And don't forget, Wizards had various internal mechanisms to remind people that these things were worth money. They were commodities first.
Peter Whitley described that the Price Codex in the back of The Duelist was to do just that.
Peter Whitley: "There was a lot of stuff around that Pokémon craze that Wizards was really quick to pump. Really quick to [think] like '-bleep- yeah! This is a money train!' The prices in The Duelist was a way of reminding people that there's like value in the cards. That they should buy the cards because... to remind them that they appreciate in time or that they might get their chase card or they, you know... the Charizard. And Wizards loved that. Right? Because why wouldn't they?"
So while Nintendo was suffering, Wizards, they were draining the franchise.