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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CharlesRyan" data-source="post: 4659237" data-attributes="member: 5265">If the rulebook product model was similar to that of miniatures (scores of individual items; average consumer buys many individual items), then, yes, randomization could reduce costs.People think product cost = materials + labour + R&D/overhead. Yes, that's correct, but there's one other big factor: sales efficiency. If you only sell 80% of what you make, that remaining 20% that you landfill is part of the cost of the 80% that did get sold.Randomization increases sales efficiency. When you only produce 3 booster releases a year, you only have to get the numbers right 3 times. (And product similarity makes it pretty easy to get the numbers right every time.)When you produce, say, 42 separate miniatures SKUs in a year, you have to get the numbers right 42 times. (And since the products are distinctly different, getting them right is a real challenge. Guessing which of the Heroes SKUs is going to be insanely popular and which is going to languish in the shelf is virtually impossible on a regular basis.) Every item that doesn't sell through 100% is a tax on those that do sell.It may be counterintuitive, but it's not greed. Reduced randomization = higher cost.</blockquote>