Wizards of the Coast initially came under fire for its Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition box set. Each box was priced at $999, which was already many times more expensive than any box of boosters in Magic history, but that value was captured in the fact each booster reprinted classic Beta cards. That means you could pull a Black Lotus, an Ancestral Recall, or a Mox in each pack.
The 30th Anniversary Edition Box Set went on sale yesterday and sold out in minutes despite the price tag. Fans initially thought that Wizards might have tried to pull a fast one on Magic fans, or that the set had actually failed and nobody was buying the $999 boxes.
Turns out that yes, people have bought them. Enough have purchased them, in fact, that at least one person was able to scalp the 30th Anniversary pre-order for $1,550 on Ebay.
As noted by SkeletonKing959 on Reddit, an Ebay listing confirmed the sale price for a 30th Anniversary Edition Box Set of $1,550 five hours after Wizards ran out of stock. This suggests that the boxes did indeed sell out and were not pulled from sale. This also likely suggests that there were very limited numbers of 30th Anniversary Box Sets to begin with.
Hasbro has been recently criticized for attempting to extract too much value from Magic and ruining collector valuations with reprints and re-releases. There was concern that the 30th Anniversary Edition would tank the value of some of Magic’s most expensive cards, with some collectors even liquidating their collections prior to the set’s release. However, if there were only a few Anniversary Box Sets released, that likely means there aren’t too many more Black Lotuses in circulation.
We’ll have to see how many people report pulling Power 9 cards from their Anniversary Box Sets when they start shipping in two to three weeks.