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I don't consider myself an investigative journalist by any means, but there's been something on my mind I'd like to talk about. I'd gone online digging around to find out how much Booster Boxes costed in 2020. No, I'm not suddenly interested in Booster Boxes for no reason. With the recent release of the estimated cost of Final Fantasy sealed product, a lot of us are worried that there might have been a sudden hike in prices disproportionate to the natural growth of the game.

I say "worried" because angry isn't the right energy for this. There are certainly many reasons that people in this hobby could jump on the hate train about any slight change to this game, but I think the vast majority of players, not just haters, are reacting negatively to the price of Final Fantasy. It's not just saltiness for the sake of saltiness, but real concern across the entire fanbase.

The question really comes down to: are we going to be paying too much for this hobby? This brings me back to my lack of investigative training: how much did a Collector's Booster Box cost in the past, and has it drastically changed? This is surprisingly hard to figure out, from the hours I've spent trying to find this out online.

What is MSRP?

Way back in 2019, Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) stopped using MSRP on their products, which is the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price. It basically means, in a vacuum, this is what WOTC would like the product to cost for consumers.

I'm not here to discuss what a move like this means to WOTC, or even speculate on their reasons for putting this kind of policy into place, but it's important nonetheless to demonstrate how this would affect the market for consumers. And it does explain why the information I was looking for is hard to find.

The Effect of MSRP

MSRP, from the manufacturer, doesn't factor in how various thing might drive up retailer costs, and thus consumer's cost. Demand, accessibility, scarcity, and profit margins of the retailers might drive up this price. Hype also plays a huge role on this too, because it translates into demand, which translates into potentially higher prices initially and presales.

WOTC brought back MSRP in 2024 with the release of Foundations. which should give us a clear number to judge WOTC's responsibility for the cost of their sets. Unfortunately, while spooking around the internet for a few hours, I found it extremely difficult to find those release day prices.

The closest I found was a Reddit post claiming they looked on 401 Games to compare the cost. I used the same site and will use this as my reference. I understand this might not be the most accurate, but it's still worth demonstrating. A Foundations Collector Booster box was priced at $356.95 (Converted from CAD to USD) and a Final Fantasy Collector Booster box is priced at $606.83. I double checked it, and that's a difference of roughly $250.

Premium Like Modern Horizons

Some of the grumbles I've seen online explaining this price hike is that Universe Beyond (UB) sets are meant to be luxury sets, like Modern Horizons. This is confusing because Final Fantasy is going to be a Standard-legal set. So it would need to be Standard accessible, right?

I also looked up Modern Horizons 3's Collector Booster box price and it came to $428.34. That's still a roughly $178 difference. That's concerning. I'm not oblivious to the fact that these prices for Final Fantasy are inflated in the way they often are with preorders, but the difference is still too stark. I'm sure the prices will come down with the flood of the market, but likely not 100+ dollars.

Cost of Popular IPs In Magic

I'll be completely upfront that I'm not in a position to know whether WOTC has a legitimate reason for the price hikes. We have no idea how much it truly costs WOTC to get a popular IP like Final Fantasy and how much it might be overcharging to prepare for bigger IPs in the future. It's possible they just raised prices because they thought they could get away with doing so - just for the profit. We just don't know.

Something more important to note here is the duality of bringing in new players into this hobby and retaining them. The struggle here is that as the prices for this hobby go up with Universes Beyond sets, it both disillusions those enfranchised in the game to keep playing and might gatekeep new players because of initial costs to play.

New players will likely involve themselves with this hobby by buying the products that brought them in, which makes a larger barrier to entry at this price point. If the sets become increasingly more pricey to maintain, it might not bring players. It's hard to see the break point.

The balancing effect of this is unknown to us. Maybe the cost is worth it, maybe it's the best WOTC can manage while providing prospective and enfranchised players with new content. Even giving WOTC the benefit of the doubt, it's hard to say. It's understandable that we'd see the hike in price and get afraid that it'll destroy something we all love.

The Elephant in the Room

Either way, Standard is going to suffer from this. Tolarian Community College made a great video that discusses what this might do to Standard. It points out the fact that this will be the new normal for the format because all Universes Beyond prices will be like this moving forward. It's a higher price point than Modern, while being Standard playable cards.

Universes Beyond is planned to be half of all future sets going forward, so this is a price hike on half of all Magic product. Look at what happened to cards like Orcish BowmastersOrcish Bowmasters and The One RingThe One Ring did to other formats because of their single printing in LOTR. Imagine that, but for Standard sets.

Reprints need to be normalized for Universes Beyond cards. Universes Within, or something? I don't even know if this will be enough. I'm not sure I know what can solve this problem. Maybe UB can't be Standard-legal or UB can't be half of all sets.

FOMO

I've just been speculating on how much it will cost financially, but are we going to buy this stuff? Of course. Magic has a loyal fanbase. We love set releases and new cards. All over my Bluesky is hype about how incredibly designed and satisfying these Final Fantasy cards are. What WOTC refuses to do is to give us bad product. That's why it's been a huge hobby for a lot of people for a long time.

This is tough when we see others cracking packs and opening product like this. Commander is a friendly enough format that sitting out of one set won't warp your play experience, at least for just one set. But it's hard not to want the Final Fantasy product and the future Avatar: The Last Airbender product line, and everything that comes after.

Players are in a tough environment to not to feel pressured into these new and better sets with cards that are incredibly pushed and powerful. The power creep in these sets is important. It gets harder and harder to know how to spend the little money we have for our hobby.

This isn't a criticism of Wizards of the Coast, but an observations of the nature of new sets and cost of those sets. I've seen people online lamenting their inability to afford to participate in this set because of the sudden hikes in price. This feeling adds to the fear that I spoke about again and again - the fear of not being able to participate in a hobby you love.

Is this kind of marketing potentially harmful? I'm not saying people should feel entitled to things we do as a hobby, but practices like chance and FOMO are psychological techniques that have proven taxing to deal with socially. I don't mean to pressure ethics here, but it's worth considering how these practices might affect the health of the fanbase.

Is This Universes Beyond's Fault

As a fan of Universes Beyond, I'm in a weird position. I see a lot people looking for something to blame about what's happening here. I want to navigate this carefully. We're in a position where the thing we want is what's causing us strife. If no one wanted Final Fantasy there would be no problem with the cost, but that's not the case.

In 2020, with the release of the Godzilla alternate cards and the Walking Dead Universes Beyond Secret Lair, I doubt WOTC or the fans had any idea it would take off as much as it did. I cannot understate, however, how making UB Standard legal, after initially promising that it wouldn't be, has made opting out of UB impossible for those who had been doing so this far.

This makes the need of Final Fantasy more important than the want. Players who want to remain competitive will have to pay premium on top of premium. It's tough, and I'm conflicted. UB poses a real financial threat to the hobby, but it's simply because of how much people want these IPs in the first place. I don't want to understate or ignore this. I'd like to give you a simple answer to this situation, but it's just not simple.

Conclusion

I can give you one thing though: a request. Wizards of the Coast, we're looking for transparency. I'd like to understand your choices about these prices and some acknowledgement of the fear a lot of players are experiencing. If we could better understand where you're coming from with this choice, I'm sure we could come to some kind of calm.

I highly doubt that WOTC isn't considering players when they make choices. If the push for Modern and Standard and the Commander Brackets and ban list is an indication of anything, it's that they want to listen and make as many people happy, while still being able to produce this game profitably.

Maybe that's a bit too kind, but hey, I'm an optimist. If there were any points I missed, or any pieces of research you'd like to send my way, I appreciate it. I'm @strixhavendropout on Blue Sky.