly. Since Wizards introduced the limited-run print model, we’ve seen countless drops sell out in a matter of hours. Now, when many drops get revealed, it’s a question of when it’ll sell out, rather than if.
For the Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing Secret Lair drop, it seems the answer to that question was sooner, rather than later. From the moment this drop was revealed, players knew that it had tremendous potential thanks to the reprints it offered. Due to this, it’s little wonder this Secret Lair only took an hour to sell out.
Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing Sells Out
Both versions of the Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing Secret Lair drop have sold out incredibly quickly. As usual, the first to go was the foil variant, which miraculously sold out in only an hour. Following this, the non-foil variant went on to sell out just one hour later. Currently, no other drop even has a low stock warning, so it’s safe to say Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing was the most popular by far.
This reason for this lightning-fast sale is totally unsurprising upon peering into the drop’s contents. The reprint of Deflecting Swat was more than enough to make this drop worthwhile on its own. Currently, you’d need to pay at least $40 for a copy of this card, so it’s any version of this Secret Lair automatically breaks even.
While this single reprint is more than enough to make the drop sell, it’s notably the only card that’s actually worth anything. Sun Titan, Breeches, Eager Pillager, and Llanowar Elves are each worth under a dollar individually. Thankfully, since Deflecting Swat is more than valuable enough, the price of these cards doesn’t really matter.
Even though these reprints don’t need to be incredibly expensive, they’ll likely still be valuable. Llanowar Elves, for instance, has had a past Secret Lair printing, which typically sells for around $12. Sun Titan has technically seen something similar, although its Secret Lair 30th Anniversary Countdown Kit print only sells for $5.
Ultimately, the Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing Secret Lair looked like a sure thing, if there ever was one. With this in mind, it’s little wonder that this Secret Lair sold out, even as quickly as it did. Investors, scalpers, and players alike surely all had their eyes on this drop and the fantastic value that it contained.
Bad Reprints
Considering the value that is on offer, it seems strange to call the reprints within Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing bad. If we’re honest, however, that’s exactly what these are. While they look great and are valuable too, very few players are going to benefit from these reprints. This may have something to do with the Secret Lair being an artist series drop.
Sadly, Wizards of the Coast very rarely, if ever, releases the official numbers for the print run of a set or product. That being said, we have been told before that the print run for Secret Lair drops will be continually adjusted to meet demand. Historically, artist series drops have been fairly slow to sell out, while Universes Beyond crossovers used to disappear like hotcakes.
Now, it seems that the script has been flipped, possibly indicating a shift in supply from Wizards. Given their popularity, it’d make sense to make more Hatsune Miku cards while potentially cutting back on the less popular drops. This would leave us in situations like today, where a compelling artist series drop sells out incredibly quickly.
Beyond disappointing MTG players who weren’t able to acquire this drop easily this lower supply also affects the effectiveness of these reprints. Unlike the print-to-demand model which allowed good drops to bring the price of reprints down, Artist Series: Jesper Ejsing may have the opposite effect. Since these cards are in-demand Commander staples, they’ll likely end up selling for a lot more than their regular price.
Given that Secret Lair drops are, for better or worse, inherently collectibles now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Problematically, however, it just makes drops like this even more enticing for investors and scalpers. This, in turn, just makes it sell out even faster.
Please Wizards, Fix This
Ultimately, the problems that limited-run Secret Lair printing have created a very solvable. Wizards has even done this before, in fact, for the latest Extra Life Secret Lair drop. Wizards utilized a hybrid printing model that was both limited-run and print-to-demand to support the charity as best as possible.
This hybrid system offers players the best of both worlds, as limited-run offers speed, while print-to-demand provides security. From our perspective, there’s no reason not to use this method outside of creating artificial scarcity. Even from Wizards’ point of view, allowing print-to-demand orders means no money is being left on the table.
Realistically, there’s a reason that Wizards of the Coast hasn’t adopted this dual printing method for all Secret Lair drops. Potentially, this could be due to increased printing costs or the availability of the printers Wizards uses. That said, even if print-to-demand came with an extra $5 to $10 cost, we’d expect players to still be interested.
Sadly, it seems that Wizards of the Coast is hesitant to release the perfect solution to the problem that they’ve created. Regardless of why that is, it means we’re stuck having to rush to buy the cards we want. Hopefully, in the future, print numbers can be adjusted once again so this isn’t so much of a problem, at least.