MTG Fallout hits stores next Friday! Whether you’re a Fallout fan or a fan of the archetypes that these four new themed Commander precons are based around, there’s a lot to look forward to for this release. Our favorite addition from MTG Fallout is the new Rad Counter mechanic, a brilliant flavorful take on the effects and benefits that Rad can have on you in the Fallout series.
Alongside four new Commander decks, excited players also have the opportunity to chase some serialized goodies. These can exclusively be found in the Fallout Collector Booster packs. Unfortunately, while the supply of the preconstructed decks should be plentiful, the Collector Boosters are a different story.
Sadly for foil fans, it seems there are fewer of these to go around than players thought. Following the reveal of some new information, the problem may even be worse than players feared. Thanks to this, plenty of MTG players are having some heated discussions within the community.
Incredibly Expensive Collector Boosters
Thanks to several distributors claiming that the Fallout Collector Boosters suddenly saw a massive supply cut from Wizards of the Coast, prices recently skyrocketed. As we covered in a recent article, the prices of these prized boxes jumped by around $100! This pushed prices to an eye-watering $350! Thankfully, this still isn’t nearly as bad as Modern Horizons 3’s prices…
Mercifully, after hitting an immense peak, prices have calmed down somewhat. Currently, on TCGplayer, a Fallout Collector Booster Display sells for around $331. While this is a small drop, prices are still up around $80 compared to their low in February. Worryingly, there’s a real chance these prices may spike once again as supply issues are far from over.
Taking to Reddit, u/voidmetal recently shared an email they received that contained a grim warning about Fallout Collector Booster supply. According to Voidmetal, their order of Collector Boosters was simply canceled and their money was refunded without any input. While we don’t have the full thing, the email screenshot explains why this has happened.
“This week, our distributors confirmed our final product quantities for the Fallout Commander Deck Sets and Fallout Collector Boxes,” the unnamed store states. “While we received the expected numbers for our Commander Decks, we were drastically shorted for Collector Boxes.” According to the store, this was not an isolated issue, as “All of our distributors provided the same message.”
Supposedly “Wizards of the Coast severely reduced the print run of this product unexpectedly, and they had to reduce allocations throughout all of their customers.” Due to this, it seems that many stores and MTG players won’t get what they had initially ordered, confirming past fears. Unfortunately, this may make getting ahold of a Fallout Collector Booster box a lot easier said than done.
A Second Wave?
Technically, there is a slim chance that the supply of Fallout Collector Boosters isn’t as bad as reported. According to a WPN member on Reddit, u/Speirs_101st, they haven’t been informed about any print run reductions. As a result, it’s claimed that the email could be “BS” and an attempt to gouge customers.
Unfortunately, this process isn’t entirely unheard of within the MTG space. Occasionally, unscrupulous sellers will cancel pre-orders that were initially made a low prices to re-list the product at a higher price. For better or worse, there’s no indication of whether or not this is what’s happening here, but it’s nonetheless a concern.
Ultimately, the big question at the moment is if a second wave of MTG Fallout Collector Boosters will be released. This would not only help to satisfy the demand caused by supply issues for the product but would help normalize the rising prices. If we’re to believe the email sent to u/voidmetal, a second wave is incredibly unlikely.
“It is highly unlikely that there will be any additional Fallout Collectors product released at a later date, based on Wizards printing history with Collectors products. We do not expect additional waves of this product being printed.”
This is ultimately strictly speculation, so it’s tough to know whether or not a second release is coming or not. Personally, we’re inclined to believe that there won’t be a restock due to the Fallout Collector Boosters containing serialized cards. Should all the serialized cards be placed within the initial print run of Collector Boosters, printing more packs could be troublesome as they dilute the established odds.
Thankfully, this is a solvable problem and it’s one that Wizards has conquered before. For The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, as second print run of Collector Boosters was managed through a new product. While this product did contain new cards and treatments, it importantly didn’t mess with the odds of finding The One-of-One Ring.
Player Commentary
When discussing why this MTG Fallout Collector Booster print run could have possibly been cut, many players are confused. As stated by Reddit user Imnimo, if preorders for Fallout Collectors were largely successful, why are Wizards cutting the product quantity, forcing players to rescind preorders? It may just be leaving money on the table:
“I’m curious what would cause Wizards to cut the print run like that. If pre-orders are being cancelled, it certainly doesn’t seem like they would have been worried about it not selling. What else could have happened?”
Imnimo
Responding to this question, many players speculate different things. One of the more popular pieces of speculation, however, had to do with printing issues:
“Sounds like something happened with the printers outside of their control imo, or they needed to reallocate printers for something else unexpectedly. As it is, I’m not sure every printer can handle collector boosters, it’s possible some can’t because of collation screwery? Dunno.”
so_zetta_byte
Following up on this, another user who claims they have some experience with the printing industry did confirm that, to get the consistency of all the different treatments in Collector Boosters right, a lot of ‘secret sauce’ goes into getting the right consistencies consistently. This is true for the entire industry, but even more so for complex foil printings like the ones highlighted in this Universes Beyond product.
While printer fiascos were one potential reason for Wizards to suddenly cut the supply of the MTG Fallout Collector Booster boxes, many players expect that this was a move from Wizards of the Coast to make the rarer MTG Fallout cards a lot more collectible:
“Making collector products more collectable/desirable by drastically cutting print runs and making it harder to get the fancy versions.”
Desperada
Wizards of the Coast certainly seems to be moving in the direction of making their premium offerings more collectible. Similar inferences were made by many MTG players when Wizards of the Coast recently announced that a majority of MTG Secret Lair products would move to a Limited Print Run strategy. While this was done to speed up the shipping process of the Secret Lair products to players, many players were very aware of the potential availability issues that this could cause.
Serialized Dream?
No matter what speculation you choose to adopt, what we know right now is that MTG Fallout Collector Booster boxes are in much shorter supply than expected, and they are expensive as a result. Will these boxes see a second wave and fall in price, or will they keep rising in price once players realize that there aren’t any more coming? Whether this was a printing issue or an intentional strategy to make these boxes more collectible, it appears that Collector Booster boxes are going to be scarcer.
What that does mean is hunting for serialized cards could be easier than expected, so if you’re after a serialized Bobblehead, these may be very enticing buys.
Read More: New Secret Lair Variant Discovered for Beloved One-Card Deck!
