Secret Lair products, when financially viable, can be a fantastic way to pick up some powerful MTG singles with fantastic artwork for cheap. Look at the recent double-sided Megatron Blightsteel Colossus card! While Transformers may not be the most popular IP to dip into MTG through the new promotion, it is undeniably, very cost-efficient. At its cheapest, this card was available for just $22, which is incredible for a $40-$50 rare. The catch? Secret Lair shipping prices for players outside of the U.S. are absurd… until now.
Secret Lair Shipping Issues
While players’ opinion on the Secret Lair lineup vary heavily by person, one issue with Wizards’ newest product line has affected players outside of the U.S.: insanely high shipping fees. This is something the community has complained about for quite some time now.
Take the above example from an article we wrote back in September. This is from an Australian Redditor named TheDoctorOfBeach, whose Shipping costs were almost double the cost of the actual product he was buying. While the Secret Lairs came up to $53.98 after reductions, the shipping was a whopping $97.99! This makes purchasing any Secret Lair product a questionable investment at best.
While Australia seems to get hit the hardest with these shipping fees, other areas aren’t safe either. Canada also has a rough time with Secret Lair shipping fees, and, as pointed out in our coverage of the topic, this drastically changes secondary market prices for Secret Lair product in the country.
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Shipping Fees Corrected
Some out-of-country MTG players are reporting that their shipping rates have been reduced by 85%. Considering that, a lot of the time, shipping fees for Secret Lair product was previously more than the product itself, this is incredible news.
The group of players affected by this change are primarily Australian, New Zealand, and others in the APAC area. This seems to primarily be due to a change in the company that is responsible for shipping Secret Lair products. When asked how much an item will cost to ship to the Australian area, Reddit user MagicBrawl states that, instead of the ridiculous shipping fees that near $100, they only have to pay $8-10 per item.
Unfortunately, not everyone outside of the U.S., or even in the APAC area, has had their shipping fees normalized. One Redditor stated that “one secret lair website 40$ worth was 19$ shipment cost to Japan.” This followed with the thread creator confirming that, at this time, this announcement only affects Australian players.
Looking into Shipping fees for Canadian Secret Lairs revealed that shipping fees for the country also seem to have decreased somewhat. While Canadian players can still expect a $10-20 shipping fee for single Secret Lairs, when testing to see what shipping prices would be for 20 Secret Lair products, I only got a $20 shipping fee, which is fantastic. This is far better than previous shipping fees, which could easily approach $50 for just one product.
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Better Late Than Never
Reddit discussion has been wholly positive. This was a change many players have been waiting for, and they have been sure to make it apparent that this is very appreciated:
“F*ck. Miracles do happen!” – mome-raths
“Amazing! Wish they did it a few months ago when they were making Secret Lairs I really wanted lol, but still!” – TheAwkwardSilent
According to Reddit comments, it appears these shipping changes are, once again, due to a shift in company that’s handling the shipping of Secret Lair product:
“Just had a look – appears they definitely have changed. So a new US based company is handling shopping and it appears they’ve got mates rates on with the supplier, expected when it’s b2b deals.
Fingers crossed it doesn’t turn into a shmozzle.” – Watson1992
As pointed out by Watson1992, there is still time for this positive change to get worse. Hopefully, however, that will not come to pass. For now, if any out-of-U.S. players are looking at getting a Secret Lair of their own, it may not be a bad idea to lock in prices now in case shipping returns to its previous state.
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