As Much Rope As You Need (Tradecraft)

I could have called this post, "Boned," as a description for retailers sitting on a stockpile of Iconic Masters. Boned assumes their predicament was something that happened "to" them as opposed to poor judgment and bad circumstances. Perhaps there is a mix, but in general, I think Wizards of the Coast offered them as much rope as they needed to hang themselves, and they chose to swing at a length above the ground of their own choosing.

The problem with Iconic Masters is about timing, mostly. Mid November is not a traditional time for a significant Magic release. It's a dead season before the rush of the holidays. Generally things released during this season languish, either to be sold during December or never sold at all. It's a risky release time. So it's not surprising many retailers are reporting terrible sales during this slow lead up.

The second problem is the cost in relation to the season. My initial order of Iconic Masters was $20,000 of product on one invoice. I wrangled that down to about $12K. The problem is the end of the year is six weeks away. For a hot set or a set with a predictable sales cycle during a predictable time of the year, I'm likely to take 3-4 weeks to sell through an order and pay back that invoice. If I'm a little late on my predictions, and I've got some overstock, that's fine. However, with six weeks left in the year, what I don't sell is likely to become inventory overage, taxable as income on December 31st. There is strong incentive to dump this product for this reason alone.

Strong incentive may be an understatement, as this product is being dumpster fired (using this as a verb now) like no set I've ever seen. There are the usual suspects, but everyday stores also see the writing on the wall. At any other time of the year, the wise retailer would settle in and ride out a 3-6 month cycle of what's admittedly a very good product. But six weeks before end of the year? The risk is too high. Shove it out the airlock.

Did I mention Wal Mart has a Masters set for the first time? Oh yes. They have Iconic Masters as well as future product with the usual street date violations. The market is flooded with this product. Rather than banging the gong on Iconic Masters, Wizards has moved on, hyping the next Magic release, and making it easier for customers to just skip this one and jump on the next bandwagon.

Retailers can smell the blood in the water. They've made ground pronouncements of how they've had enough, which really just means they're reducing their upcoming orders of Magic downwards, something they should have already been doing, if demand indicates it. Distributors are going to be in a world of hurt when bills for this set are due and those retailers looking for the holidays to save them from a tough year will find their grandma money savior will go to pay the Iconic Masters.

The market has hit rock bottom folks. This is what bottom looks like. It's a shame too, because this is a very good product, despite the YouTube low lifes attempting to bad mouth it for personal gain. This is not enough to put anyone big out of business or topple a distributor, but it's a tipping point, a move from a bull Magic market to a bear market. For stores, diversification is the answer, but it was the solution to a problem that's too far gone for most.