The market is speaking to us now. Dice packs are being bought for $21. All card values have moved up and held considerable multiples. Cards are being rented at significant values.
All of that is being accepted and bought into by the new players.
If $2 packs come out, every single player in the game, from those of us who have been here for 3 years, to the players who have been here 3 days, will be in a for a very jarring few days.
All card prices will get nuked, with betas and weak cards losing over 50% of their values as of today, virtually overnight.
Rentals, of almost all cards will lose demand, and rental prices will tumble, some by 75%, maybe more.
Players will now have a way to cheap of a way to max out a deck, by buying 500-1000 packs, and will rent out the few cards they feel are needed, and those cards will hold in sale price and rental price, as everything else nosedives.
This will leave many of the OG's at a loss for what the heck just happened to all of their collection value, as they were so focused on jockeying to make a few extra bucks on the new edition instead of thinking about the very real effects $2 decks will create, while many of the new players who have pushed up the market will be left feeling they have just been duped.
It will hurt moral and collection growth of our current player base.
This game has leveled up, and none of us expected it to happen so fast, but if we take our current situation for-granted, for nostalgia or greed in championing for $2 packs, it will end up costing all of us a significant amount of value that we have right now.
This is a real concern. However if they do limited gradual release they may still be able to charge $2 but the demand may make them still worth $5+ constantly. But unlimited unchecked purchasing will for sure crash the market I really have little doubts about that. A lot hinges on the decision I guess
Whatever value you think there is for you getting $2 packs to flip, the same value will remain at $5 or $10 packs, if not more, because the market will not nosedive/freefall like it will with $2 packs.
A gradual release is not the answer, as you are just begging for thousands of players to get upset and unmotivated which will come with plenty of negative attention and stories....and demand and momentum will be lossed.
We are in beast mode, we should not be making anything more complicated then it should be.
Every single player that owns assets loses if $2 packs come out, and a few people chasing a few thousand dollars in pack markups will lose a few million dollars in their collection values.
Packs will be purchaseable ... people will resale even in the case of Gradual limited $2 packs. The market will raise it to a competitive value probably related to what those cards are valued at for someone who wants to use them in the rental market instead.
Also @yabapmatt and @aggroed have both said they prefer $2 packs... so gradual release is the solution to help not destroy the market. If they decide to go up from $2 that's fine... but I think they can do $2 and let the market decide the value of the cards and leave the difference on the table for their players... that will motivate them to do whatever is needed to get those $2 packs. Play... Stake SPS... get higher in leagues. Talk about a great motivation.