TCGplayer released their January 2023 data for sealed product sales, which ranks the most active products on the platform by dollar volume and shows the beginning and ending prices of each product. The January data provided insight to new trends that have developed in the TCG sealed market space over the course of the month.
After two straight years of bending the knee to Pokemon TCG in January (see “January 2021” and also, “January 2022“), Magic: The Gathering came up big in the beginning of 2023 (see “January 2023“). The Dominaria Remastered reprint set was clearly a winner, claiming the top two spots as well as the #8 spot. This set was loaded with many of the Magic cards players and collectors want in retro frames, including Force of Will, Vampiric Tutor, and Sylvan Library. The preorder to Phyrexia: All Will Be One was also strong in preorder, claiming spots #3 and #4. The metrics point to Magic sales being very solid in January 2023.
The strong sales of Magic coming out of the end of 2022 (see “December 2022“) into 2023 somewhat brings the “Magic is overprinted” issue back into focus again. In early December 2022, Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming President Cynthia Williams was asked about whether or not Magic: The Gathering was being overprinted (see “Fireside Chat“). Williams responded by saying, “In aggregate, there is no evidence that Magic is overprinted.” The last few months of TCGplayer data seems to suggest that Magic is in fact being printed to meet a high level demand. Recent Magic sealed booster products have only seen minor decreases in value post-release and have sold so well that they’ve even beat out Pokemon TCG’s sales, which indicates that demand is very strong. In short, if Magic: The Gathering is overprinted, it’s not showing because the fan base continues to absorb high volumes of multiple new products as they hit the market.
Beyond Magic’s boffo performance, there was one other point of note from the January 2023 chart. One Piece TCG’s tide is continuing its rise from the previous month (see “Luffy D. Monkey and the ‘One Piece TCG’ Crew Crash the Party“). After a surprise plundering of the top ten in December 2022, Romance Dawn Booster Box hung in there as the only non-Magic product in the top five. The upcoming Paramount War set (see “‘One Piece TCG: Paramount War’ Booster Set“) is over a month before its March 10, 2023 release date and is at the #12 spot on the chart. Additionally, box prices for this set have risen in value over 40% over the course of the preorder. The high winds continue to blow in Luffy’s gang’s favor. Source: ICv2
