Fifth Edition
Open one box and you'll get $349.20 of cards, on average. A box costs $1,112 right now, so that means you're $763.29 short.
Cards inside
$349.20
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$1,112
TCGplayer market · from $1,550
Difference
-$763.29
Against you
Packs in the box
36
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.
$349.20 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$349.20
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$145.80
About 42% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
36%
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 36% 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.
-$763.29
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $1,112 a box you'd come up about $763.29 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$349.20
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.
Rares
The guaranteed rare in every pack.
Per pack
$3.70
Whole box
$133.20
$87.48 kept
Share
38%
Commons
The bulk of the pack. Individually worth very little.
Per pack
$3.59
Whole box
$129.24
$20.16 kept
Share
37%
Uncommons
Three per pack. Occasionally one is worth real money.
Per pack
$2.41
Whole box
$86.76
$38.16 kept
Share
25%
The ten most valuable cards a Draft Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Mana Vault
$98.59
You'll open one about 1 every 4 boxes
#2 most valuable
Necropotence
$38.21
You'll open one about 1 every 4 boxes
#3 most valuable
Sylvan Library
$29.07
You'll open one about 1 every 4 boxes
City of Brass
$22.03
Game of Chaos
$15.60
Birds of Paradise
$14.28
Ashnod's Altar
$14.18
Winter Orb
$13.98
Meekstone
$13.33
Armageddon
$12.19
132 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.
| Mana Vault | rare | $98.59 | 0.27 |
| Necropotence | rare | $38.21 | 0.27 |
| Sylvan Library | rare | $29.07 | 0.27 |
| City of Brass | rare | $22.03 | 0.27 |
| Game of Chaos | rare | $15.60 | 0.27 |
| Birds of Paradise | rare | $14.28 | 0.27 |
| Winter Orb | rare | $13.98 | 0.27 |
| Meekstone | rare | $13.33 | 0.27 |
| Armageddon | rare | $12.19 | 0.27 |
| Ankh of Mishra | rare | $11.87 | 0.27 |
| Underground River | rare | $11.85 | 0.27 |
| Winds of Change | rare | $10.75 | 0.27 |
| Stasis | rare | $9.65 | 0.27 |
| Smoke | rare | $8.41 | 0.27 |
| Jokulhaups | rare | $7.85 | 0.27 |
| Brushland | rare | $7.49 | 0.27 |
| Howling Mine | rare | $7.03 | 0.27 |
| Goblin King | rare | $6.93 | 0.27 |
| Wrath of God | rare | $6.85 | 0.27 |
| Drain Power | rare | $6.67 | 0.27 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
