MaRo makes a comment about the secondary market

[Card Slinger J]

So why hasn't the U.S. Government sent the FBI to investigate Wizards of the Coast for their recent business practices pertaining to Inside Trading and the Secondary Market? I know it's a bad time to open a probe to their business given what's going on in the world right now but you have to wonder why they've been getting away with this type of behavior without any consequences for their actions. Even If class action lawsuits do go through they're often times dismissed simply because there's not enough substantial evidence to prove otherwise. Is Hasbro trying to cover for Wizards of the Coast so that they appear as though they aren't breaking the law?

Inside Trading technically isn't illegal or considered a financial crime in the United States like Tax Evasion unless it involves the Stock Market and Wall Street. Manipulating the Secondary Market in a way that denies your customers certain items / products and what to overcharge them for sounds like something that should be a financial crime when it's mainly just unethical. I have noticed a trend with the way Wizards of the Coast has mismanaged Standard in the last few years that's similar to what Konami does with Yu-Gi-Oh!: First they release a new expansion for Standard, then they identify the most powerful sought after cards as determined by the players, upshift the rarities and short print them, sell everywhere else.

Next they satisfy market demand for the cards with a huge reprint in another set, ban the cards for a few formats to allow the rest of the game to catch up, then unban the card(s) to give decks new life so that players buy support that you printed for said deck. Wizards of the Coast only bans cards when they've made the most amount of money on them instead of waiting on deck results from official tournaments but in this case with the pandemic players are only able to compete on Arena so they were relying on players to buy out singles of problem cards before actually banning them. If they bought them out of booster boxes then they wasted $80 on cards with terribly low EV (Expected Value). If they bought it as card singles then they should've known better.

[Atraxian]

@Feyd_Ruin
couldn't have worded it better.
Luxury items like secret lairs or collector's editions are all fine and dandy as long as there is an affordable alternative for those who want to play without all the fancy styles or alternate arts.
This time there is no affordable alternative.

I don't know if they want to aim this product at Commander players and they need to milk us for at least twice the price as we need just 1 copy instead of a playset, but seeing Atraxa and Kaalia, this really seems the case.

[Legend]

classism for the sake of capitalism wouldn't bother me if Hasbro/Wizard weren't SJWs in every other case. I'm not downing SJWs here, just saying where's the justice for low income Magic player like mes? I'd be happy to play with artless, black and white print rules text cards as long as they cost 1/2 the normal price and have the official card back.

[The Fluff]

I'd be happy to play with artless, black and white print rules text cards as long as they cost 1/2 the normal price and have the official card back.

would play with those too. These days when money is scarce due to 2 months of no work..
if anyone asks me why I'm using them.. will reply "beggars can't be choosers".

[motleyslayer]

please keep the posts in regards to MtG and try and avoid anything related to conspiracy theories relating to government watching Wizards or anything similar. Please keep as related to the topic made by OP-motleyslayer