Magic: The Gathering’s 30th Anniversary Edition went up for sale on Monday morning and the $999 product appeared to sell out within just 40 minutes. At 9:39 am PT / 5:39 pm GMT, Wizards of the Coast put out a statement on Twitter saying “The 30th Anniversary Edition sale has concluded, and the product is currently unavailable for purchase.”
This tweet was swiftly ratioed. Hundreds of discontented fans, disappointed with Wizards’ MTG 30th Anniversary Edition for reasons we’ve previously covered, left disgruntled comments. Dozens of users made their frustration heard in the same meme-y manner, by responding with an image of the MTG card Greed. Wizards’ Facebook post promoting the product was soon deleted, after it received an influx of negative comments.
Many fans on social media have suggested sales of the MTG 30th Anniversary Edition could have been shut down early for reasons other than success. They point to the bizarrely vague wording in the company’s tweet announcing the end of the sale – the use of ‘concluded’ and ‘unavailable for purchase’ rather than ‘sold out’.
While it’s possible that the 30th Anniversary Edition was less of a sales triumph than it seems, and the word choice on that tweet was bound to cause speculation, there’s no concrete indication of this. The MTG 30th Anniversary Edition website lists the item as ‘out of stock’. Occam’s Razor would suggest the reason for this is Wizards sold the number of copies they wanted to – but without clarification from the company, there’s no way to know for sure.
Reporting on the news yesterday, Dot Esports suggested the sale could’ve been stopped early to avoid further backlash. But if anything, the signs of its apparent success seems to have drummed up more negative feeling from fans, not less.
One possible diagnosis is that many copies were bought up by those hoping to sell the product at a higher price on the secondary market. Predictably, resales on eBay (at a significant markup, of course) were spotted within just six hours of the sale.
Wargamer has approached Wizards of the Coast for comment on how well the MTG 30th Anniversary Edition sold, and if there are plans to make it available again in the future.
If you’re keen to wash your hands of the whole thing and see what Wizards has in store for next year, check out the MTG 2023 release dates.