Wizards of the Coast has just made an announcement that may trouble fans and collectors of its widely popular trading card game, Magic: The Gathering. Prices are set to increase for a range of booster packs, bundles, and box sets. This price increase is not across the board, however, as many other Magic: The Gathering products' prices will be remaining the same.
Magic: The Gathering is a major player in the world of collectible trading card games. It was the first trading card game, a pioneer of the genre that now includes successful games such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, and modern digital takes on the genre such as Blizzard's Hearthstone. With over thirty-five million players and a staggering twenty billion cards printed, Magic: The Gathering is a juggernaut franchise in both the physical and the digital realms.
Collectible card games have always had a reputation for being an expensive hobby, and for Magic: The Gathering players, it's about to get even more expensive outside the digital Magic: The Gathering Arena. Printing and shipping billions of trading cards is a costly endeavor, and Wizards of the Coast has cited recent operating costs in the past year as the main reason for the price hike. Starting in September, prices for Unfinity and Jumpstart products, including draft boosters, set boosters, collector boosters, bundles, and Jumpstart boosters will be seeing a roughly 11% increase in price. Wizards of the Coast has tried to narrow the scope of this price hike to as few card sets as possible.
Additionally, Commander decks will be seeing a price increase accompanying Streets of New Capenna, although Wizards of the Coast said it has no plans to increase the price of Commander decks further in July. Players may be happy to note that prices for Masters, Modern Horizons, Secret Lair, ready-to-play Challenger Decks, and Universes Beyond will be remaining the same, preserving the price range for a very large portion of Magic: The Gathering's enormous catalog. The price increases are variable as well, meaning not every booster will see a full 11% raise.
Price increases have been an unfortunate fact of life over the last few years. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a strain on worldwide shipping and production, bitcoin miners have been buying AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards in bulk driving up the prices for PC gamers, and the recent conflict in Ukraine has seen gas prices soar in many countries as Russia is one of the world's largest oil exporters. Collectible trading card games such as Magic: The Gathering are yet another victim of the growing instability and uncertainty affecting industries around the globe.
Source: Magic: The Gathering