Fifth Edition
Open one box and you'll get $258.12 of cards, on average. A box costs $1,112 right now, so that means you're $854.37 short.
Cards inside
$258.12
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$1,112
TCGplayer market · from $1,550
Difference
-$854.37
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.
$258.12 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$258.12
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$88.56
About 34% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
48%
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 48% 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.
-$854.37
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $1,112 a box you'd come up about $854.37 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$258.12
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
$2.78
Whole box
$100.08
$60.12 kept
Share
39%
Commons
The bulk of the pack. Individually worth very little.
Per pack
$2.76
Whole box
$99.36
$10.44 kept
Share
38%
Uncommons
Three per pack. Occasionally one is worth real money.
Per pack
$1.63
Whole box
$58.68
$18.36 kept
Share
23%
The ten most valuable cards a Play Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Mana Vault
$66.12
You'll open one about 1 every 4 boxes
#2 most valuable
Sylvan Library
$26.84
You'll open one about 1 every 4 boxes
#3 most valuable
Necropotence
$18.24
You'll open one about 1 every 4 boxes
City of Brass
$17.54
Armageddon
$11.77
Meekstone
$11.21
Winter Orb
$10.56
Birds of Paradise
$10.54
Game of Chaos
$10.35
Winds of Change
$9.69
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 | $66.12 | 0.27 |
| Sylvan Library | rare | $26.84 | 0.27 |
| Necropotence | rare | $18.24 | 0.27 |
| City of Brass | rare | $17.54 | 0.27 |
| Armageddon | rare | $11.77 | 0.27 |
| Meekstone | rare | $11.21 | 0.27 |
| Winter Orb | rare | $10.56 | 0.27 |
| Birds of Paradise | rare | $10.54 | 0.27 |
| Game of Chaos | rare | $10.35 | 0.27 |
| Winds of Change | rare | $9.69 | 0.27 |
| Drain Power | rare | $7.28 | 0.27 |
| Stasis | rare | $6.87 | 0.27 |
| Ankh of Mishra | rare | $6.87 | 0.27 |
| Lord of Atlantis | rare | $6.71 | 0.27 |
| Underground River | rare | $6.24 | 0.27 |
| Zombie Master | rare | $5.89 | 0.27 |
| Pox | rare | $5.51 | 0.27 |
| Shivan Dragon | rare | $5.41 | 0.27 |
| Goblin King | rare | $5.18 | 0.27 |
| Smoke | rare | $5.02 | 0.27 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
