Mark Rosewater confirms that the Final Fantasy set (and all future UB sets) will have higher MSRP than in-universe sets
Blogatog
Is an individual final fantasy play booster intended to be the same price as aetherdrift? Sorry for the basic question, but it's hard to find clear info online.
No, Universes Beyond boosters normally have a higher MSRP.
I'm curious to know how many price increases and card or pack decreases have happened over the last 2-3 years. Hasbro's insane requirement of WoTC to increase revenue 50% year over year, and WoTC's constant pushing of all costs onto the consumer has gotten us to this point.
I'm also curious what this looks like even just 1 or 2 years down the line. 50% YoY is impossible to maintain, so what happens when they don't hit the target? What happens when they decrease revenue for a quarter or fiscal year? What happens if it bears true that some UB sets are hits, and others are flops? What happens if we hit a recession?
They've traded the health of the underlying game for short term profits under the tenuous assertion that people will always continue to pay.
Reposting my comment with this account for visibility as it appears my mtgzone account still is not visible outside the instance.
I opened in October 2018, the first set I carried was Rivals of Ixalan. They are still in my system as $3.99/pack. While Lost Caverns of Ixalan, iirc the last set before Play Boosters, is $4.99 for Draft, and $5.99 for set.
There was one official price increase since I opened, but we also had price changes going from Boosters —> Draft/Set —> Play. MSRP for Foundations Play Boosters are $5.25, while Aetherdrift are $5.49. I am guessing Tarkir will be the same as Aetherdrift.
The problem is that wotc really didn't want to raise prices past $3.99. Pack prices hit $3.99 in 2006, and stayed there for nearly 20 years. They raised distributor prices in 2015 without changing MSRP, and then got rid of MSRP (and raised prices again) in 2019.
A pack of Alpha, a pack of Urza's Saga, and a pack of Khans of Tarkir all have roughly the same inflation adjusted retail price: ~$5.50 in 2025 dollars, which is conveniently the current MSRP for Magic IP sets.
For whatever reason, they've found all sorts of excuses for the price increases (all of which they actually control) but never blamed inflation, even though that's actually a reasonable explanation.
Reposting my comment with this account for visibility as it appears my mtgzone account still is not visible outside the instance.
Non-magic, but I may have to open up a discussion on the Lemmy hosting discord for this. I actually thought it was working after an update we applied but I'll see what they and Andrew can help with.
If you search my mtgzone account name from any other instance it does not appear, only this one.