Bank Of America Calls Out Hasbro For Ruining Magic: The Gathering

It is being reported by CNBC that a Bank of America analyst Jason Haas is calling out Hasbro for destroying their Golden Goose in Magic The Gathering. They say the analyst has downgraded the toy stock from $73 to $42 and accused Hasbro of overproducing their Magic cards. It has been reported that Magic accounts for some 15% of Hasbro’s annual revenue and some 35% of its annual earnings, with sales nearly doubling during the pandemic. Haas however argues that the sales growth of Magic is coming to an end because Hasbro is extracting more revenue from the Magic consumer as opposed to actually growing the games player base. Hass points to the The Magic 30th Anniversary set which costs $999 as an example of this which only includes 4 packs of cards. Besides being overpriced he says it includes reprints of highly sought after cards which hurts the secondary-sale market and could lead to the loss of dedicated fans.

While I don't follow the trading card game segment that closely, some of these things being pointed out for Magic The Gathering are also complaints i've heard many action figure collectors make towards Hasbro in recent months. Especially those unhappy with the continued raising costs of their products and the worry that instead of growing their consumer base for these things they are just trying to squeeze more money out of the few who stick with it. It's one thing when collectors point these things out, but likely is a whole different matter when Wall Street analyst start making these claims.