Today, July 14, I bought Magic: The Gathering cards for the very first time. Wizards of the Coast and Sega’s new Sonic collaboration set went up for pre-order on Magic’s “Secret Lair” site and it seems like, somehow, I may have cut the line. My brother was also in the queue and was willing to ship me the cards I wanted from the set, so rather than wait the estimated 42 minutes, I closed out my page in the pre-order queue and went about my business. About 20 minutes later, I re-opened the page to check something on the site, and suddenly my wait time was less than a minute. I checked out with my “Friends & Foes” pack with minimal struggle. How? Beats the hell out of me! Meanwhile, several people are still waiting in line with estimated times for up to an hour, even after pressing the “add to cart” button within seconds of the sale going live.
I don’t go here, but I needed that card of Shadow the Hedgehog racing through Radical Highway from Sonic Adventure 2. I’ve gathered, however, that today’s difficulties are nothing new, and that Secret Lair drops are always a pain in the ass for Magic fans. These sets are usually themed, whether it be based on a crossover, a holiday, or some other kind of property or event, and, at one point, they were made to order, rather than limited editions that sell out and get scalped. Now that Wizards of the Coast has changed its business model, getting Secret Lair cards has become a rat race like the pursuit of any other rare trading card. For the Sonic cards, Wizards limited the number of packs you could buy which, in theory, might have prevented resellers from buying up all the stock. However, people are still having trouble actually checking out.
As I’m writing this, the Sonic cards have been up for pre-order for about an hour, and fans are reporting they’re still getting hour-plus wait times when they try to add any of the sets to their cart. Even people who were in the pre-queue, which you can access by adding something to your cart before the sale goes live and going to check out to be “in the front of the line” are reporting that their estimated wait times are still an hour or longer.
Even those who were right on time are being met with warning messages not to refresh or close their webpage despite the “longer than normal” wait times. And it seems this kind of wait is becoming par for the course with Secret Lair.
“I love that the majority of Secret Lairs we now get the ‘wait times are currently longer than normal’ like this has become the norm,” MetalHeadSolid wrote on Reddit.
Though the wait is frustrating, some argue that if the longer queues mean that fewer resellers are buying the stock in bulk, then this is a momentary frustration that results in a long-term improvement.
“Slow is fine if the scalpers don’t get everything and the system works,” FreeMasonKnight wrote in the same Reddit thread.
At the moment, people are still able to add the Sonic cards to their cart, so even if you’re waiting, they may not be sold out just yet. If you’re in line, stay in line. Sonic wouldn’t want you to give up.
