Recent Secret Lair drops have been a real rollercoaster. After the shift to the limited-run print model, things were unsurprisingly a disaster. Thankfully, over time, Wizards managed this problem, and drops stopped selling out instantly. More recently, however, Wizards has bafflingly returned to the form of having some seriously shocking sales.
Recent Secret Lair drops, like the Final Fantasy crossover drops, sold out almost instantly. These drops were plagued by scalpers, bugs, and hour-long queue times. Unsurprisingly, MTG players weren’t very happy about this, which caused huge concerns for the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lairs.
For better or worse, the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lair looks absolutely fantastic. Not only are there some great reprints, especially for Commander players, but the new cards are insane. It’s very much expected that these drops will sell out exceptionally quickly, depending on print volume.
Thankfully, while we’re very concerned about this potential problem, Wizards of the Coast has announced a solution. Unfortunately, this solution may end up making things worse for the average buyer. If all goes to plan, this will be a great solution to a persistent problem, but whether or not it’ll work remains to be seen.
A Saving Grace
Earlier today, Wizards of the Coast announced a change to the typical Secret Lair sales structure. To make the Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lairs as accessible as possible, sales will be limited to two per customer, per item. Notably, this two-item limit is distinct for each product.
For clarity, this means you can get two copies of each non-foil and foil Secret Lair drop, and two bundles too. At the very least, this means you can get six copies of each individual drop. Depending on how many bundles there are, players may even be able to score 10 copies of each drop.
While this seems pretty bad for ensuring that each player gets their fill, it is a massive improvement. Typically, players have been able to purchase five or more copies of each drop and bundle at once. This allowed the supply to be drained exceptionally quickly by coordinated scalpers.
In theory, this is therefore a great change. The less one individual buyer can purchase, the more there will be for everyone else. While we’d love to think this is a solved problem and begin celebrating, it could actually make things worse.
A Suspect Solution
Sadly, this change might make the problem of botting and mass buying significantly worse. While each individual purchase won’t be able to buy as much, that will just encourage scalpers to use more accounts and bots. This, in turn, could significantly push up the already significant wait times that honest fans experience.
As if this wasn’t worrying enough already, there’s a non-zero chance that the queue-jumping exploit returned recently. If this hasn’t been fixed, following the Final Fantasy Secret Lair sale, these longer queues would be even more damning. Thankfully, these are just predictions at the moment, but past precedent tells us to be worried.
If Wizards really wants to solve this issue, there are a few genuine suggestions that we’ve noted before. For starters, the briefly trialed hybrid sales model would nip this problem in the bud immediately. Alternatively, Wizards could just massively up print numbers, so players don’t miss out, and money isn’t left on the table.
Sadly, while the latter of these offers a best of both worlds solution, Wizards hasn’t adopted it outright. If the Final Fantasy Secret Lairs are anything to go by, unprecedented demand can still spoil the show. Ultimately, we’ll just have to hope that this new sales limit will fix the problem, and that the print run will be generous.
Gotta Be Fast
While it’s unclear just how bad or good the Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lair sale will be, it’s worth being prepared. If you want the best chances of securing a copy, you’ll need to be ready at 9 a.m. PT on July 14th. This is when the Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lairs will all go live, becoming available for purchase.
Sadly, if past sales are anything to go by, even queuing up at this time won’t guarantee a successful checkout. We can only hope that these pessimistic predictions won’t actually come to pass when the sale goes live. Ultimately, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens.
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