What is the expected value of a Foundations Collector Booster Box?

Opening a Foundations Collector Booster Box gets you about $519.72 of cards at market price, against a market price of $903.04 for the box — a ratio of 0.58x. Selling those cards would return about $344.52 after fees, because 11% of that value sits in cards worth more as bulk than as a listing.

Is the Foundations Collector Booster Box worth opening?

No: at $903.04 a box the cards inside are worth about $383.32 less than the box costs, and buying the individual cards you want will be cheaper. The box only breaks even at $519.72 or less, and less again — about $344.52 — if the plan is to resell.

How much would you get back selling a Foundations Collector Booster Box?

About $344.52, against $519.72 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 11% of this box's value sits under that line.

Foundations

Cards inside $519.72$383 short

Foundations

Foundations Collector Booster Box

Open one box and you'll get $519.72 of cards, on average. A box costs $903 right now, so that means you're $383.32 short.

Cards inside

$519.72

Everything in the box, at today's prices

Box costs now

$903

TCGplayer market · from $900

Difference

-$383.32

Against you

Packs in the box

Several rares, foils and alt-art cards in each

Box price from TCGplayer, checked October 12, 2026 · Card prices from Scryfall (TCGplayer market data) · last updated October 16, 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?

$519.72 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.

Worth to a buyer

$519.72

Every card at market price

What you'd keep

$344.52

About 66% of it, sold card by card

Stuck as bulk

11%

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 11% 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$2,275

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 66% of $520.

-$383.32

per box, against you

You would do better buying the singles

At $903 a box you'd come up about $383.32 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.

Break-even price

$519.72

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.

Foil booster fun treatment

A foil version of this slot.

Per pack

$23.74

Whole box

$284.88

$227.88 kept

55%

Showcase rare or mythic

A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.

Per pack

$8.99

Whole box

$107.88

$67.68 kept

21%

Foil rare or mythic

A foil version of this slot.

Per pack

$5.88

Whole box

$70.56

$39.48 kept

14%

Foil uncommons

A foil version of this slot.

Per pack

$2.39

Whole box

$28.68

$7.20 kept

Foil commons

A foil version of this slot.

Per pack

$1.57

Whole box

$18.84

$1.32 kept

Foil basic land

A foil version of this slot.

Per pack

$0.73

Whole box

$8.76

$0.84 kept

The cards you're hoping to hit

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

#1 most valuable

Llanowar Elves

$970.96

You'll open one about 1 every 100 boxes

#2 most valuable

Doubling Season

$696.58

You'll open one about 1 every 100 boxes

#3 most valuable

Twinflame Tyrant

$546.95

You'll open one about 1 every 100 boxes

Bloodthirsty Conqueror

mythicabout 1 every 100 boxes

$425.88

Progenitus

mythicabout 1 every 100 boxes

$384.05

Muldrotha, the Gravetide

mythicabout 1 every 100 boxes

$267.61

Doubling Season

mythicabout 1 every 9 boxes

$261.57

Sire of Seven Deaths

mythicabout 1 every 100 boxes

$239.37

Llanowar Elves

mythicabout 1 every 9 boxes

$218.68

Bloodthirsty Conqueror

mythicabout 1 every 100 boxes

$181.92

Every rare and mythic in the set

276 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
Bloodthirsty Conqueror	mythic	$43.15	$57.95	0.18
Bloodthirsty Conqueror	mythic	$41.30	$48.92	0.18
Twinflame Tyrant	mythic	$38.19	$56.19	0.18
Akroma's Memorial	mythic	$37.38	$53.39	0.07
Bloodthirsty Conqueror	mythic	$36.86	$40.13	0.17
Sire of Seven Deaths	mythic	$34.06	$62.99	0.18
Doubling Season	mythic	$32.70	$34.41	0.17
Twinflame Tyrant	mythic	$30.79	$38.97	0.18
Twinflame Tyrant	mythic	$27.16	$27.24	0.17
Grim Tutor	mythic	$26.21	$34.28	0.07
Rise of the Dark Realms	mythic	$21.65	$37.73	0.18
Embercleave	mythic	$19.35	$32.66	0.07
Sire of Seven Deaths	mythic	$19.17	$21.89	0.17
Mossborn Hydra	rare	$18.86	$27.22	0.35
Liliana, Dreadhorde General	mythic	$16.32	$29.65	0.18
Mossborn Hydra	rare	$13.95	$15.32	0.35
Bloom Tender	mythic	$13.38	$16.99	0.07
Mossborn Hydra	rare	$13.35	$14.00	0.34
Niv-Mizzet, Visionary	mythic	$12.46	$28.78	0.18
Banner of Kinship	rare	$10.83	$15.44	0.35

Compare with other boxes

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

Innistrad Remastered

$234 of cards

no box price

Foundations

$262 of cards

+$84 ahead of the box price

Innistrad Remastered

$307 of cards

no 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 $519.72. 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.

Foundations

Foundations Collector 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 $519.72 back by selling the cards?

Where do the prices come from?

What counts towards the total?

How accurate is this?