*Editor's Note - The LGS owner is a close friend of mine. I thought it would be an educational read to see the Lorcana TCG from his perspective.
Ravensburger's new card game, Lorcana, is a fantastic game. It's one of the most fun and innovative card games I've played in decades. While it may have faced doubts as a TCG before release, the game is now in such high demand that finding sealed products can be challenging. As sealed products became scarcer, prices soared, and scalpers took advantage of the limited inventory. Collectors and players alike were all competing to secure what they could from the dwindling supply. But what happened? Shouldn't there have been enough for everyone?
How were scalpers getting 30 booster boxes & selling them for $300.00 USD or more on eBay? What price were the majority of Local Gaming Stores charging above Ravensburger's MSRP & why? Well, Local Gaming Store Owner of 'The Sword & Board', Casey McNamara, was kind enough to sit down with me to shed some light on the lack of inventory and the pricing of Ravenbruger's Trading Card Game.
Greg Burke: Hello Casey, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today. I first want to ask as someone who owns a gaming store, did you expect this game to be as popular as it was?
Casey: Yes. We knew with the Disney IP, it had potential and when I went to the GAMA trade show in March we got to playtest it and see it in action and saw then that the gameplay could match the hype. The art was wonderful, and the game played very well.
Greg Burke: How much product did you request from Ravensburger and how much did they send you?
Casey: I requested originally 120 boxes of the first chapter as well as about 50+ of all of the ancillary products. We received 16 boxes of the first chapter. According to my rep all the stores that were approved for OP by Ravensburger were allocated 16 boxes.
Greg Burke: Did you ask for more? What did Ravensburger say?
Casey: Ravensburger didn't directly distribute the game and used multiple US distribution partners. All of the distribution partners did not receive near enough for demand, so it was heavily allocated.
Greg: Ravensburger set an MSRP for all Lorcana, It’s my understanding that Pokemon, Yu-Ghi-O and MTG don’t do this at all? How did you determine pricing when there is MSRP? Did you feel it was reasonable when compared to your cost?
Casey: Yu-Gi-Oh does have MSRP while Pokemon and Magic do not. For us personally we determine in store pricing by MSRP, Keystone or Market Price or a little bit of all 3. My goal with something extremely hot is to have it priced that it is still a deal vs online pricing if you come into my store but not cheap enough that the first person can come in and buy all 16 of my boxes and flip them for 3x price immediately online.
Greg Burke: Did you limit customers to how much Lorcana they could buy? If so, why?
Casey: We limited customers to 6 packs each per day but we quickly ran out of our initial 16 boxes. With Rise of the Floodborn we did the same thing.
Greg Burke: Can you List the Products you received and the prices you charged?
Casey: We received a mix of everything that released.
For first chapter we did
- Booster pack $9.99
- Trove 69.99
- Starter 24.99
- Gift Set 44.99.
For Flooborn we did
- Booster Pack 9.99
- Starter Deck 19.99
- Trove 79.99
- 100th Anniversary 99.99
We did however for both sets do in store events where you would get packs at about a cost of just under 7 per pack with packs as prize supports. On average everyone received 8 total packs for $40.00. We did not receive enough packs to do a full sealed for the first chapter but we did a starter deck and a pack for 19.99 and did the tournament that way with additional packs as prize support.
Greg Burke: How does you store gauge what “market value” is in a TCG Specifically with Loracana?
Casey: For market price it's basically just what the online price is from multiple online markets. TCG Player tabulates market price as well as checking Amazon and eBay and other options. You can also see multiple facebook marketplace offers of folks flipping the boxes immediately online.
Greg Burke: The TCG community seems to argue that TCGplayer.com should only be allowed to price out singles, not packs or booster boxes. Just want your thought on this.
Casey: It's hard to regulate the free market when it comes to pricing. If it wasn't TCGplayer it would be more commonly eBay or something similar. TCGplayer does have the buyer protections in place, so that you are safe knowing you are not getting a resealed box or something similar.
Greg Burke: What could LGS owners & Ravensburger do to help make Lorcana more affordable and readily available?
Casey: Honestly it just comes down to supply. If there was enough printed to go around it would help immensely.
Greg Burke: Lorcana has caused controversy between MSRP and LGS, I just want to give you a platform to explain from an actual store owner's perspective how this happens, why and how other LGS and Ravensburger can improve this moving forward.
Casey: This is a tricky question, but I'll try. If the products with an MSRP went for actual MSRP or close to MSRP then store owners would be very happy. Very few of our product lines go for MSRP online or even close to it. Some of our product lines have something called MAPP which stands for Minimum Advertised Price Policies. Basically, it means stores cannot advertise online for less than a certain % off retail, usually 20%. Other product lines never have sales of any kind and the MSRP in store is the exact same MSRP you will find online with few exceptions. Other products we carry will pre-sale online for 15% above our cost. Important to note that if we sell on these same platforms, we pay 15-20% to the platform as well as shipping costs which means we have no chance to compete with the platform itself.
Almost all LGSs have overhead costs including rent, employees and other expenses of running a brick and mortar retail location. For most of us we understand that customers are going to make a choice to spend a little more in store than online to be able to have a place to play and a local community to play with.
I think the main reason why there is a difference between MSRP and the actual price just has to do with the amount in print. When something is very desired and in limited quantities its simple supply and demand. LGS's are in the middle of it as for once they have something that is selling for more than MSRP online. I know personally when that happens, we have to capitalize on it to a degree as its very common for us to be on the other side of the equation. We could have the same 16 boxes of a magic or Pokémon set that if we need to move to make room for more products, we have to sell at a loss.
For other TCG's I think having some kind of a MAPP would help stores to be able to compete with online pricing. For Lorcana I think simply printing more to keep up with demand would help. It is a very fun game that most people want to come in and play. As long as the supply is much lower than demand it will cause prices to spike.
Greg Burke: Thank you for your time, Casey. I appreicate an insiders look on this topic from a LGS owner.
I hope this article helps shed some new informAtion to players & collectors of Disney's Lorcana. For more news and everything else gaming related be sure to keep it here at Shacknews.com
