By now, it’s no secret that MTG Final Fantasy as a set has a bit of a problem with scalpers. Sealed product, Collector Boosters in particular, is selling for truly absurd prices online. This is partly due to hype for the actual cards, partly due to their huge collectability, and partly due to supply issues. A lot of players are struggling to secure product, even having their orders refunded in some cases. Sadly, this means it’s the perfect environment for those looking to make a quick buck flipping boxes.
The presence of scalpers in Magic: The Gathering has always been something of an uncomfortable truth. Things have gotten much worse since the introduction of Collector Boosters and Serialized cards. For Final Fantasy, however, it seems some stores have had enough. Measures are being put in place to stop scalpers from plying their trade, or at least to limit their profits. With how much trouble players have had finding and affording Final Fantasy, such measures may well become WPN policy before long.
Local Store Stops MTG Final Fantasy Scalpers
While we don’t know the name or location of the game store in question, we do know what their anti-scalper policy is. This is thanks to RanisTheSlayer, who shared it in a post on r/MagicTCG.
“Sealed vs. Unsealed Product Pricing:
RanisTheSlayer, via r/MagicTCG
To help limit scalping and ensure the community has fair access to product:
– If you are okay with us unsealing your product at pickup, we will honor the original preorder price.
– If you would like to keep your product sealed, it will be sold at current market price.”
For those familiar with buying and selling MTG sealed product, this policy makes total sense. When buying boxes online, players prefer to purchase factory-sealed boxes. If the official Wizards seal has been removed, then there’s a chance that the contents of the box have been tampered with. Sellers can swap out high-value rares for duds, or even swap out all of the cards for assorted older bulk.
Because of this, it’s tough to move unsealed boxes online, especially for high-stakes sets like Final Fantasy. By unsealing cheaper boxes in-store, the LGS above is preventing them from being resold later. This prevents scalpers from securing a good deal locally, only to make a huge profit online. For regular players who actually want to open and play with the cards, they get a better price and can avoid the insane online markups for the set.
For the most part, the comments on this post were fully in support of the idea. Players like Rekkerafthor noted that they generally opened their packs right after purchase anyway. Others, like Sjors_VR, noted the importance of initiatives like this to combat the ever-rising tide of scalpers.
This isn’t a perfect solution, of course. Scalpers can reseal boxes themselves, sometimes quite convincingly. Stores can do so as well, as many players pointed out in the comments. Most agreed, however, that as long as the unsealing was done in front of them, it was an effective method of combating MTG Final Fantasy scalpers.
Necessary Measures
While prices on MTG sealed product continue to rise year on year, it’s not usually necessary for stores to take action like this. The fact that some are speaks to the severity of the Final Fantasy situation at present.
The prices on Final Fantasy are out of control right now. The MSRPs provided by Wizards are already slightly higher than average for a Standard set. Out in the wild, things are far, far worse than that. Collector Boosters have been hit the hardest, selling for around $72 each, when the MSRP is $38. Boxes of Collector Boosters are selling regularly in the $750 range, when by rights they should be around $450.
These massively inflated prices are due, in part, to scalpers. Sealed Magic boxes are often solid investment items based purely on the potential playability of the cards inside. Universes Beyond sets like Final Fantasy have the added advantage of being collectibles tied to a hugely popular IP. These boxes have appeal to people who don’t even play Magic, which raises their value ceiling significantly.
We’ve seen this situation play out before with Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. While prices on this set weren’t quite as explosive out the gate, Collector Booster boxes go for over $900 right now, with the Holiday edition selling for closer to $2,000. This is largely down to them only getting a single print run, which naturally pushes up prices.
This is great news for scalpers, but bad news for the players who actually want to enjoy the product. Policies like those enacted by the LGS above are a small but significant step towards addressing the issue.
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