Hi @cirqular! Thank you, I hope it does get off the ground at some point - it'd be nice to have a forum space for MetaZoo. :)
I definitely agree with everything you've said; it's a little different with MetaZoo, I suppose, where we're hanging onto every set released at the moment - in time, I suspect there'll be enough coming out that people will get a bit pickier - but with the bigger TCGs, I think there's more room to just buy what you want. In some ways, I don't mind what MtG is doing, but a part of me does wonder if there are motivations besides just direct profit involved... there have been a few cases of 'nerd' companies expanding their product lines in ways that are a little... insidious, I suppose, for a lack of a better word?
I'm slightly biased, as someone who does work in the industry, but there is something to be said for companies that expand their product line for no reason other than it makes them take up more space in a store. When I was first starting my business, I did some research on comic titles to do some spacing-related math, and found Marvel had some weird practices related to how many titles they were putting out in a month (at least, at the time - this was a few years ago). What Marvel was doing, was that they were releasing the same amount of issues as DC was, but instead of doing, say, 2 issues a month for one series, they'd do one issue a month for two series of the same character - think, Captain America, and then Captain America and The Falcon, or something similar. On paper, you're getting the same amount of Captain America comics per month as you are, say, getting Wonder Woman comics a month, but the difference was that Marvel was splitting them into two separate series, while DC was just publishing Wonder Woman.
On its own, that sounds innocent enough, but the problem is that comic and game stores are historically incredibly strapped for space, so while DC was taking up, say, 40-50 spots on the 'new comics' shelf.... Marvel was taking up more like 70. Same amount of comic issues released each month, but across twice the shelf space. The end result is that anyone who walks into a comic store and looks at the new comic shelves is going to see a lot more Marvel comics than they do any other companies, which increases the likelihood that their comics are the ones that sell, and the other companies get their comics cut back or hidden by the store owners, who need to make space for what sells. Around that time, Funko also started doing a similar tactic - they went from just some Funkos, to doing a lot of Funkos, to doing those 5 Star and Vynl (?) figures, and the board games and the plushies and keychains and pins and those freakin' massive, double-triple sized ones. Suddenly Funko isn't just a shelf in the back, it's an aisle, and then it's everywhere in the store. Look at EB Games/Gamestop! It used to be mostly video games, but now you go in, and a significant amount of the shelf-space is all Funko products.
Sorry, this turned into a whole rant, but - this is something I think people don't factor into the whole 'make space for other games' deal. Its one thing for companies to grab for more money, but its also something when they grab for more shelf space. A game store or a comic store is basically a mashup of five or six different industries, and when you've got the goliaths in each of these industries pulling this crap, it hurts a lot of smaller companies and indie productions. Part of me is wondering if that's what MtG is trying to do - they did pull something similar with DnD, which now is taking up a crapton of space in every store with their minifigures and extended products like the dungeon builder kits, and I can't help but wonder if part of their strategy behind expanding MtG is to do the same in that industry as well - enlarge their selection, so people see way more of them on the shelves, and are more likely to buy.
.... really, sorry for that whole rant. I am at all times like ten minutes away from ranting about Funko pops. ^^; They are a pain to sell.
Thank you for your interest! I don't actually have a physical store at the moment - I mostly do conventions and markets in my area. I'm hoping to get my website back up and organized again soon, and then I'll link to that. (': Instagram in the meantime? I'm on FB and Twitter at the same username, otherwise. I had a little burnout on the website/ebay end of things a while back, so most of my work has all been in-person at the moment. But if you are ever in BC or the lower mainland in particular - I go to just about every comic and nerd related event in the area! I'm usually the only person selling MetaZoo, so you can find me that way, haha.
