Collector booster sample packs have been in the spotlight for multiple reasons in recent weeks. Today, there’s even more discussion surrounding them, this time about their condition reliability. Traditionally, collector booster sample packs haven’t been anything special, but that changed for Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.
As such, it’s important that the content of these packs, like the contents of any MTG packs, remain in decent condition through processing, handling, and shipping. Yet, there seems to be potential problems with these packs getting to their arrival destinations without any issues. Before we jump into these issues, it’s important to understand what a collector booster sample pack has in store.
What Sample Packs Are
Collector booster sample packs started as a supplement alongside Streets of New Capenna Commander decks. The purpose of these sample packs is to give players a glimpse of the possibilities of what can be opened in a traditional collector booster pack. Each sample pack contains two cards. The first card is a foil common or uncommon. The second card is a rare or mythic rare with a range of potential special treatments available.
These rares and mythic rares always have one form of special treatment. These include extended art, borderless art, showcase cards, and retro frame. Additionally, any of these could also be foil. This slot in particular embodies what makes a collector booster unique. There are a multitude of different art and border styles that newer cards can have, and this wide range of styles applies to this second slot. This does mean that if you open a chase rare or mythic rare in this slot, you could get a nice monetary bonus out of your Commander deck purchase. Unfortunately, there have been some recent problems with the condition of these pack-fresh cards.
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A Bending Problem?
A common complaint regarding the Lord of the Rings collector sample packs is making its rounds in the community. Many players purchasing a Lord of the Rings Commander deck received their product, but the contents of their sample pack were completely bent out of shape. Of course, anything can go wrong when having a product shipped. Maybe the product was not packaged well to begin with, or got damaged in transportation. These things do happen, yet this Reddit post brings up some potential concerns with regard to condition reliability.
Not only are these sample packs repeatedly arriving with damaged contents inside, but the cards are consistently bent in similar fashion! As mentioned, these sample packs are given alongside Commander decks, yet there seems to be very little issue with the conditions of the Commander decks themselves. While decks are arriving, more or less, in good shape, these sample packs have shown up bent for multiple players. Ironically, this is not the first unique factor with Lord of the Rings collector booster sample packs either.
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Additional Value in Sample Packs
The whole point of collector booster sample packs is to mimic collector booster packs themselves. Sample packs function just as they sound, providing a brief idea of what players can open from collector boosters. This is meant to provide a nice bonus to anyone who purchases a Commander deck, while simultaneously incentivizing them to go out and buy collector boosters. Lord of the Rings sample packs have one slot that might be a bit misleading, however.
The rare or mythic slot of the two-card sample packs receives special treatment and can be foil or non-foil. As stated earlier, this includes extended art foils. Interestingly enough, some extended art foils that can be found in sample packs are actually not available in the collector booster packs themselves. Instead, some extended art cards, including the One Ring, can be found in sample packs alone in this foil, extended art state. This makes the supply of this version of these cards much lower and, for cards in high demand like the One Ring, can cause the price of these cards to skyrocket.
This situation does make these sample packs extra intriguing for players. Having the opportunity to pull an expensive card out of a small, bonus pack given for purchasing a Commander deck provides a nice bit of suspense for anyone who wants a Commander Precon. This does make the bending problem look even worse, however. Although receiving bent product is problematic regardless of the value of the cards, anyone who opens cards on the more expensive side of things may feel devastated if the condition of the card is ruined. So what should a player do in this situation?
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Recurring Issue Meets Recurring Advice
While it may certainly be frustrating to open any MTG product and have issues with the condition of the cards right out of the gate, Wizards of the Coast is generally good about making sure players receive the correct product in better condition over time. It is important to make sure to take a picture of the pack and its contents as a form of proof. It may take some time to receive replacement product, which is obviously not ideal, but generally Wizards of the Coast will cooperate and send replacement product as long as the proof given is reasonable and the product is indeed in poor condition. Additionally, Wizards of the Coast often won’t request the cards to be returned.
If you are unlucky enough to receive some problematic product, or even run into some problems on an MTG digital client, it is always a good idea to contact Wizards of the Coast and fill out a ticket detailing the situation.
While this does seem like a potential recurring problem with Lord of the Rings collector booster sample packs, there have been recurring issues with product in the past, especially with Secret Lairs, and Wizards of the Coast, traditionally, has been able to provide product in good condition at some point. Hopefully Wizards of the Coast learns from this issue and additional supplemental, yet valuable, product like these sample packs aren’t treated like an afterthought in the future.
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