If you close your eyes and listen closely, you might be able to hear a high-pitched hum coming from somewhere in the distance. Can you hear it? That’s the sound of hundreds of thousands of Disney fans vibrating with excitement for the release of Disney Lorcana. Technically speaking, the TCG will hit store shelves i🦄n just a couple of weeks. In reality, Lorcana cards will never have time to sit on a shelf because the available booster boxes will sell out within minutes of stores ope൲ning their doors, or have already done so through pre-orders.
The product stores are receiving at launch has been heavily allocated by distributors, and for at least the first few weeks, finding cards may be difficult if you want them at a reasonable price. Resellers and stores willing to capitalize on the supply issues will be charging double, sometimes triple MSRP, so if you want cards right away, you’re going to have to pay a prܫemium. Lorcana is going to be pretty sparse for at least the first two weeks, but things won’t stay that way for long. It may feel like you have to buy $300 boxes on TCGPlayer or find some cases that fell off a truck, but don’t let FOMO get the best of you. If you can be a little patient, you’ll end up with a🙈 lot more cards in the long run.
First, the bad news: everything you’ve heard about low availability at launch is true. Many big, successful TCG Stores in densely populated areas are receiving less than 100 boxes - a small fraction of what they ordered - while stores that didn’t💧 apply or were not approved for Lorcana’s Organized Play and Hobby Supply Programs may not receive product at launch at all. It’s up to each store to decide how to sell their allocation (though ) so some will offer pre-orders, some will use boxes as incentives to bring people into the store for gameplay events, and some will sell it first-come first-serve on launch day. LGSs set their own prices, and with such limited supply, you’ll find some stores charging as much as $350 for a booster box that has a $145 MSRP. As exorbitant a fee as that is, it unfortunately seems like it might be a competitive one come launch day.
Some people will always have more money than sense when it comes to collectibles, especially for a Disney TCG, two types of collectibles that are already overly commoditized. But as coveted as Lorcana’s debut may be, there’s no sense in letting yourself get t𒉰aken advantage of. It’s important to remember that it’s the market that sets the price, not the sellers, and that supply is going to increase quickly too.
On September 1, Lorcana hits shelves at big box retailers - literally this time. Target, Walmart, Gamestop, Barnes & Noble, Best Buy, FYE, Disney stores, and Hot Topic, as well as websites like Amazon and shopDisney, will all offer Lorcana products come September. Will all of these stores have every type of product? Certainly not. Few if any will have booster boxes, and the smaller stores like Hot Topic may only carry starter decks and single packs. But having all this product out there will torpedo prices online and in local game stores. No one needs to spend $350 for a 24 pack booster box when you can buy almost 60 packs at Target for the same price. Booster boxes are seeded and have more consistent rare pulls than individual packs, of course, but that consistency certainly isn’t worth that much of a premium.
The final nail for these extortionate prices will be the second wave. At GAMA expo earlier this year, brand manager and co-designer Ryan Miller said that The First Chapter will be shipped out in multiple waves. Multiple LGSs have learned from their distributors that the second wave of produ🤡ct is due mid-September, and some are even saying a third wave is planned for late November or early December, after the first expansion launches. As more cards hit the market, the price will come down, and you won’t have to wait very long for that to happen.
I’m not saying you need to take a hard line and refuse to buy anything over MSRP. In fact, I think it’s good to pay a premium to your LGS for the services they provide, especially if you play there often and have a good relationship with the store. But I don’t think it’s necessary to pay more than $200 for a single box just because you want it right away. We’ve waited nine months for the ga✤me to launch, a 🦩few more weeks won’t kill you. In a couple years when we’re on the tenth expansion, you won’t even remember those two weeks when you had cards early.
I know it’s not easy. There’s going to be so much excitement around Lorcana when it launches, and everyone wants to be part of it. You're going to see countless YouTube videos of pack openings and the people that have cards will be flaunting them on social media. No one wants to feel left out, and I totally understand the temptation to buy when the price is still high. But there is no First Edition stamp on The First Chapter, thankfully, and you’re going to get the same cards whether you buy them in August or September. The fastest way to get the price to drop is to not buy while the price is high. We can’t stop everyone else from overpaying, but we can choose not to be part of the problem.