In the wake of a lawsuit accusing Hasbro of devaluing Magic the Gathering cards, Rhode Island’s smaller game stores said that they have seen some effects from their recent business strategy.
The 76-page lawsuit, filed by Hasbro shareholders Joseph Crocono and Ultan McGlone, accuses Hasbro of misrepresenting their business strategy for the popular card game. Among other complaints, the shareholders claim that Hasbro has been overprinting the franchise’s cards, leading to a drop in value, citing a 2022 report from Bank of America making that same claim.
In a statement, a Hasbro spokesperson denied these claims, saying “These claims have no merit. Our strategic plan for Magic was implemented, and the results underscore the strength of that strategy.”
Herbert Hicks, owner of Reality A Games in West Warwick, said that Magic: The Gathering cards make up “a good 1/3” of his total business.
Though he said he’s seen new sets of Magic cards release on a faster timeline, he said Reality A hasn’t been receiving increased inventory whenever a new release comes out.
“I don’t see a lot of the overproduction- I still struggle to get Magic products from time to time,” Hicks said. “I think that in-between, in the distribution, there’s some kind of halt there. If they’re overproducing on one end, and then it goes to the distributor, and it comes to me, and I’m not getting things from my distributors, there has to be a halt there.”
Both Hicks and Ryan Praditkamollert, who owns The Crypt in Providence, said that while they have not had significant issues with sales, Hasbro’s business strategy has had an effect on their business.
“It really does shake up the normal pace of business when we get a Magic release, and with the current pace of things, it’s every six weeks,” Praditkamollert said. “There’s been a significant uptick in the thematic changes that are taking place.”
The two business owners each pointed to a recent Spider-Man pack as having been particularly controversial within the Magic community, leaving them with large numbers of unsold cards. Hicks and Praditkamollert said that newer sets involving intellectual properties outside of Magic had been met with a largely negative reception from fans.
Another allegation from the lawsuit stems from the release of Magic’s special 30th anniversary set. The lawsuit claims that half an hour after that release, Hasbro announced the cards were out of stock to ease stakeholder worries, while the cards instead sold badly enough that sales had instead been paused.
The secondary market has also caused issues for both business owners, with Hicks saying that he believes part of the reason he hasn’t seen an increased number of card packs with each release. Both also said that they’ve recently had to adjust some prices in order to continue profiting off of the cards.
“If Target makes 50 cents on something, it’s fine,” Hicks said. “If I make 50 cents on something, my lights shut off.”
The lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court in the District of Rhode Island. It comes months after Hasbro announced a move from its longtime Pawtucket headquarters to Boston.
While Hicks said he used to have a strong relationship with Hasbro, that relationship has deteriorated over the last couple of years.
“In the beginning, I had a very good outreach to Hasbro themselves, but over the years, they’ve become more distant,” Hicks said. “I’ve left messages in the past few months where I’ve not gotten hide or hair of them since.”
The Crypt first opened in October of 2024. Since then, Praditkamollert said that he has not been able to establish a direct relationship with Hasbro.
Praditkamollert said that as a fan of the series and as a business owner, he understands why Hasbro has sped up the releases of Magic: The Gathering cards while involving additional intellectual properties. However, he’s worried that Hasbro may be damaging the Magic: The Gathering brand long-term with the speed of their releases, and hopes to see them scale it back.
“Magic pays the bills,” Praditkamollert said. “A lot of customers have product fatigue now. It’s just too much too fast. I don’t see my regulars as often I believe Hasbro could really benefit from pumping the brakes a little bit and catering a bit more to the customer as opposed to the shareholder.”
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