Alara Reborn
Open one box and you'll get $200.88 of cards, on average. A box costs $750 right now, so that means you're $549.30 short.
Cards inside
$200.88
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$750
TCGplayer market · from $800
Difference
-$549.30
Against you
Packs in the box
36
Each holds one rare or mythic
Box price from TCGplayer, checked September 2, 2026 · Card prices from Scryfall (TCGplayer market data) · last updated December 7, 2025
This is an average. A few very expensive cards pull it upward, so most individual boxes land below it. Opening one box is closer to a lottery ticket than an investment — the number below tells you whether the lottery is priced fairly.
$200.88 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$200.88
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$42.84
About 21% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
60%
Cards worth more by the thousand than listed
Two things separate the two figures. Fees take 10.75% commission plus 2.5% and $0.30 on every order, and postage on a single card runs about $1.10 — a bite a cheap card cannot absorb. And 60% of the box's value sits in cards below roughly $1.66, the point where a card is worth more thrown into a bulk lot at $0.04 a rare than listed, packed and posted. Selling the whole box to a buylist in one go pays less again.
Assumes one card per order, which is the cautious reading — a buyer taking several cards at once splits the fixed costs between them. Fees are TCGplayer Marketplace rates as of February 2026; bulk rates are current cash buylist.
We start from what a box costs right now. Put in the price you're actually being asked to pay and the answer updates.
-$549.30
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $750 a box you'd come up about $549.30 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$200.88
Pay less than this and you're ahead on average.
Every pack has a few fixed positions — a guaranteed rare, a wildcard, a foil. Here's what each one is worth across the whole box.
Commons
The bulk of the pack. Individually worth very little.
Per pack
$1.84
Whole box
$66.24
$5.04 kept
Share
33%
Uncommons
Three per pack. Occasionally one is worth real money.
Per pack
$1.51
Whole box
$54.36
$10.44 kept
Share
27%
Rare or mythic
The one guaranteed rare or mythic in every pack. This is where most of a box’s value sits.
Per pack
$1.44
Whole box
$51.84
$19.08 kept
Share
26%
Foil (any rarity)
The guaranteed shiny card in every pack. Usually a common, occasionally something expensive.
Per pack
$0.43
Whole box
$15.48
$8.28 kept
Share
8%
Basic land
The basic land. Worth essentially nothing unless it is a full-art foil.
Per pack
$0.36
Whole box
$12.96
$0.00 kept
Share
6%
The ten most valuable cards a Play Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Wargate
$36.27
You'll open one about 1 per box
#2 most valuable
Time Sieve
$33.28
You'll open one about 1 per box
#3 most valuable
Dragon Broodmother
$29.00
You'll open one about 1 every 2 boxes
Sen Triplets
$28.06
Lord of Extinction
$25.90
Ardent Plea
$19.82
Mage Slayer
$16.69
Uril, the Miststalker
$15.59
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
$15.43
Thraximundar
$13.77
45 cards. “Copies per box” is how many of that exact card you'd expect from one box on average — under 1 means you usually won't see it at all.
| Time Sieve | rare | $6.78 | 0.93 |
| Sen Triplets | mythic | $6.68 | 0.47 |
| Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund | mythic | $6.25 | 0.47 |
| Dragon Broodmother | mythic | $6.06 | 0.47 |
| Lord of Extinction | mythic | $5.21 | 0.47 |
| Lich Lord of Unx | rare | $4.90 | 0.93 |
| Fight to the Death | rare | $4.00 | 0.93 |
| Wargate | rare | $2.98 | 0.93 |
| Nemesis of Reason | rare | $2.57 | 0.93 |
| Defiler of Souls | mythic | $2.09 | 0.47 |
| Thraximundar | mythic | $1.91 | 0.47 |
| Unscythe, Killer of Kings | rare | $1.82 | 0.93 |
| Mayael's Aria | rare | $1.80 | 0.93 |
| Maelstrom Nexus | mythic | $1.71 | 0.47 |
| Uril, the Miststalker | mythic | $1.62 | 0.47 |
| Maelstrom Pulse | rare | $1.60 | 0.93 |
| Sphinx of the Steel Wind | mythic | $1.57 | 0.47 |
| Jenara, Asura of War | mythic | $1.50 | 0.47 |
| Finest Hour | rare | $1.13 | 0.93 |
| Necromancer's Covenant | rare | $1.06 | 0.93 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
