serialrobinson asked: Isn’t it a little disingenuous to say that the test of whether people want things like the Masterpiece Planeswalker set is if it sells? The issue people have isn’t that they think the product isn’t cool or isn’t something they want, it’s that it is so exclusive and it’s distributed in such a way as to make it extremely difficult to obtain, even for those willing to spend the money on it. Of course it is going to sell well, but it will also make lots of other people without access very unhappy.

I think I did a poor job of explaining my point, so let me take a second shot at it.

Magic is a game, but it’s also a collectible. Now, we prioritize its status as a game over its status as a collectible, so when we make collectible items we tend to make them alternate versions of cards. Yes, the planeswalkers are cool looking, but you can get the normal versions of them in sets. You don’t need the alternate versions to enjoy playing the game.

The problem with collectibles is the entire point of collectibles is to make things that are special partly because they’re hard to get. You get to show off you have it because not everybody was able to get it.

Whenever we do a limited collectible, we get a lot of negativity because we have a passionate and invested fan base that would like many of the cool things we make. But if we printed them in the volume needed so everyone could have them, the specialness of the collectibility would disappear.

So, I was pointing out that people being upset that something is limited happens every time we announce it. There simply isn’t a way to make things that not everyone can get without stirring up some negativity, yet the nature of a limited quality is what collectibles are all about.

The Mythic Edition is an experiment. Many collectible companies make high ticket collectibles for their super invested fans. We’ve never made a product with a $250 MSRP before. Is there an audience for that? We honestly don’t know. I mean we think there is, because we’re doing it, but it very well could turn out that there isn’t.

Because it’s something we’ve never done before, we’re taking baby steps. We’re selling it at one time from one seller in a place we’re familiar with where we take all the inventory risk. Yes, there are things about it that can be improved, and we are listening to all the feedback from players about how future versions could be better.

My original point was that this is a test. If this product doesn’t sell, none of the feedback will matter because we won’t do it again. If it does sell, we will figure out what worked and didn’t work about it. It’s very possible that it will sell, but there are qualities about it that prove to be mistakes and we will fix them.

Our goal is to be a company that is fan focused, but also successful as a business. If there is money to be made because there’s a segment of the audience that would enjoy something that we could sell them, we’re going to explore those possibilities.

This means, a comment like “I want to buy this product, but I can’t” is taken very much to heart while “I don’t think you should make a product that costs $250” is more going to be judged by seeing if there’s an audience that wants to do that.

That is what I was trying to get at in my previous post.