Paddy,
I watched the video and it's insane they are doing this. Even though the collectibles industry is a shady industry that preys on random loot packs and enticing players with rares so they spend more, it' a shame these kind of collectibles do this. But when money is out there, they'll do it. At $1000 per pack paid direct to them, hey all they got to do is sell 10,000 sets and thats $10 million sales right there. Who knows how many sets will be made. Really comes down to how many hardcore MTG fans and scalpers there are with a wad of cash burning a hole in their pocket.
From my past experience dabbling with licensed product and collectibles, you typically got two kinds of collectibles kinds of businesses. One is the random pack kind of thing like baseball, MTG, Pokemon cards. The other is what I worked in which was toys, seasonal products, Christmas tree ornament sets etc.... My coworkers and I were in charge of our own product lines and order product for the year or season. Some things were everyday products that sell for years all year round. Some were obviously only for special occasions. Our goal was to sell as much as possible too, but not at this hide and seek overpriced crap tactic.
Like anything you see in stores with your own eyes, it's there to buy. We order in as much as possible without ordering too much (over inventory) and hope it all sells. There were no such thing as rares or trying to rip off customers who enjoy collecting stuff. If one of my sets had 40 products in it, as long as the store orders in all 40 that person can buy it all in one shot. It's up to them. I got the product at the warehouse, up to the store manager to order it. Products were reasonably priced and the products were priced simply by cost. The higher it costs, the more it sells for. The lower it cost, the lower the price. And like most things in life, the more it costs the fewer bought. So inventory was based on that, not artificially done by a marketing manager purposely gutting the availability. There were no games like let's purposely make product #36 super rare that costs $200 and only some stores get it.
Even though I dont buy collectibles stuff (aside from 1-2 years as a kid buying Fleer baseball stickers for a book), it's really a shame. When I look back at the stuff I did with coworkers, I have no idea how many people are true collectors, but considering the product was widely available at various stores, a hardcore customer could surely buy them all up if they really wanted to. Its not like any collection had 500 or 1000 pieces. Although to be fair, some of our stuff was only available during seasonal periods and you may never see it again next year. So I guess some people would be pressured that way to buy up if they wanted all 50 pieces. But there was no random packs or gimped supply.
With companies like MTG, they got a key advantage. They control the franchise. For me, our licensed gear would have 1-3 year deals. We cant afford to overprice something because if it doesn't sell we are stuck with it. And if that happens, the licensor will be pissed its not selling and not renew. For WOTC, they can afford to take as long as they want setting whatever crazy price they feel like.
