What is the expected value of a Dark Ascension Draft Booster Box?

Opening a Dark Ascension Draft Booster Box gets you about $146.16 of cards at market price, against a market price of $253.39 for the box — a ratio of 0.58x. Selling those cards would return about $24.12 after fees, because 74% of that value sits in cards worth more as bulk than as a listing.

Is the Dark Ascension Draft Booster Box worth opening?

No: at $253.39 a box the cards inside are worth about $107.23 less than the box costs, and buying the individual cards you want will be cheaper. The box only breaks even at $146.16 or less, and less again — about $24.12 — if the plan is to resell.

How much would you get back selling a Dark Ascension Draft Booster Box?

About $24.12, against $146.16 of cards at market price. Market price is what a buyer pays, not what a seller receives: TCGplayer takes 10.75% commission plus a 2.5% and $0.30 transaction fee, and posting a single card costs around $1.10. Below roughly $1.66 a card is worth more in a bulk lot, at about $0.04 a rare, than listed and posted — and 74% of this box's value sits under that line.

Dark Ascension

Cards inside $146.16$107 short

Dark Ascension

Dark Ascension Draft Booster Box

Open one box and you'll get $146.16 of cards, on average. A box costs $253 right now, so that means you're $107.23 short.

Cards inside

$146.16

Everything in the box, at today's prices

Box costs now

$253

TCGplayer market · from $252

Difference

-$107.23

Against you

Packs in the box

Each holds at least one rare or mythic

Box price from TCGplayer, checked October 12, 2026 · Card prices from Scryfall (TCGplayer market data) · last updated October 17, 2026

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.

And if you sold the cards?

$146.16 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.

Worth to a buyer

$146.16

Every card at market price

What you'd keep

$24.12

About 17% of it, sold card by card

Stuck as bulk

74%

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 74% 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.

What does a box cost you?

We start from what a box costs right now. Put in the price you're actually being asked to pay and the answer updates.

Box price

$20$650

I'd be selling the cards. Values every card at what you'd be paid for it rather than what it sells for — fees and postage on the ones worth listing, bulk rates on the ones that aren't. Comes to about 17% of $146.

-$107.23

per box, against you

You would do better buying the singles

At $253 a box you'd come up about $107.23 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.

Break-even price

$146.16

Pay less than this and you're ahead on average.

Where the value comes from

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.

Single-faced commons

One of the card positions in every pack of this product.

Per pack

$1.54

Whole box

$55.44

$1.08 kept

38%

Single-faced rare or mythic

One of the card positions in every pack of this product.

Per pack

$1.16

Whole box

$41.76

$15.12 kept

29%

Single-faced uncommons

One of the card positions in every pack of this product.

Per pack

$0.72

Whole box

$25.92

$0.36 kept

18%

Foil (any rarity)

The guaranteed shiny card in every pack. Usually a common, occasionally something expensive.

Per pack

$0.39

Whole box

$14.04

$7.20 kept

10%

Basic land

The basic land. Worth essentially nothing unless it is a full-art foil.

Per pack

$0.26

Whole box

$9.36

$0.00 kept

Dfc

One of the card positions in every pack of this product.

Per pack

$0.00

Whole box

$0.00

$0.00 kept

The cards you're hoping to hit

The ten most valuable cards a Draft Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.

#1 most valuable

Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

$65.56

You'll open one about 1 every 2 boxes

#2 most valuable

Grafdigger's Cage

$18.89

You'll open one about 1 per box

#3 most valuable

Vault of the Archangel

$17.97

You'll open one about 1 per box

Drogskol Reaver

mythicabout 1 every 2 boxes

$17.00

Moonveil Dragon

mythicabout 1 every 2 boxes

$16.42

Stromkirk Captain

uncommonabout 2.8 per box

$15.13

Curse of Bloodletting

rareabout 1 per box

$14.41

Havengul Lich

mythicabout 1 every 2 boxes

$13.82

Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

mythicabout 1 every 2 boxes

$13.65

Geralf's Messenger

rareabout 1 per box

$12.75

Every rare and mythic in the set

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.

			Foil price
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed	mythic	$22.67	$65.56	0.46
Havengul Lich	mythic	$5.31	$13.82	0.46
Grafdigger's Cage	rare	$3.72	$18.89	0.93
Increasing Ambition	rare	$2.64	$6.79	0.93
Drogskol Reaver	mythic	$2.40	$17.00	0.46
Beguiler of Wills	mythic	$2.37	$12.21	0.46
Geralf's Messenger	rare	$2.26	$12.75	0.93
Gravecrawler	rare	$2.04	$7.87	0.93
Curse of Bloodletting	rare	$1.98	$14.41	0.93
Zombie Apocalypse	rare	$1.39	$7.72	0.93
Call to the Kindred	rare	$1.27	$2.76	0.93
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad	mythic	$1.19	$13.65	0.46
Moonveil Dragon	mythic	$1.18	$16.42	0.46
Vault of the Archangel	rare	$1.04	$17.97	0.93
Increasing Confusion	rare	$0.93	$5.65	0.93
Increasing Vengeance	rare	$0.86	$3.25	0.93
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben	rare	$0.81	$9.71	0.93
Predator Ooze	rare	$0.74	$5.45	0.93
Curse of Misfortunes	rare	$0.65	$3.87	0.93
Hellrider	rare	$0.62	$4.84	0.93

Compare with other boxes

Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.

Avacyn Restored

$239 of cards

$226 short of the box price

Innistrad

$170 of cards

$405 short of the box price

Magic 2013

$181 of cards

$144 short of the box price

Questions people ask

It's the average value of the cards in a box. Imagine opening a thousand boxes of this set and adding up every card at its market price — divide by a thousand and you get $146.16. It is not what your box will be worth. Most boxes come in lower, because a small number of very expensive cards drag the average up.

Dark Ascension

Dark Ascension Draft Booster Box

And if you sold the cards?

What does a box cost you?

Where the value comes from

The cards you're hoping to hit

Every rare and mythic in the set

Compare with other boxes

Questions people ask

What does “expected value” actually mean?

So should I open a box or buy singles?

Could I really get $146.16 back by selling the cards?

Where do the prices come from?

What counts towards the total?

How accurate is this?