Ok, so I first want to make sure that it is said that I am not trying to cause any sort of panic, or rush for cards. Now that I have said that... The card shop I go to told me last week that their supplier  called them to see how many more boxes they wanted because there will be no more shipments after this one. Apparently SotB is going to be a limited release? Something to that effect. I doubt they were just trying to get me to buy more cards as I know them pretty well, but if anyone could confirm/deny this for me that would be great.

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WoW Rules Knowledge Lv 1

Feathermoon Server
Lv60 Paladin
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Lv24 Warlock

Well, aside from Heroes of Azeroth which I believe had a 2nd run, all of the releases are 'limited' so far to the initial print run. It is possible that SotB may run out before the next expansion is to hit the shelves, partially due to the huge sales it saw as people went looking for Rocket loot.

At one point it was estimated that one could open a rocket loot, and sell it for enough to pay for a full case and possibly up to 50% of another case.  I am pleased to see that the selling price for them now is below the cost of a case, and dropping. At the rate the pricing continues to fall, I hope to see it drop to the point that one rocket only covers about 30% of the cost of a case.  With luck, this will discourage 'speculators' from buying so heavily on the next expansion to feature a mount or such.

So, back to your question:  The store may not be trying to cause a panic or trick you into buying more product.. their supplier may have limited stock and may not be trying to replenish, or may not have easy access to replenish, so it will become more difficult to get boxes in the future.

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A scrubs thoughts on WoW, life and other random things

"You touch my tra-la-la.." -Gunther

That sounds about right. My impression from the store owner is that this would be the first, and last run of the cards. I am going to talk to them tonight to double check about this and post what I find out, but if this is a final run I am going to hold onto my Rocket loot card for a while :)

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WoW Rules Knowledge Lv 1

Feathermoon Server
Lv60 Paladin
Lv30 Warrior
Lv24 Warlock

2126841:

That sounds about right. My impression from the store owner is that this would be the first, and last run of the cards. I am going to talk to them tonight to double check about this and post what I find out, but if this is a final run I am going to hold onto my Rocket loot card for a while :)

Bear in mind that the Rocket Mount is as rare as the Kiting card, which is estimated to be 1/363 packs, as compared to the Spectral Tiger which was 1/484 packs. This means there will be 33% (give or take a smidge) more Rocket loot cards in general, and the price of them should end up dropping to reflect this. In fact, looking at Ebay, you can get a Rocket mount for $325 or less.

While they may climb after SotB sells out entirely, I don't expect they will regain the ground they have lost to Tiger.

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My Blog
A scrubs thoughts on WoW, life and other random things

"You touch my tra-la-la.." -Gunther

Like any other product when there is to much of it, the price will reflect that. If this is truly limited then the rocket mount will regain price and move up to 600+ dollars it just comes with time.

Well my local store said that they could only get 1 box. Yes 1 24-pack box. And that is all they said they could get because the supplier is "out of stock". This was even before the release. So yeah its happening in my area too.

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http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/wow/community/forums/thread/975776.aspx

My sales rep from Alliance Games (one of the biggest distributors in the US) called me on Friday asking if I wanted to get any of the few cases they received in their Midwest location, because that was "probably going to be the last of it."

I guess I'm going to be sitting a little bit heavier on the case that I have stashed away.

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2100697:

Like any other product when there is to much of it, the price will reflect that. If this is truly limited then the rocket mount will regain price and move up to 600+ dollars it just comes with time.

It should never climb that much though, with 33% more Rockets produced than Tigers.  The only thing that would please me more than Rockets staying sub-$300 would be for UDE to reprint the SotB set and watch rockets drop sub-$150..

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My Blog
A scrubs thoughts on WoW, life and other random things

"You touch my tra-la-la.." -Gunther

1784708:

2100697:

Like any other product when there is to much of it, the price will reflect that. If this is truly limited then the rocket mount will regain price and move up to 600+ dollars it just comes with time.

It should never climb that much though, with 33% more Rockets produced than Tigers.  The only thing that would please me more than Rockets staying sub-$300 would be for UDE to reprint the SotB set and watch rockets drop sub-$150..

Out of curiosity, why would you want prices to drop so low?  I could see if you wanted your rares to be more valuable (not going to happen one way or the other, this game jsut isnt played heavily enough to warrent $20 rares and $40 epics), but on the other hand you can pick up singles off ebay for such low prices its amazing.  Without the valuable loot cards there will be a shortage of singles everywhere (single suppliers online wont open product without good loot cards), and tons of product just sitting on the shelves to be discounted heavily (see TtDP), making all the singles in that set worthless.  With the good, valuable loot cards, there is a ton of opened product going to waste in MMO players hands, which in the long run will actually drive up prices of your good singles, and in the short term make buying any single cheap and easy because of all the people trying to get those loot cards and unloading the other singles they have.]

And there really isnt any sort of shortage of SotB.  Heck, I was just at Frank & Sons and a retailer there told me he got a case of FoO for $55 a box from one of his sources.  I was even able to buy up a box of FoO from the gamestop place in the glendale mall for 2.99 a pack.  There are tons of cases of SotB around, and since people are realizing that the rocket isnt a free case (or more) there will be tons of SotB lying around.

888922:

Out of curiosity, why would you want prices to drop so low?  I could see if you wanted your rares to be more valuable (not going to happen one way or the other, this game jsut isnt played heavily enough to warrent $20 rares and $40 epics), but on the other hand you can pick up singles off ebay for such low prices its amazing.  Without the valuable loot cards there will be a shortage of singles everywhere (single suppliers online wont open product without good loot cards), and tons of product just sitting on the shelves to be discounted heavily (see TtDP), making all the singles in that set worthless.  With the good, valuable loot cards, there is a ton of opened product going to waste in MMO players hands, which in the long run will actually drive up prices of your good singles, and in the short term make buying any single cheap and easy because of all the people trying to get those loot cards and unloading the other singles they have.]

You more or less hit it on the head in your question.. At the moment FoO and now SotB are selling, or have sold heavily based on speculation of the value of the mounts. As such, a lot of product is sitting uselessly on the desks or worse, in the trash of MMO players and speculators who have no desire to play the game.  If they were turning all the product around on Ebay, it might be ok, but the number of common sets, uncommon sets and such available doesn't reflect the excessive sales so far.

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My Blog
A scrubs thoughts on WoW, life and other random things

"You touch my tra-la-la.." -Gunther

I disagree on how useless all that product is.  If you look at how much product is bought and compare it to how much is played, they printed more than enough figuring that the bulk of that sold to MMOers would never see play.  If all that product did hit the markets, nothing would be worth anything ever and when people realize that the rocket isnt that expensive, and that nothing else you open is remotely worth it, then they stop buying and the set ends up crap.  Id rather have to pay a little more for any singles I need, than having nothing that Ive cracked have any value.

Theres a lot of ways you can look at the MMOers effect on cards and pricing, but I dont think they actually effect it much at all except for long term.  I do think they drop older cards value faster just because it takes the MMOers that are going to sell the non loot stuff longer than it takes other prospectors.  They eventually get around to listing rather than getting it up asap.

 I would gather that many people arent selling commons/uncommons because its not worth it to.  Harder to ship, takes more time to gather up, they dont sell very well, ebay and paypal eat up all the meager profits.  Looking at prices for rares and they seem to be pretty cheap, you can get just about anything for $1, or less.  The more hyped ones, Ripped and Feign Death and a few others, are getting high prices but will settle down once the frenzy of getting them first is over, they'll drop even further after the first major event uses them and people dont see them on all the deck lists.  

1177548:

My sales rep from Alliance Games (one of the biggest distributors in the US) called me on Friday asking if I wanted to get any of the few cases they received in their Midwest location, because that was "probably going to be the last of it."

I guess I'm going to be sitting a little bit heavier on the case that I have stashed away.

What's funny, or maybe not so funny, is the store we play at gets their stuff from Alliance (I think) and the store said they are only able to get 4 boxes a week. If Alliance is pulling crap like this, that seems like bad buisness.

We had to run over to Wal-mart on Sunday to get SotB packs just so we could draft.

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Smash & Bash winner - Team Twinkle & Toes

Keep in mind Alliance sales rep work on a commision form of pay. If they do not reach certain levels of sales they do not earn as much money.

What bothers me about this whole thing is the lack of input by UDE on this topic.

Are we only going to have SotB limited play for 1 or 2 months like people seem to keep suggesting over and over on these forums? That is what will happen if the product is sold out already.

If the set truely is sold out like people want to suggest then we probably will not have any limited play for SotB after this months RQs because it will cost too much to have sealed/drafts with SotB as the prices skyrocket.

This would be absolutely horrible for the players at a time when I am pretty sure everyone agrees we need to build the playerbase, not lower it.

At this time UDE really needs to say something about their plans for SotB because this is starting to get to the point where they are going to loose consumers...

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Winner of Rocket Mount at GenCon

"Sold Out" is always a great marketing tool.

"Hey look, you better pre-order for the next set, look how fast the last one sold out."

But that of course leads to the same problem, mass buys right at the start and loose packs become hard to find. It's a shame too as the limited scene is really starting to pick up locally. Guess it will have to be bring you own pack drafts soon, since it will be easier to pick up boxes on eBay than the local store.

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Smash & Bash winner - Team Twinkle & Toes

996018:

But that of course leads to the same problem, mass buys right at the start and loose packs become hard to find. It's a shame too as the limited scene is really starting to pick up locally. Guess it will have to be bring you own pack drafts soon, since it will be easier to pick up boxes on eBay than the local store.

Yea this is the time of the year when gaming picks up. Chances are there to get more players into the game. If people see the new set is sold out and have to pay $5-$7 per booster to get pack they will choose another game.

I understand the reason people would say these things. It allows them to create a perception of limited supply and raise prices.

The fact the UDE says nothing about the rumors of SotB being sold out less then 2 weeks after its release really bothers me because that implies the rumors are true.

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Winner of Rocket Mount at GenCon