If you’re anything like me, you’ve spent a fair amount of your life at a table, surrounded by friends, high-fiving over a natural 20 or groaning as someone drops a perfect board-wipe in Magic: The Gathering. These games aren’t just cardboard and ink : they’re the fabric of our community. They represent creativity, late-night strategy, and that specific kind of magic that happens when people come together to build something cool.
But lately, there’s a different kind of "strategy" happening over at Wizards of the Coast (WotC) and their parent company, Hasbro. And honestly? It feels a lot more like a villain monologue than a hero’s journey.
The people who actually build the digital worlds we love : the MTG Arena team : have decided to stand up and say "enough." They’re moving to unionize under the name United Wizards of the Coast (UWotC-CWA). And the corporate response? It’s been anything but legendary.
The "Scare Tactics" Playbook
When a group of workers says they want a seat at the table, a company has two choices: they can listen, or they can hire a law firm that specializes in making sure they don't have to. Hasbro chose the latter.
They’ve brought in Fisher Phillips : a firm widely known for its "union avoidance" services. Since the filing, reports have started trickling out about the tactics being used to discourage these workers. We’re talking daily emails filled with corporate-speak about being a "family" and physical letters being mailed directly to employees' homes.
Imagine coming home from a long day of coding or designing to find a letter in your mailbox basically telling you that if you join a union, you might lose your benefits or that negotiations could take years. It’s a classic scare tactic designed to make people feel small and isolated.
At Grown Up Kids, we focus on the "cool stuff" : the Marvel Legends and DC Multiverse figures that remind us of why we fell in love with these franchises in the first place. But it’s hard to enjoy the product when you know the people making it are being treated like expendable NPCs in a corporate dungeon crawl.
The Global Burnout is Real
This isn’t just a Wizards of the Coast problem. This is a "everyone is tired of being squeezed" problem.
We’re seeing a massive trend of corporate burnout. People are working harder than ever, often for companies that post record profits, only to be told there’s "no budget" for raises or better working conditions. The "scarcity of care" in the corporate world has reached a breaking point.
When management tells you they "value your voice" while simultaneously sending you daily emails designed to keep you from using it, it’s gaslighting. Plain and simple. They want the "direct relationship" with you because, in a direct relationship between a multi-billion dollar corporation and a single employee, the corporation wins every single time.
Why I'm Still in It (The $40,000 Story)
This situation hits me right in the gut because I’m not looking at it from a distance — I’m living it in real time.
I’m still working my full-time corporate job while building Grown Up Kids. I’m still doing the work, still putting in the hours, still trying to show up professionally, and still feeling that same disconnect between what companies say and what they actually do. When I did the math, I realized I was being underpaid by about $40,000 compared to the industry standard for my role.
I did what you’re "supposed" to do. I went to HR. I brought the data. I showed them my contributions. I was professional, I was polite, and I was persistent.
Their response? "Not at this time."
That phrase hits differently when you’re still inside it. You keep hearing that you’re valued. You keep hearing the language about employee well-being and appreciation. But when the pay gap is that wide, and nothing meaningful changes, the actions tell a very different story.
That disconnect has worn on me more than I want to admit. It’s reached a point where I’m looking for a leave of absence or a reduced workload — not just to build the business, but for my own self-worth. Because there’s only so long you can be told you matter while being shown, in practice, that you don’t.
That’s a huge part of what fuels Grown Up Kids for me. I want to build something where actions actually match the words. I want to create a company where "we value people" isn’t just something you say in a meeting — it shows up in how people are paid, how they’re treated, and how their work is respected.
Why I'm Scaling Grown Up Kids
I love the joy toys bring to collectors — I really do. That part is real. I love the nostalgia, the shelf presence, the stories attached to these things, and the way the right figure or set can instantly take you back.
But if I’m being honest, a huge reason I want to scale Grown Up Kids goes way beyond reselling collectibles.
I want to build a company that actually values people — both customers and employees. I want this to be a place where people are paid what they’re worth, treated like they matter, and given the chance to build something real with us. That’s a massive part of my "why." Not just moving product — building a business where people feel respected instead of managed to death.
And that future probably isn’t just reselling.
The Future Has to Be Bigger Than Reselling
Reselling is a start. It’s how I got traction. It’s how I’ve been able to learn the market, earn trust, and keep the lights on. But I’m not going to pretend it’s some perfect business model with endless upside. It’s hard to find real traction there, and the profit can be razor thin.
The bigger goal is creating our own proprietary toy line.
That’s where I see the real future for Grown Up Kids — finding a specific need in the market, building something original around it, and creating products that aren’t just another item we managed to source before somebody else did. If we can do that well, it opens the door to something much more important than flipping inventory : it gives us the ability to build actual careers for people.
That’s the part that matters most to me. I don’t just want to run a store. I want to build a company that can support good jobs, reward people fairly, and give talented folks a place to grow. That’s my biggest "why" for this company.
Scrappy Beats Corporate
I’ll be blunt: Grown Up Kids is a scrappy business. We aren't a faceless big-box retailer with a thousand-page employee handbook. It’s me, the products I love, and you : the collectors who keep this hobby alive.
When you buy a retro Rogue figure or a rare LEGO set from us, you aren't just funding a CEO's third vacation home. You’re supporting a business that was born out of a desire to escape the very corporate machine that is currently trying to squeeze the life out of the WotC staff.
I feel for the people at Wizards. I know that feeling of being irate, of feeling like your value is being ignored. I know what it’s like to realize that the "care" they promise is just a marketing campaign.
Let’s Have a Conversation
The battle for the heart of Wizards of the Coast isn't just about unions : it's about whether we, as a community, still believe that the people who create our favorite worlds deserve to be treated with dignity.
Do we want our games to be made by people who are burned out, underpaid, and scared? Or do we want to support the creators, the small shops, and the folks who actually give a damn about the culture?
I’m curious to hear what you think. Have you felt that corporate squeeze in your own job? Does knowing how Hasbro is handling this change how you feel about buying their products?
Drop a comment, send an email, or just reach out. I’m not HR ; I’ll actually listen.
Stay scrappy,
William Preston
Owner, Grown Up Kids
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