WotC may have sent the Pinkertons to a magic leakers home. Update: WotC confirms it and has a response.

[Parmandur]

We don’t know that anything was “stolen” despite people repeating that it was. Stuff gets out early all the time. Go to any bookstore the weekend before new release Tuesday. Chances are quite good that books will be on the shelves early. They’re no more stolen than anything else that gets out early.

Yeah, and they are plugging the hole.

 

[darjr]

PR. They aren't claiming that he stole it. But it was not acquired legitimately, and they are investigating.

Sure, it's gross that they hired heavy handed security people to do it, but hiring someone to come knocking seems entirely reasonable considering.

It’s either gross or not.

Hint, it’s gross.

 

[Bedrockgames]

It’s either gross or not.

Hint, it’s gross.

In case there is any doubt, I think it’s pretty gross

 

[Parmandur]

It’s either gross or not.

Hint, it’s gross.

Sure. So is shady profiteering, as this YouTuber did for clicks, but that's the world we live in.

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah, and they are plugging the hole.

Yep. By sending in a company who’s name is synonymous with goon squads and union busting. WotC literally can’t help but step on every possible landmine. This is cartoon villain levels of incompetence.

 

[Parmandur]

Yep. By sending in a company who’s name is synonymous with goon squads and union busting. WotC literally can’t help but step on every possible landmine. This is cartoon villain levels of incompetence.

Pretty standard corporate practice. Probably not the first time, probably not the last time.

 

[Bedrockgames]

As far as privacy, I was tempted to type that I wish he had a ring doorbell to record the encounter. But the number of cameras "accidentally" filming public streets and neighbors yards is a privacy issue I'm more worried about than this :-/

You can worry about more than one realm of privacy. I don't know a lot about camera doorbells but I would imagine the challenge there is balancing the right of a person to protect their home with people not wanting to be filmed just for walking by or living next door (personally I wouldn't want a door bell camera capturing me in my yard, but I also don't like facebook taking my information and selling it, and I don't like the idea of a company like WOTC hiring a company like Pinkerton to investigate gamers who may have got early released material). Maybe with door bell cameras a workable solution would be something like the background fade you have on Skype and discord when you chat (where it only films the immediate foreground---not sure how feasible that is).

 

[DMZ2112]

A Wizards of the Coast spokesperson confirmed to Polygon and Kotaku that the company sent the private security firm to Oldschoolmtg as “part of their investigation” into the leak. The YouTuber says the contact they spoke to at Wizards of the Coast offered to send them free products as compensation for what had happened. For what it’s worth, his YouTube viewership has also doubled since the original video went up.

So, everything you've posted in this thread is gross, but this in particular bears correction -- this quote from the Engadget article sloppily references a larger part of the Polygon article that doesn't even refer to this incident:

Engaging private investigators to retrieve stolen or missing trading cards is not a particularly new or novel strategy for game publishers. Just last week, Polygon reported on another similar incident dating back to 2021 involving products from The Pokémon Trading Card Game, which were also retrieved with the help of a private investigator.

The presenter in this instance said in the video that the person they spoke with from Wizards seemed to understand they were not at fault. In fact, they were eager to compensate the YouTuber for the purchase of the cards, potentially in the form of more appropriate replacement product, the presenter said.

“Anybody who has used my footage,” they added, “you’ll probably want to take that down.”

“I no longer have the product,” they said. “The Pinkertons took everything to take back to WotC.” That includes empty boxes and wrappers. “I don’t even have a token to show for my efforts,” he added with a laugh, before noting his channel had recently doubled in viewership.

From what I've seen, oldschoolmtg has received no offer of restitution and made no statement regarding his viewership.

It frankly doesn't matter whether these people are actually stealing these cards or what logo the thugs have on their lapel pins; sending muscle to the address of a private citizen for the purposes of intimidation is wrong, and shouldn't be condoned, supported, or apologized for.

But some of us are second-generation descendants of Pennsylvanian coal miners and don't have to "Google" why seeing Pinkerton in the news is alarming. Again, to my knowledge, not even Amazon or Google has them shaking people down.

 

[overgeeked]

Pretty standard corporate practice. Probably not the first time, probably not the last time.

It’s terrible but it’s common, therefore it’s okay. Sorry, no. Still terrible no matter how common it is.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Corporate simps are unreal, lmao

Mod Note:

Calling your fellow ENWorlders “simps” isn’t exactly civil. Don’t repeat that mistake. Thanks.