Troll and Toad Drops Magic: The Gathering and Why You Should Care

    On October 5th, Troll and Toad, a massive online and local game store based out of Corbin, Kentucky, made a surprising announcement that is causing quite a stir in the Magic community. In a statement, they shared that they, as a company, have decided to stop carrying all Magic: The Gathering products and singles in their store by the end of 2023. Historically, Troll and Toad has been on par with companies like coolstuffinc and Star City Games. They have been a reliable source for players to buy cards from in the event they don’t have a local game store near them or if their store doesn’t have the cards needed. This decision came as a shock to many, and Troll and Toad released a statement to help provide more insight into this significant change in strategy.  They stated that Magic is not as profitable as it once was and other trading card games are much more profitable, such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, Flesh and Blood, and One Piece.

    With this latest announcement, there's been a lot of discussion about some of the broader challenges facing the Magic community.  In my opinion, many of the problems began on October 4th, 2019 with the release of Throne of Eldraine. This set universally was seen as a massive success providing a perfect combination of flavor and power out of the cards balancing between Arthurian lore and fairy tales. The issue was the introduction of Chulane, Teller of Tales… just kidding. However, this was the set that introduced collector boosters which allowed significantly more high power cards to be released into the secondary market.  It also started normalizing alternate arts of cards. This was a way for the whales of MTG to get blinged out cards for their decks at that higher sales price for Wizards of the Coasts and, in theory, the local game store. 

    But here's the catch. Going into the pandemic, the prices on singles dramatically rose up due to a wave of new players being introduced to the game.  When everyone was isolated and stuck at home, MTG provided us with a fun and exciting way to connect with others, resulting in an increase in interest and engagement, made even more significant with the launch of MTG: Arena.  Wizards of the Coast started increasing the frequency of releases of new cards to keep players engaged, brewing, and, most importantly, buying. With the increase in set releases, we also started to see Secret Lair products, which are directly sold from WOTC to the consumer releasing new and exclusive art for high demand reprints.  All of these factors led to product fatigue for the consumer.  It felt like you had to shell out hundreds of dollars every month just to keep up with new decks and card releases. In theory, this should have helped the sales for the local game stores since all this money is being spent, but there is a darker side to all of this.

    When a new set is released, all the focus and press goes towards that new set. All the decks being built are the new flash commanders, all the drafts are based on the new booster packs, and all the new upgrades for commander decks come out of the new set. What about the past set you have thousands of dollars worth of inventory from that set that was released only a couple months ago? That product has become incredibly more difficult to move, leaving the store having spent thousands on products they cannot easily sell. So, to meet demand, you buy the new product to sell, but by the time the boxes get delivered, WOTC has already started spoiler season for the next set, cooling down consumer demand. We’re at a very interesting time in MTG that prices start dropping for singles before official release dates. Not to mention, the cards that are usually staples and good profit margin cards for stores like Demonic Tutor, Mana Crypt, The Great Henge, etc, are being reprinted, which drops their value and makes buying cards as a store much harder to predict. If you are trying to buy a card from a customer at 60%-70% of their value, making a 30%-40% profit margin, and then the card gets reprinted and now the price of the card drops 20%, now your profit gets cut in half. This trend also happens for cards that get reprinted.

    Another issue that these stores are facing is the popularity of alternate arts for cards. A store might have 20 copies of Elesh Norn, but if a customer comes in looking for the Phyrexian text version of Elesh Norn for their Atraxa deck, they likely won’t be satisfied with the original printing. This was not an issue five years ago when you only had two options -  foil or non-foil.  This kept the price higher since there weren't as many cards out there or and players were limited in their choices.  This makes it significantly harder for stores to know which cards to keep in stock and which versions of the cards to support.

    Between holding on to hard-to-move products, depleting value on staples, and the pickiness of the consumer with art, it is not surprising the Troll and Toad is opting out of MTG. It is a complicated situation because a lot of the choices that have been made by WOTC are actually beneficial for MTG players. One thing that we will always advocate for on this blog is affordability for MTG players to simply play the game. By having reprints, it allows players to potentially pull a high value card or go to the secondary market and grab it for cheaper.  This ultimately allows players to build commander decks at a more affordable rate since typically the most basic versions of cards cost less than the alternate art versions. The real question becomes how can we balance supporting the success and profitability of local game stores and online retailers, while also making the game accessible and affordable for all players?  In order to have a thriving MTG community, we really need both to be successful. This is obviously a very complex situation with many factors to consider, but I feel like there is a possible solution that could be quickly implemented and that would help address the challenges faced by both sides - slow down the release schedule. The major pain point for the stores right now is the constant turnover of product, leaving them holding onto excess inventory without the promise of sales. This also hurts the consumer because they are constantly expected to drop money on products as it releases in order to keep up.  Many players may not have the extra funds to pick up a random box of Lord of the Rings after the release. 

    While it seems that Hasbro’s goal at the moment is to get as many new players into the game as possible by trying to make the game more affordable for new players and bring in new fandoms like Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Final Fantasy (Super excited for that by the way), and Marvel, this rapid pace of releases is leading to Magic: The Gathering get dropped by one of the most successful gaming stores in the United States. This does not bode well for the small local gaming stores. These stores are the backbone of MTG and provide players with a space to play and a community of players to play with. As I moved around for work, I would always look for an LGS to get connected with and if these stores close down, it will be a bad situation for all of us.  I don’t know how this will all unfold down the line, but Troll and Toad making this business decision is definitely something to keep an eye on. In the meantime, keep supporting your local game stores whenever you can so they can stay afloat.