Serial Cards in Flesh and Blood: A Case for Indifference
Back on May 1st, LSS announced that Dusk to Dawn, the 10th FaB set, would include 10 serialized cards. These promotional cards would be hand drawn artist sketches of Prism and Chane. These serialized cards will then be randomly inserted into Dusk to Dawn booster packs around the world for a lucky few to open.
What are serialized cards?
For those unfamiliar with serialization, it’s a technique used to promote uniqueness and create value in card products. There are “x” amount of cards of that art style available, and you’ll receive “y” number in that series. In Dusk to Dawn’s case, the serialization will likely be out of 10, but each card will be unique, practically making them 1/1s!
To see some examples, see first the Kody Clemens card below. The top right corner shows the serialization. This particular Kody Clemens is part of a series of 99 cards with the same art/framing style, and we’re looking at number 80 in that series. The Argent Saga card adjacent to it (RIP) is part of a series of 1,000, and this is number 538. You can find those numbers on the left side. As you might guess, the lower the number of cards in the series (the denominator in the fraction), the rarer those styles are (e.g. there are 1,000 of the Argent Saga card pictured and only 99 of the Kody card).
Serialized cards are used heavily in the sports card industry to combat the history of the “junk wax” era, where cards were printed in such a large volume that they became worthless. So, as you can imagine, there’s a good bit of card trading history wrapped up in serial cards. Regardless of your perspective on whether serialization is good or bad for card games and markets (and there is reasonable debate to be had), whenever there’s history involved, there’s people passionately wrapped up in the discussion.
For Dusk to Dawn, we all have access to Chane, Bound by Shadow and Prism, Sculptor of Arclight tokens because of Monarch. They’re not rare and not worth any money. However, when you open one of these unique hand drawn sketches, you will own the only one in the world. This dramatically increases (of course) the value of your Chane, Bound by Shadow, despite it being functionally the same.
Dusk to Dawn serial cards are not exempt from critics of the card industry’s history. Lots of people have weighed in as to whether this is “good for the game”, “bad for collectors”, or “bad for the average Joe”. I should say now: when I make claims that “people say ‘x’”, I typically like to cite my sources. I usually would link to Twitter threads, Reddit posts, or other determinable sources to prove that I’m not just making up things to argue against. Right now, however, I’m in the middle of a “tech cleanse” where I’m basically using no social media. It’s wonderful (seriously, ditch Twitter), but it makes researching public perception on topics hard. I’m basing the opinions discussed in this post on conversations with trusted friends who are well tuned in to the conversations happening in our community.
Who cares?
My position towards these cards, and what I hope yours is, is one of indifference. 10 cards, out of all those distributed for Dusk to Dawn, won’t even make a small impact in anything relevant to you, me, or any other reader of this blog. 10 is such a small number that (a) we may never know of any of these that are opened; (b) even if we do find out about the opened ones, we can’t afford them anyway; and (c) because the serialized cards are tokens that we have affordable access to, there’s no game play concerns.
You know how everyone from the 90s has a story about owning a foil Charizard? We put the card in bicycle spokes, traded it for pudding at lunch, or our moms threw it away. They just weren’t special. I imagine one, if not several, of Dusk to Dawn’s serialized cards will be lost in similar fashion. Some child is going to buy a booster pack from the local game store, open it up, play with the contents for a little bit, and then throw them away or stuff them in a box with other seemingly insignificant items. It’s much akin to opening the golden ticket in your Wonka Bar and thinking it was just a strange wrapping.
Likewise, even if you did hear about someone that opened a serial card (or were lucky enough to see it at an event you attend!), it’s unlikely you’re in a position that you’ll be able to afford it anyway. The eventual cost of the cards, an issue cited by critics, is irrelevant. In conversations with several high-end collectors, retailers, and tournament vendors, none of them think these cards will be in their price range. Ten 1/1s is so unfathomably rare that, even if they’re uglier than we think they will be (they won’t be ugly), they’ll command such an impressive price on rarity alone that no one will be able to compete. Of course, the market will adjust to find a price a buyer will actually pay, but even then, it will be well north of any gold foil or cold foil alpha card we’ve seen to date.
Reasonable minds can differ
There is, I should mention, a reasonable argument as to why this is bad for Flesh and Blood. It’s reasonable to think that even collector cards should ultimately be accessible. With enough trading and market savvy, anyone should be able to work up to anything. I don’t subscribe to this theory myself, but it’s at least reasonable. Having sharks worth stacks of money come into your trading card game community creates a feeling of danger and inaccessibility. It feels less like a game and more like a stock exchange trading floor. Whether that feeling relates to anything tangible is irrelevant; the feeling itself is unwelcome.
I reject this theory not because I don’t care about people’s fear of sharks in the water or the bygone era of when games could just be games. I reject the theory because of where we already are as a community. Flesh and Blood cards are already worth thousands of dollars. A cold foil Heart of Fyendale, for example, is worth somewhere around $14,000! There are already sharks trying to rip off unsuspecting players and make a quick buck. The sharks come in the form of trusted YouTube and Reddit investors, vendors at tournaments, and even players/owners at your local game store.
Even with obtainable cards, there are already price points that push out gamers. The cheapest Fyendal’s Spring Tunic, the staplest staple that ever stapled, is $200. These cards are much more “necessary” to compete and have a larger impact on performance than any 10 serialized tokens can have. The reality is that Flesh and Blood is already a luxury hobby with tradable assets. That’s central to the game, not going anywhere, and the inaccessibility is not further exasperated by printing variant arts of a card to which everyone has access.
Conclusion
Maybe LSS should take a step back and consider where it’s most important to levy its resources and that investing in serialized artist proofs is not. But not only is it very unlikely you ever see or hear of one of these cards being opened, even if you do, you’ll be so priced out (and so will I), that the cost is irrelevant.
Ultimately, indifference is the correct mindset for these cards. If you do open one, that’s pretty awesome. If you don’t, you’ll barely even remember they exist.
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Next week: probably pickles for real –or– Briar at 998.