Recently, a Commander deck went on sale on the Magic: The Gathering store. The Raining Cats and Dogs Secret Lair features a complete MTG Cats and Dogs deck, packed with cards featuring furry companions. It was sold out within hours. And it has already shown up in secondhand markets at marked-up prices.
The MTG Cats and Dogs deck sale
As mentioned in a report by Wargamer, the MTG Cats and Dogs deck has been sold at over $300 according to TCGPlayer. At the time of writing, the market price of the deck is $377.50, which is more than double its initial price of $149.99.
This may be due to what the MTG Cats and Dogs deck contained. In addition to 73 reprints, the deck featured 22 foil basic lands with new cat and dog artwork, and five foil double-sided cards. The featured artists include Allison Carl, Jakob Eirich, Fiona Hsieh, Jack Hughes, and others.
Part of the reason for this price increase is this Secret Lair was limited stock. This is the result of a policy change to Wizards of the Coast's original print-to-demand model for Secret Lair drops made earlier this month. According to WOTC, this was done to reduce delivery times to customers.
As it stands, the situation with the MTG Cats and Dogs deck may be the start of a trend of scalping.
Magic: The Gathering products having limited stock isn't exactly new, the highly overpriced 30th Anniversary Commemoration Packs come to mind. But Secret Lairs can feature unique artwork, and even allow crossovers with beloved properties like Doctor Who or Jurassic World.
With limited run stock, such promotional cards are prime candidates for scalpers. Demand will be higher due to supplies being limited and FOMO. Since there are fewer cards printed, the secondhand value can be much larger compared to Secret Lair cards that were print-to-demand.
The result, like the initial run of PlayStation 5s, is a lot of stock shortage, disappointed customers, and opportunists charging through the nose.
