At the right you will see a picture of a foil sheet. It is for an upcoming release of a product that I worked on.
Today I will talk a little bit about foils. Why do companies put foils into their products? Great marketing and chase factor. I mean, who doesn't love foils? I know there are those out there that could care less about foils, but for everyone one of those people, there are around 3 peeps who get all googly-eyed when they crack that shiny goodness in a pack.
From the business end, foils help to facilitate the multi-purchase or Serial Purchase of the product. If a player already has a playset, they need incentive to go back and buy that next pack. The trick is finding the right insert factor. I remember back in the early 90s, when the baseball card industry went absolutely nuts and almost ruined the entire industry with insert cards.
Foils are also a great way for those hard core tournament players to be able to make a little bit of their traveling expenses back. They go to the conventions, get the promos/foils and go back and sell them to collectors who weren't able to go yet, they can still complete their collection. The other key is to always make your foils/promos accessible in some sort of way. My mind isn't made up about whether or not a single card given out to one person for acheiving some great feat is a good thing or not.
I'd love to hear some of your thoughts about foils.
I love the shinny.
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12 comments:
Foils are pretty, but they're not practical for gameplay. Unless tended to with perfection (and sometimes even in that case), they can bend, and this makes it too easy for an opponent to pick out foiled cards.
Kind of a double edged sword, really.
Foils don't have any effect on me.
I like ,my, to pull them out of boosters.
You have people,precious, that really want everything in foil.
my precious
I know some crazy foils collectors.
my precious foils,they are mine
Trading a lot and saw them pay a lot for them.
We wants it, it's ours, it's mine,mine, mine,...
"My mind isn't made up about whether or not a single card given out to one person for acheiving some great feat is a good thing or not."
There is a difference between making one of a card (thus I write this off as a collector and do not even consider it a part of the set) - but if you make say: 20, well then DAMN IT I need those cards...
Erik
www.erikyaple.com
Foils are fine, but I am not sure I would consider them part of Design. Foils are marketing, pure and simple.
Don't forget that foils are currency for retailers (leaving online completely out of this for the discussion) to make money on the secondary market. The players who don't want them will trade them for non-foil cards they need to play. Players who want foils to complete a collection (or a foil deck, in terms of a complete parallel foil set) will trade rares they don't really need for the foils. Either way, it's a great way for the retailer to make money selling a product twice.
Are they marketing? Of course. There's no gameplay reason to do anything with foils. It's always good to throw a little candy (especially if it's shiny) at the players.
I like candy.
Foils are marketing, plain and simple. But a lto of players love the shiny for the shiney, not the monetary value attached to it by collectors.
I really have no vaild comment from a player standpoint, for obvious reasons. Or from a marketing standpoint. But from an Art standpoint I liked making them, there was a zen sort of state that one could achieve working on making foil masks all day.
You thought about nothing else except how can I enhance this card image with Foil.
Sometimes we were really successful sometimes not so successful, but it was always enjoyable.
I'll miss that.
I am a player/collector myself.
From a collector's viewpoint, I want to have a "complete" collection, which for me is defined as (approximately) 3 of each rare (or equivalent), 6 of each C/U/S, and 2 of each re-print (e.g. Reflections 2.0, tournament foils etc.). Whatever category the foils fall in determine how many I get, and I don't want to gloat, but my 2e set is almost "complete".
As a player, sure, a foil reprint does not have more sway than the equivalent non-foil (obviously), but having a foil-heavy deck is very impressive. In fact, I often make an effort, when playing in a competitive tournament, to add as many foils as possible. Why? I don't know, maybe I think it may distract an opponent (or maybe even blind them if I get the angles right on my Seven of Nine). Maybe it's simply a case of "if you've got it, flaunt it."
Either way, as a collector or a player, I always enjoy more foils.
Well, I guess for me, foils are kind of a win. It's nice to get a couple of extra sets when buying in bulk when a set releases, 'cause then you can sell them on e-bay and make a c note for them to help with the cost. Also, it gives me something to trade for when at a tourny (Yup, buying bulk cuts down on what you need to get for you set).
The only prob I have with them are the convention exclusives. I'm not as much a collector as I used to be before I discovered the local tourney scene, so I can no longer justify spending upwards of a c note on e-bay for a con exclusive (Considering that now I have to consider gas and travel for said tourney scenes). Besides, with alot of the voracious 'Collector Onlies' out there, it can be a battle to get those exclusives online, thus leading to spending the c note.
So, in closing, I like foils as inserts, but hate ANY con exclusives that aren't made availible through other simpler means. Call me Greedy ;-).
Barry,
aka James ValEson
I've been commenting with the new company that "They didn't have foils the last time I was employed by a CCG company." As someone who played Magic back in 1993, foils mean virtually nothing to me as a player. I enjoyed CCGs just fine when there weren't any foils, so they haven't done anything to increase my enjoyment.
I'm not typical -- a lot of CCG fans are half my age, and kids like shiny things -- and I understand why they're there, though.
that's cause you are old Jason. I mean, is Future Jason still around?
Foils didn't do anything for me as a player and/or collector. They did for other folk though and I suppose that's what counts.
Some were pretty though.
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