These price hikes reflect the “Market Price” — a real-time, demand-based pricing system often exceeding MSRP by $20–$40, especially for in-demand sets. Used to be that one would only have to worry about resellers pulling this, but now that they see the demand is there, your regular mom-and-pop shop is doing it too! How grand.
TCGPlayer remains a top destination for singles and for tracking card values, especially if you pull rare Surge Foil cards like Cloud, Midgar Mercenary (Borderless), or Tidus, Yuna’s Guardian (Borderless), priced currently at $599 and $351.27 respectively on the site. As such, collectors are encouraged to pre-order now.
For newcomers, the Starter Kit offers great value: two prebuilt decks, Arena code cards for online play, deck boxes, and tokens — but no boosters or chase cards inside. It’s what I chose this morning, and although FOMO can entice one to make a hasty purchase, keep in mind this FF set isn’t a limited edition, and availability will come back around.
