TheGamer’s tabletop editor Joe Parlock and I had very different experiences with the launch of Disney Lorcana. I flew to the opposite side of the country so I could secure a booster box at Gen Con. He pre-ordered one from his local game store. I paid $9/pack at my LGS and was only allowed to buy three per week. He paid MSRP, and was allowed to buy almost whatever he wanted. I’ve never seen a Treasure Trove in real life, he walked into a store on launch day and bought one, with a gift set t🌌o go with it. What’s the difference between us? I live in the concrete hellscape known as Los Angeles, and he lives in Merrie Olde England.
Like Joe, a majority of the TG staff lives in the UK and they can’t relate to my Lorcana struggles at all. They’re lovely folk who mean no harm (most of ‘em), but after what I’ve been through trying to find Lorcana this 💞last month, I can’t tell you how much psychic damage it gives me when they tell me their side of things.
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In SoCal, you have to make Lorcana hunting a full-time job. You have to learn what day and time the vendors show up to stock the big box stores, and you have to compete with dozens of wrestlers every time they do. You have to be prepared to pay double or even triple MSRP at your ‘friendly’ local game store for product - if they even have any to sell. It’s rough out 🍸here, and, as I understand it, throughout the rest of the US too. Meanwhile, over in Foggy London Town (or Birminghamcestershire or wherever it is Joe’s from), them blokes ‘aven’t a care in the world, innit.
I’m not prepared to get into the social and economic reasons for the disparity, other than to say that clearly, this country has some issues. It’s obvious that things are very different over there. Local game stores charge much closer to MSRP than our market price. You don’t have to ꧙make a blood sacrifice in order to find product. At least not in the first couple of weeks after Lorcana launched, cards were readily available to buy. Being a Lorcana player seems a lot less stressful for my British counterparts. If you don’t believe me, just look at how cheap singles are on their secondary market.
I realize this is a bit myopic, but until today it hadn’t even occurred to me that Europeans don’t use TCGPlayer to buy and sell trading cards. Their version is called Cardm▨arket, and while it’s essentially the same website, the prices are vastly different.
I learned this when I got into a little debate about the price of Rapunzel, Gifted with Healing. I’m very aware of how much that card costs because it’s the only one I need to complete my Amber/Sapphire deck. Editor-in-Chief Stacey Henley is lucky enough to have two of them, and when she asked how much they&rsquo🎶;re worth, I confidently said $60. Joe said no, they’re more like 35 quid. After spending an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out what a quid was, I realized he was saying that in the UK, Rapunzels are only about $40. We have been played for fools.
To clarify, you can get cards in different languages on Cardmarket. Lorcana is printed in English, German, and French, and as with any card game, a single card ca𓄧n have different prices depending on what language it’s written in. However, the UK English card and the NA English card are identical. An English Rapunzel you can get on Cardmarket is exactly the same as the one you can get on TCGPlayer, only its $20 cheaper.
Before you get too excited, Cardmarket won’t even let you make an account unless you live in Europe. The only way an American or Canadian could take advantage of the discount is if they know someone in Europe who could𝓀 buy the cards for you and then ship them to you. Shipping from the UK is expensive (I’ve tried to send cards to Joe before, and it went into the triple digits), but if you were buying a few cards - especially expensive cards like Rapunzel - it would definitely be worth it. I’ve already asked Joe though, so you’ll have to find your own British friend.
It’s not a loophole most people are going to be able to take advantage of, unfortunately. But it is a stark reminder of just how bleak things are for American Lorcana players right now. Acros꧑s the board, the price of singles is about 40 percent lower in Europe. Even some of the enchanted cards are cheaper there. I don’t know what to do with this information, but I figured if I had to be cursed with knowledge, so do you. Maybe it’s time to start planning my vacation to England. Apparently they call it holiday? I’m so screwed.