Do the Price of Packs Essentially Determine the Price of Cards?
Economics forum
Posted on Jan. 3, 2014, 2:20 a.m. by crystalizeq
So pretty much my question is this: Since booster packs are $4 (At least in my area), are card prices determined by those 4 dollars? I mean, if packs costed $6, would Tarmogoyf be worth $180 dollars instead of $140? Likewise, if packs were $3, would Hero's Downfall be $9 instead of the usual $11?
Singles drive pack prices, not the other way around. For example, a booster back of Zendikar is very expensive due to the full art lands and the high demand for fetchlands everywhere. A pack of Worldwake is also crazy pricey because of Jace, the Mind Sculptor . A pack of Betrayers of Kamigawa can go for a lot because of Umezawa's Pointy Fork.
January 3, 2014 2:59 a.m.
I'll also add to this in that packs that are in Standard are generally going to be cheaper because they are still in print, I went to my LGS a week or so ago and they still had most a box of Avacyn and they were going for about 6-7$/pack. The aforementioned Tarmogoyf who is in Modern Masters are more then traditional packs due to their limited print run and over all extreme value of cards to be found in said packs from common on up. In the end everything in a capitalist/consumerism market has always been and will always be driven by the basest of factors - Supply and Demand. And packs cost 3.19$ for me with my awesome employee discount LOL :P
January 3, 2014 3:58 a.m.
Epochalyptik says... #5
Pack price doesn't drive single price. Single price drives pack price. Age is also a primary factor in pack price; packs from sets that have been out of print for a while will be more expensive than packs from sets that are still in print. Generally, pack price doesn't start rising until the set cycles out of Standard. Additionally, the presence of expensive singles in a set will increase the value of that set's booster packs (assuming the set is out of print).
January 3, 2014 4:48 a.m.
crystalizeq says... #6
Yes, I understand that in sets that are out of print, singles drive pack price. But I am talking about what would have happened if at the time of Future SIght, packs had costed $2. This way, more packs would have been opened and theoretically, more Tarmogoyf s would have been opened, this increasing the supply of the card. Same goes for the current Thoughtseize . If packs would cost $6, I am very sure that more people would not buy as many packs because of the price. Thus, the opening of packs would decrease, thus the Thoughtseize that would have been pulled would decrease. Thus lowering supply for that card.
That is what I am talking about.
January 3, 2014 1:21 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #7
In that sense, the price of singles do scale according to pack price. I was looking at the situation in terms of what actually happens on the market, but if you suppose that packs cost less or more than current MSRP at the time of their release, then you're directly affecting the initial availability of the cards in those packs.
January 3, 2014 1:47 p.m.
Singles really do determine pack prices. When I was in Germany for an exchange program I went into a card store that had packs dating back to 1995. A pack of Zendikar was 20 Euros, while a pack of Homelands was only 4 Euros. Why? Because Homelands didn't put out anything people wanted and Zendikar did as far as singles go.
Osang says... #2
Pack prices, in my knowledge, have no relation whatsoever with the price of singles. The singles' prices are determined whether or not its demand is high or not; the higher the demand, the higher the price.
To use as an example, since the aforementioned Tarmogoyf is a staple in Modern, and a powerhouse in the right deck, it has created such a high demand for itself and drives its price up.
However, the cards within the sets may affect the packs' prices because of the fact that some sets have prized money cards that they include. The Innistrad pack is expensive compared to Theros is because that even though Theros is in Standard, Innistrad does hold itself to a higher price because of excellent Modern cards in the form of Liliana of the Veil and Snapcaster Mage as possible pulls.
I think what determines the prices of the packs are the cards that they provide, and not the other way around.
tl;dr
Supply/Demand Economics.
January 3, 2014 2:33 a.m.