Riot Games has decided to retire skin codes for League of Legends that were printed onto cards before April of this year and given away to fans at events and conventions. This is coming after they have discovered that some third parties were selling the relatively rare cards for a considerable markup (Riot found one going for $1000 according to Forbes).
Not to worry, the skins purchased through the League of Legends client will still work fine. The printed cards must be submitted by July 23 if anyone wants to prove the authenticity of a legit code and receive the skin for their League of Legends character.
I can understand their concern with scalpers and scammers, and I may not have a solid grasp on how rare or valuable these codes are, but it seems that by giving users a small time period to gain access to these codes will only spike current prices until the codes are no longer active. Gamers love for their characters’ style to be unique. So, wouldn’t having a rare and never again available skin within a game played by millions of people propel prices sky high?
What do you think? Do you think Riot made the right move here? Or, is it going to send prices to the moon over the next ten days?