This past weekend, Thursty went to Fanatics Fest in NYC. So while most people were watching Magic Con: Final Fantasy, he was clinging cardboard, cleats, and deals at the "first" ever Fanatics Fest.

What IS this thing? What was it like? Why even go?! We dig in a bit and breakdown one of the most interesting, non-TCG explicit, events of the year.

https://www.fanaticsfest.com/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DLN8yD0prvI/?img_index=1

From working and vending an LGS to vending large events, there are "do's" and "don'ts" and this week we're breaking down a few of the most relevant we've experienced throughout our tentured and storied careers.

Interested in vending, this give episode a listen for a few quick tips to help you survive.

Aetherdrift, the 103rd Magic the Gathering expansion is on the horizon, which means it's time to reivew our "hype" assessments for Duskmourn. How accurate were we? Were we off base or was it the children who were?

With the heat from "ONE" dissipated, and MoM taking center stage, we go back this week to look at our picks for our most overhyped card, underhyped card, and that Goldilox one right in the middle. We pull apart our reasoning, the price points, where we think we went right or wrong, and just generally hang our heads.

With full spoilers and a prerelease behind us, this week we look at and discuss March of the Machine. What cards do we think are prices well? Which are priced poorly? How do serialized cards impact the price of regular rares and their long term out? Tune in and find out!

With the opening of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves behind us and a few weeks of box office numbers to breakdown and a new set in front of us, it's time to discuss the latest of Hasbro's IPs to enter the realm of cinema. Looking at the source material, we discuss how this serves the products, patrons and fans, new and returning, and discuss the role the OpenGL debacle has in this all. We also carve out time to remind people about the proposed Magic: the Gathering series Netflix was going to produce with eOne and its current fate. https://www.polygon.com/23548342/dungeons-dragons-dnd-paramount-plus-tv-series https://filmdaily.co/gaming/mtg-netflix/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPl5MeXIM8E&ab_channel=Movieclips

Hasbro's stock. What a ride. After the 2023 Q1 investors call, we moved almost immediately into the marketing cycle for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves which completely turned things around and looked to help address the issues mentioned in that fated earnings call. Coming out of release weekend, though, we look back on HAS and some of things that were noted through February, into March, and eventually early April. This week We look at it's over and under performance, box office impact, an interesting put option, and the Reddit thread that started our deep dive. https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgfinance/comments/11rsoon/hasbro_stock/ https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/has https://www.barchart.com/story/news/15520973/hasbro-stock-has-a-5-5-yield-but-attracts-large-unusual-put-options-activity https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/dungeons-dragons-box-office-opening-1235365626/ https://www.polygon.com/23548342/dungeons-dragons-dnd-paramount-plus-tv-series

Boomeranging back to eBay this past year was Gene Cook; formerly the Director of Global Search, now the VP of Global Collectables. Why is this notable and worth an episode? Well, leading up to his announced return eBay made a very impactful series of announcements, culminating in their acquisition of TCGPlayer and Chedy's departure from the organization. Now, what is Gene here to do? What will his role be overseeing TCGPlayer? Possible impacts? Join us as we discuss this and more on this weeks episode. https://www.linkedin.com/in/genecookjr https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6983100222985961472/ https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/5-minutes-with-gene-cook-getting-ready-for-sr2/ https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2022/10/05/ebays-latest-boomerang-hire-gene-cook-returns-as-vp-of-collectibles/ https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/8/23160015/ebay-vault-facility-trading-cards-assets-physical-collectibles-nft https://seller.tcgplayer.com/articles/sharing-personal-news/ https://www.themintcollective.com/static/c8a43707ad95d9a1728b3199d81cb79f/MINT_Schedule_Final.pdf

As a vendor, getting back out there to events is finally something to look forward to as the TCG ecosystem begins to flourish again. The only issue is that, while there are events to vend at, they are rather sparse. How do we fill the gap? Well, in this episode, we go over what it's like vending sports card shows, what it takes to start, and what you can expect from them.

Diving into the past, we are looking at the various era of Standard, Modern, Extended, and Legacy that we each individually enjoyed and what marked impact they had on the finances of the game. Not all eras of a format are created equally but they all have their own unique impact. We reminisce about game play, discuss backpacking, break down the mystique of formats and dispel some myths along the way. So pull up your favorite chair, grab a glass of iced tea and join us.

Part two in our series! In this episode we discuss some import, and some crucial, elements of running a successful LGS, not just from a financial standpoint but also from a community standpoint because without a community, why have an LGS at all? With our combined experiences working at, starting up, and designing LGSs we break down five elements, each, that we find critical to success. How'd you think we did, was there anything unexpected? Give this episode a listen and let us know!

In the first part of a two part series, we discuss some of the most important needs, be they items, skills, people, etc. for those looking to be successful backpackers and those looking to run their booths in a smooth and efficient fashion. Using our combined decades of experience, working for a myriad of entities in the space, we break down our top five needs with an essential caveat: No overtly obvious items. How'd you think we did, was there anything unexpected? Give this episode a listen and let us know!

With the first PT post-Covid in the books, we are taking a look at how our day to day involvement with Magic has changed from an era prior to the OP announcement that brought us Regionals, Worlds, and the return of the Pro-tour and after. And you might think, why now? Why wait so long after the announcement? And the short answer to that is, simply, that until OP actually mattered, until players had a clear vision of the road in front of them, their habits didn't really change. We'll give you that one up front.

A few weeks ago, as proof we play Magic the Gathering, both Thursty and Halt took place in an off camera friends and family Vintage Rotisserie Draft. Split over two days, the in person draft took place the night before giving players several hours to build and test their lists before playing out the next days. Seven rounds brought us a top four that included our own Halt_I_m_Reptar, though he lost his first match to Thursty. Recorded and commentated on for your enjoyment! The draft document can be found below long with the moxfield link to Halt's list, the St Lotus YouTube and Twitch channels and as always, if you want to try your hand at rotisserie drafting, the Discord link can be found below as well. Halt's Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/0Z7qGEuDeUKP9J4kZYN7ZQ Full VRD Draft list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13k_ngNdcZ3ZO3Up29-ZAtXhs9ss2t55E_whbZitmPtE/edit?usp=sharing Come Draft with us on Discord: https://discord.com/invite/nxBPYXn St Lotus YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpwS9X2A-5pmo1txhyD7eoA Follow St Lotus on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/stlotusmtg

In another shameless attempt to create levity, we're looking ahead to 2023 and making predictions about Magic, WotC, and HAS across all aspects. What's the over / under on sets in the year? Number of times on board meetings HAS C-level assure everything they're competent? All the way down to Magic bulk. Join us as we head into 2023 with a gleam in our eye and spring in our step after braking down the future.

In this weeks episode we look back at our BRO picks from episode 211 and discuss where we went right in our evaluations of cards and where we went wrong. Did we jump the rails completely, skidding to a headfirst stop or sail into the station smoothly. Come find out!

With The Brothers' War in the rearview and Phyrxia: All Will be One on the horizon, it's time for our set review. We each read through the full set and Commander spoiler to find cards we believe are overhyped, underhyped, or hyped just the right about and break down what we do and do not like about the cards as well as give a financial projection. Remember to hold us to these picks and values as we'll be revisiting them to see where we went right and where we went wrong.

With over a year of new entrants into the TCG/CCG event space and having vending multiples, we decide to sit down and collect our thoughts about each. Looking to set expectation, we break down the vendor experience in a easy to understand and digest way. We cover everything from booth selection to interesting contract wording, even when you can enter and leave the hall. Distilling this down into a summation and suggestion about what events best suit different types of vendors. Collect-A-Con - https://collectaconusa.com/ SCGCon - https://scgcon.starcitygames.com/ TCGCon - https://www.tcg-con.com/

Whether you were able to play at a pre-elease event held at a WPN premium store or your local non-WPNs event, even just walked in these past few days, you've had the opportunity to engage with Dominaria Remasterd as a product. We touch on what this set means to the LGS and how they are handling such a short lived lifespan for a set that whose only purpose seems to maintain the constant hum of in store releases that we've grown accustomed to this past year. What does the set mean for established players, the drafts, the pre-releasers, and even taking a look into the future when this set can be dusted off and promoted as an "experience." Join us as we break down Dominaria Remastered at the LGS.

Last week we looked to the past, this week we look... to the future! With the quarterly analysis done, MaRo's lastest Tumblr blurb, and a number of key take aways from Hasbro, we compiled a list of things we are looking forward to in 2023. As a vendor, what are we looking for? As an LGS, what do we need? We also cover our hopes and dreams for 2023 and 2024. A few items that we know might not be possible for this year but hopefully the next. https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/making-magic/storm-scale-throne-of-eldraine-through-strixhaven-part-2

2022 felt like one hell of year when looking back at everything that's happened with Magic, WotC, and Hasbro so we decided to bring you the highlights wrapped up for the end of the holidays. Did you, for instance, remember that the Alta Fox discussions happened in 2022? How about the number of sets released or how consumer sentiment impacts the holiday season? Join us, won't you, for one last look back at 2022 and all the ups and downs it brought for us. https://deadline.com/2022/10/hasbro-stock-falls-after-disappointing-earnings-report-dim-holiday-sales-outlook-1235148098/ https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/HAS#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 https://i0.wp.com/onlyontuesdays27.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/30-Years-2.png?resize=768%2C452&ssl=1

WotC announces that players are frustrated they can't immediately play their paper cards from their pre-release events in constructed events like they can on Arena, so now paper cards are legal in constructed starting on pre-release weekend. Okay, but, why? Who asked for this? Why are the LGS and vendors who have an LGS or do events meant to suffer for nothing? Why does WotC continue to harm us? https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/format-legality-shifts-to-prerelease-with-phyrexia-all-will-be-one

As 2022 draws to a close we have yet another reprint set to scour as an LGS and vendor to determine how we are going to handle allocation. We discuss the contents and preorders, among other things, as we break down our view of the set on the way to each delivering a valuation of how we are going to be handling this set in the short term. Did you know that Collectors Boosters are $200 ea at the LGS but $300 on Amazon with some of the most basic stats we've seen? 15 Magic cards + 1 foil token in each booster 11 foil cards in every pack 2–6 Retro-Frame and 1–5 Borderless cards in every pack 4 cards of rarity Rare or higher in every pack Simply. Wild.

If the Magic vertical were to topple and leave us with a hole in our product catalog, we need to patch this asap before we bleed out. So, as an LGS and a vendor, how do we identify perspective, successful games to plug into our ecosystem? This week we discuss how we measure success at each level, what we look for in a new product, to bring into the store or warehouse. What decisions have to be made, what research done before we dedicate capital to product and personnel? Join us as we again take a deep dive into the heart of these two sides of the gaming retail ecosystem and discuss new product acquisition.

With the first Spotlight Series event firmly in the past and an entire year of RCs and Spotlights ahead of us, we discuss what each of us is looking forward to in the coming year. What at the LGS level is appealing with the OP roadmap laid out? As a vendor what are we excited to see with the coming sets and release schedule? https://magic.gg/news/announcing-the-magic-spotlight-series https://magic.gg/news/play-in-rcqs-earn-secret-lair-promos-and-qualify-for-pro-tour-3-in-2025

As Thanksgiving in the United States has passed, along with Cyber Monday and the "Holiday Season" in front of us, we continue our evergreen conversation about sales at the LGS and Vendor levels. While it makes sense that a "sale is a sale", the core remaining the same, the strategy for each sale can be unique unto itself and it's this idea that we discuss today. We break down the overall goals, in our experience, of some of the largest Q4 sales opportunities at both levels on this episode.

It's almost 2023 and we're back with our yearly tradition of discussing what we would do if we ran Hasbro. Comparatively, 2022 was a rather interesting year with the Alta Fox discussions, some rather obtuse earnings calls, and a product release schedule bordering on lunacy but we held in there and used all of this to distill down our changes for the organization on the whole. So buckle up and enjoy some fun back and forth about how we, two dudes yelling over the internet, would change Hasbro.

With the Hasrbo investor call in the books, time to read and digest Hasbros notes, relearning what the "Brand Blueprint" is and seeing the fallout of the 30th Anniversary event in Vegas, we pulled out some of the more interesting snippets we could find to help breakdown what happened on that call. Armed with links from everywhere, including insight from those on the call, we shed light on some of numbers seen and what that might mean for Hasbro and WotC. https://hasbro.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/hasbro-reports-third-quarter-financial-results https://articles.starcitygames.com/magic-the-gathering/magic-the-gathering-becomes-hasbros-first-1-billion-brand/ https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/10/04/why-hasbro-stock-popped-then-dropped/

It's another day so there's another Standard Magic set to digest. This week it's time for breakout of some of the most under priced, over priced, and correctly priced cards in BRO. Join us as we discuss playability, affordability, projected sales, and have a vivid discussion about some aptly named lands.

This week we were graced with the creator of MtGMate.com.au, Nick, who talked shop about... well, everything. We discussed intersecting interests, the driver behind how MtGMate came to be, and a bit of vision for the future of the industry. We did our best to keep the jargon to a minimum but it's hard when you get two developers together to just geek out about their stacks, so be prepared to learn about some behind the scenes magic.

As we wind down our fourth year on the podcast and come screaming into the last Standard set of the year and holiday season rush, we decided to do our retrospective a little early. In this, the second of our two part series, we look back at cards we chose as specs for the podcast. Cards that we studied, put time into understanding the reasoning for movement, the expectations based on knowledge of similar cards, movement, and formats, and forecasting. Join us as we step through some of our major groupings in our pick history and takeaways. (Don't eat your margins in fees!)

As we wind down our fourth year on the podcast and come screaming into the last Standard set of the year and holiday season rush, we decided to do our retrospective a little early. In the first of our two part series, we look back at cards we spec'd on personally this year. Cards that we mentioned just in passing in Discord, maybe bought into at the start of the year that made it into the cast, and even some we just kept to ourselves due to likelihood of failure or even lack of insight. We group as many picks together as we can into lessons learned and discuss how things went!

Here we are. A time which we never thought we'd see: serialized Magic cards in non-specialty products. With The Brothers War looming and most of the important details laid out, we break down what has been announced about the retro frame artifacts, the schematic art treatment, and their serialized brethren. What does this mean for the LGS, for vendors, players, WotC and Hasbro, and who are these even aimed at?

With the the release of the product slate for the rest of 2022 and first half of 2023 it's time we dive in and take a look at what eat set represents and discuss what we believe will be the outcome. Will Standard fall apart? How many artifacts need to be banned? Are there dinosaurs INSIDE Ixalan? And what about the Balrog? Join us as we finish this journey into the center of the earth.

With the the release of the product slate for the rest of 2022 and first half of 2023 it's time we dive in and take a look at what eat set represents and discuss what we believe will be the outcome. Will Standard fall apart? How many artifacts need to be banned? Are there dinosaurs INSIDE Ixalan? And what about the Balrog? Join us as we start on this journey, delving only as deeply as a dwarf would.

It's 2025 and we're back with our yearly tradition of discussing what we would do if we ran Hasbro. Secret Layers, Baulders Gate 3, and the finalization of the eOne sale. What a year it's been. Casting out lens, we look at the decisions we saw coming out of Hasbro and WotC and put together some notes and things we'd like to see them do better, things we'd change, things we'd improve. Even a few things we'd like to do away with. Join us on this rocky ride as we discuss what we would do in 2025 if we ran Hasbro.

LGSs open and LGSs close; and that could be for any number of reasons. This week we discuss what it's like shuttering an LGS, from the months ahead of closing up to day the doors finally close. What happens to inventory, stock, everything down to your player base and how to care for them.

With last weeks discussion about the return of format based "seasons" in the books, we turn our focus this week to another important element of "seasonality": buylist curation A viewer pointed out that we haven't covered how buylists are handled at the LGS and vendor level so we decided to break things down and discuss a lot of the "whys" and a number of the "hows", covering drivers and utility along the way.

After casting off the idea of a "season" of events where Grad Prix, Magic Fests and local events no longer paralleled one another in terms of format nor paralleled the Pro Tour or Mythic Championship that capped the current quarter, WotC brought us some interesting news. Currently scheduled, after the Pioneer Regionals and Pro Tour, the next capstone events will be Standard. And thus we seem to be returning back to format seasonality. This week we discuss the kind of foundation this sets for both vendors and LGS alike, event scheduling for both, and what we hope for moving forward as WotC continues to announce "end of season" events.

In a stunning turn of events, eBay acquires the combined TCGPlayer and ChannelFireball Market place entity. An entity so new that the ink is barely dry on the aquisition contracts. With the comparison out of the way, we break down the public knowledge about the acquisition and give our thoughts on the details and a bit of a presecriptive view of what we believe both the timeline and driving force behind this was. There's some good, some bad, and some ugly so strap in. July 11, 2022 - TCGP Acquires CFB and BinderPoS https://seller.tcgplayer.com/about/press-center/tcgplayer-to-acquire-channelfireball-and-binderpos/ Aug 22, 2022 - eBay acquired TCGP https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-has-entered-into-an-agreement-to-acquire-tcgplayer/

In a stunning turn of events, eBay acquires the combined TCGPlayer and ChannelFireball Market place entity. An entity so new that the ink is barely dry on the aquisition contracts. Surprisingly, the illustrious Halt_I_m_Reptar has lived through an extremely similar merger of tech corporations and is here to walk you through an eerily similar situation, give you the insights and reasonings behind the merger, and then a timeline of what happened afterward. There's some good, some bad, and some ugly so strap in. July 11, 2022 - TCGP Acquires CFB and BinderPoS https://seller.tcgplayer.com/about/press-center/tcgplayer-to-acquire-channelfireball-and-binderpos/ Aug 22, 2022 - eBay acquired TCGP https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/ebay-has-entered-into-an-agreement-to-acquire-tcgplayer/

Pushing off as long as possible, we're finally ready to start talking about the current and future state of the US economy as well as a bit about the global economy. In the third and finaly episode of this series, we discuss the odss and ends events, market indicators, and curiosities that we have seen within the last quarter and their impact on the playerbase, LGS, and vendors. Everything from the shrinking number of events and vendors at them all the way to the sale of a BGS 5 Timetwister! https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inflation.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBo4GViDxzc https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/09/how-interest-rates-affect-markets.asp#:~:text=The%20Federal%20Reserve%20influences%20the,money%20more%20expensive%20to%20obtain. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/8/5/what-the-blowout-us-jobs-numbers-actually-mean https://finance.yahoo.com/news/berkshire-hathaway-posts-huge-quarterly-123149331.html

Pushing off as long as possible, we're finally ready to start talking about the current and future state of the US economy as well as a bit about the global economy. In the second episode, Argus takes us through inflation and recession proofing from the LGS perspective. We've seen a lot of churn in the LGS ecosystem and that tells us that a lot of people aren't prepared for the long term, the ups and the downs. We dig in this week and go deep on what an LGS can do to protect itself. While a lot of what we discuss is surface level economics, there's a lot to learn and we encourage you to keep up with the coversation as best as possible and empower yourself by reading/watching the following: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inflation.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBo4GViDxzc https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/09/how-interest-rates-affect-markets.asp#:~:text=The%20Federal%20Reserve%20influences%20the,money%20more%20expensive%20to%20obtain. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/8/5/what-the-blowout-us-jobs-numbers-actually-mean https://finance.yahoo.com/news/berkshire-hathaway-posts-huge-quarterly-123149331.html

Pushing off as long as possible, we're finally ready to start talking about the current and future state of the US economy as well as a bit about the global economy. In the first of three episodes, we spend our time talking about the individial; the player, the collector, the financier, etc. What happens to them, how can they protect themselves, and how they can get ahead. While a lot of what we discuss is surface level economics, there's a lot to learn and we encourage you to keep up with the coversation as best as possible and empower yourself by reading/watching the following: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inflation.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/recession.asp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBo4GViDxzc https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/09/how-interest-rates-affect-markets.asp#:~:text=The%20Federal%20Reserve%20influences%20the,money%20more%20expensive%20to%20obtain. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/8/5/what-the-blowout-us-jobs-numbers-actually-mean https://finance.yahoo.com/news/berkshire-hathaway-posts-huge-quarterly-123149331.html

With in person play across all types of games returning to the LGS and competitive paper events being held by parent organizations, it was time we checked back in on the LGS. We discuss everything from in person play to tournaments even the invisibles and whether or not they attrition into players who make an appearance at the LGS! And we didn't forget finances and supply chain issues for all verticals, we just saved that for last.

With Dominaria United looming and a rumor about the possibility of the Zendikar "Priceless Treasures" returning we decided to take a step back and look at how WotC has enterted the secondary market over the years. We discuss indirect card injection by way of pure reprints all the way through to direct to consumer offerings like Secret Layers and everything else we could think of along the way. And we get really opinionated on whather or not we think each of these offerings has hit the mark or missed and was just a giant cash grab. (Looking at you Double Masters)

It's 2025 and we're back with our yearly tradition of discussing what we would do if we ran Hasbro. Secret Layers, Baulders Gate 3, and the finalization of the eOne sale. What a year it's been. Casting out lens, we look at the decisions we saw coming out of Hasbro and WotC and put together some notes and things we'd like to see them do better, things we'd change, things we'd improve. Even a few things we'd like to do away with. Join us on this rocky ride as we discuss what we would do in 2025 if we ran Hasbro.

In an unexpected turn of events this week, TCGPlayer announced the acquisition of both ChannelFireball and BinderPoS (as well as all subsequent organizations and services) which threw us a curveball as we had another topic all lined up. Instead we decided to pivot and discuss this monumental announcement. Immediately there are a lot of questions ranging from, "What will the new offering looking like for stores that took advantage of the CFBMarket place?" to "What about content?" We put together a few sweeping bullet points to talk through some of the top level issues we thought were worthwhile to discuss as TCGP continues to reshape itself to look more like Amazon. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tcgplayer-to-acquire-channelfireball-and-binderpos-301583431.html https://twitter.com/TCGplayer/status/1546511899948470273 https://strategy.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/home/channelfireball-announces-premier-card-grading-partnership/

It was the best of times, it was the blurst of times. A never ending spoiler season culminating in one of the best reprint sets we've seen in a while... what more could you want?! Maybe the products that were supposed to have been released earlier in the year that were pushed back? But those will be releasing in October, one full week before Pioneer Challenger decks and The Game Night product. Overshadowed by 2X2 and square in the middle of a prime wallet cooling time, we now have four products, two of which were delayed, that look ready to fail. https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/voys3p/in_october_four_separate_mtg_products_will/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x https://wpn.wizards.com/en/news/game-night-free-for-all-pioneer-challenger-decks-2022-release-october-14 https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgfinance/comments/vst3tr/wasteland_gaming_just_came_out_and_told_the/

It was the best of times, it was the blerst of times. Working in the trading and collectible card industry is as unique an experience as they come and while we've both been lucky to operate within this industry, we've been here for a while and it's time to reflect. We picked a few key markers, parts of this industry that best represent the overall experiences shared at the vendor level and the LGS level and discuss our current feelings about them. What's changed, what we miss, and what we like. Just two old fogeys waxing poetic about an industry they've been working in since they became legal adults.