Sold Out Marvel Secret Lair Card Prices are PLUMMETING

Last updated on November 20, 2024

Iron Man, Titan of Innovation | Illustration by Justyna Dura

The first batch of Magic's  Universes Beyond: Marvel cards saw a major price decline this week as the Secret Lair‘s hype dies down.

As predicted by gloating Hasbro higher-ups, two weeks ago the Marvel Secret Lair sold out in less than five hours. And very shortly after, the product was being resold on eBay, at outrageous prices.

But two weeks later things have changed, with these MTG cards crashing between 30% and 70% since last week, the biggest drop by far among all Secret Lair cards ever printed.

This crash is consistent both across the Rainbow Foil version…

Source: MTGStocks

… and the normal versions, where even the mechanically unique Captain America, First Avenger, Black Panther, Wakandan King, Iron Man, Titan of Innovation, and Wolverine, Best There Is make it into the Top Biggest Losers this week.

(Although not shown above, Storm, Force of Nature didn't fare much better, dipping by close to 30%)

Cards like Masterwork of Ingenuity and Galvanic Blast cratered more than 70% in just a few days, with a constant downward trend:

Source: MTGStocks

Source: MTGStocks 

The titular heroes, like Iron Man, Titan of Innovation, and Wolverine, Best There Is, saw an initial price surge after the Marvel Secret Lair sold out…

Source: MTGStocks

Source: MTGStocks

… but after the initial hype died down, so did Tony's thrusters and the Blackbird's turbines: Prices went from well over $50 to around $25 in a matter of days.

Called Shots

This price drop is business as usual for Secret Lairs – perhaps the biggest surprise is that one of the most-hyped, best-selling Lairs in recent memory is behaving normally. Savvy financial redditors called it a week ago, when the price drop began, and again five days ago when the race to the bottom started in earnest.

Now the question is: will prices rebound or keep going down?

In other words, is it a good idea to buy now?

Some of the original SL buyers still haven't received their products: It's easy to find anecdotes from EU residents that are still missing theirs, and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers has been on strike, delaying all shipments in that country. So supply hasn't dried up yet.

And a few days ago Magic's Head Designer Mark Rosewater confirmed on his blog that WotC intends to reprint many of these cards.

“All the unique mechanical cards from the Marvel Secret Lair will appear later in the same mechanical form,” Rosewater wrote, “possibly with the same name, in some product.”

But, with the caveat that this is not financial or investment advice (more like a contribution to doing your own research), reddit's consensus seems to be that prices will start going up nevertheless, and now is the time to buy at the lowest point:

• This is indeed one of the fastest-selling Secret Lairs in a long time;
• Even if WotC does reprint these cards, the next Marvel set (Spiderman) won't happen until the second half of 2025 – and several of this Secret Lair's mechanics, like Storm's storm, seem unlikely to appear in a Standard-legal Universes Beyond product.
• WotC has confirmed we'll have Marvel crossovers for years to come, so the hype will likely die down quickly.

“It’s safe to say now is probably the best time for buying marvel singles before stock depletes for your decks or whatever,” noted u/TrainerShelby on the mtgfinance subreddit two days ago. “To be clear we are seeing the fastest sell through rates of any secret lair ever produced on the aftermarket so we are in completely new territory.”