The core flaw is that your math doesn’t prove the conclusion. You’ve shown that excess supply can push prices down. True. But you haven’t established what actual demand is, so you can’t mathematically conclude that Team Covenant is supplying the “correct and exact” amount.

More importantly, you model the cost of oversupply while largely ignoring the cost of undersupply. In a TCG, availability itself creates future demand through new players, stores, events, and network effects. Protecting MSRP is not the same thing as maximizing the long-term health of the game.

2:22 P is stored in the balls

I know exactly what DM is.

Now my brain hurts.  Thanks PC.

I bought into Sorcery and learned how to enjoy it because it was cheaper to build decks, buy boxes, and find the singles I needed.

I can tell this is nonsense because my local store gets gothic in once a month and sells out in a week. They know they could sell more but have been unable to get it

Your math is great for the US but this new model is destroying the market outside the USA. The freemarket mechanism that existed before somewhat helped mitigate ECs complete incompetency of supplying outside the USA. The new communist system put in place by EC has completely killed supply for outside the USA.

Clearly you’ve thought a lot about this and have a significant amount of knowledge behind your opinions. For this reason, I weight your opinion more heavily than mine.

But here is mine anyway lol

Traditional distribution is great for the initial set drop. It enables players to quickly build play sets at a reduced price (for the reasons you stated). After that initial influx, TC Fulfilled program is fine.

I think this applies in the US, because there doesn’t seems to be an overseas equivalent to the TC program (and shipping and handling seems to an unbearable price addition for TC to ship overseas).

How much did TC pay you? Seriously.

Person shows up to LGS. There is no Sorcery for them to ever even hear about Sorcery. Therefore there is no demand for Sorcery. Your math is irrelevant. Their inability to produce enough of the product to get it in front of people = the end of Sorcery TCG. This math is meaningless swill without a meaningful size and scale of production and distribution.

I won’t ever buy any product from TC again, so it’s a bad model for me lol

Sorcery was attractive because it was supposed to be easy to get, casual for your tabletop, affordable, and a haven for disgruntled tcg players.  DL (14 cards) was selling $500 a box 2 days before official release day, it’s impossible to get all the cards and products for the game, and it’s been worse in every way compared to the problems with mtg.

If they had simply done a print to demand I would have bought every sorcery product every release.  I’m over all the nonsense at this point.  It’s been over 4 years since the kickstarter began.

Really enjoying these vids, PC!

With the latest information showing that Southern will be receiving a release allocation from EC, I think their post-release supply chain shift to TC solves the principal-agent problem while, at the same time, improving leverage in future negotiations with traditional distros that could help mitigate a Bertrand inevitability. My biggest concern about this model is having essentially a supply chain single point of failure with TC. I think EC should onboard at least one other US “managed-distribution” partner  to ensure supply chain resilience.

Oh yeah lets have the mmmerican explain to the world how this distribution is good.

Incredible job Steve. Not only have you cracked the indie distribution code, you did it on video. Now…. how are you going to get every Sorcery player to watch?! Thanks. Great video.

But have you considered that TC is going to make me use a different website than I get my pokemans from?  That's going to cut into the precious time I spend slumped over behind the register watching my stepsister's tiktok videos and playing clash of chuds. TC is already stealing my tendies and now they want my stepsister tiime too? Can't do it.  Won't do it

Dude is this your advance business analytics homework?

I WANT YOU TO PULL ME ALPHA FOIL BACKSTABBER

1st