Going into the Our Boss is on Vacation Superdrop, one, or rather three, Secret Lairs looked better than the rest. Their value may have been lacking, and their existence controversial, but there’s no denying the selling power of Spongebob Squarepants. Due to this, it was expected that any one of these three Secret Lair drops would end up selling out first.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t the case. Instead, it turns out that the Tragic Romance Secret Lair drop was the first to sell out.
Tragic Romance Sells Out First
While still firmly in the shadow of Spongebob, there’s no denying that the Tragic Romance Secret Lair had a lot going for it. For starters, all the cards worked well with one another, perfectly suiting a Kaalia of the Vast deck. Fittingly, Kaalia of the Vast was included in the Secret Lair, making it an obvious buy for any fans.
On top of this the tender and affectionate, not at all lurid, art was thoroughly enjoyed by fans and only slightly meme-d upon. The only detail letting this Secret Lair drop down was the value, but that didn’t stop it from selling out. In total, Tragic Romance contained around $16 of raw reprint value, which really isn’t much to write home about.
Curiously, now this Secret Lair drop has sold out first, the cards contained within could become significantly more valuable. Clearly, these cards are in demand, with many MTG players looking to buy them. Additionally, we can expect that supply is rather limited, given the sheer speed at which this drop sold out.
Sadly, while supply and demand have obviously played a role here, scalpers have reared their ugly heads too. On eBay, there are already listings for the Tragic Romance drop for well beyond the original $29.99 price tag. While this may sound very lucrative at the moment, there’s a good chance these currently high prices will settle before too long.
In the long run, it seems there’s a good chance the cards in Tragic Romance will be surprisingly expensive. They’re still reprints, at the end of the day, so it’s unlikely they’ll be going for $10+, but players may nevertheless get their money’s worth. We’re just going to have to wait and see to find out where the prices eventually settle.
But Wait, There’s Even Less
As if one Secret Lair drop selling out wasn’t enough, two more drops have sold out since we started writing this article. Curiously, none of the Spongebob Squarepants Secret Lairs have even come close to selling out yet. Instead, the foil variant of They Grow Up so Far and both variants of Twist Toons have gone first.
Considering the release of Tarkir: Dragonstorm is right around the corner, it’s little wonder that They Grow Up So Fast is proving popular. This Secret Lair reprints the five original Dragonlords from Dragons of Tarkir on unique reversible cards. Showcasing normal and baby variants of each Dragonlord, this Secret Lair caused a lot of buzz.
Value-wise, They Grow Up So Fast isn’t that impressive, but it’s not awful. Clocking in at around $23.50 for the cheapest possible reprints of each card, you’re not getting a terrible deal with this one. The same is true of the Twisted Toons Secret Lair, which offers around $22 of raw reprint value.
Speaking of Twisted Toons, it’d be no surprise if the art has driven a lot of purchases for this drop. Each of the cards in this drop looks absolutely fantastic, the Silence especially. Like the Tragic Romance cards, these reprints could prove to be rather expensive, now that they’ve sold out.
Since all of these drops have sold out so quickly, it definitely seems like low supply is a factor here. While Wizards doesn’t publish official print numbers, we can expect these drops were printed much less than the Spongebob ones. Subsequently, even if Spongebob is technically selling better, these have still managed to sell out first.
Persistent Problems
Unfortunately, while the Tragic Romance Secret Lair has impressed by selling out first, this launch wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Following a string of successful Superdrop launches, the Our Boss is on Vacation Superdrop has been an unfortunate return to past problems. In particular, the queue for this Secret Lair was a complete mess.
During the initial rush for this Secret Lair Superdrop, things go so bad that Wizards of the Coast had to pause the queue entirely. This stopped eager players from checking out at all, unsurprisingly resulting in a lot of frustration. Even though issues were resolved fairly quickly, this was obviously not an ideal look for such an anticipated sale.
After the brief pause, some MTG players recounted hour-long queue times. Thankfully, once this clock ran down, there were still copies of every drop available for purchase. While Tragic Romance did sell out quickly, this certainly isn’t the worst Secret Lair sale we’ve seen. At the very least, the glitch that allowed players to skip the queue previously has been patched out.
Even if Our Boss is on Vacation Superdrop isn’t the worst sale ever, it’s still far from perfect. Just now, the Secret Lair x SpongeBob SquarePants: Lands Under the Sea Foil Edition drop has sold out, and the others may follow suit. Considering these drops have only been available for around six hours, MTG players have to be fairly quick on their feet.
We can only hope that going forward, Wizards of the Coast will continue to adjust print numbers. While it’s understandable Wizards doesn’t want products sitting around on warehouse shelves, not creating enough supply is an equally annoying problem. Hopefully, Wizards will be able to find the right balance sooner rather than later.