Magic 2012
Open one box and you'll get $199.44 of cards, on average. A box costs $283 right now, so that means you're $83.97 short.
Cards inside
$199.44
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$283
TCGplayer market · from $299
Difference
-$83.97
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 August 29, 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.
$199.44 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$199.44
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$58.32
About 29% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
51%
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 51% 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.
-$83.97
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $283 a box you'd come up about $83.97 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$199.44
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.
Rare or mythic
The one guaranteed rare or mythic in every pack. This is where most of a box’s value sits.
Per pack
$2.17
Whole box
$78.12
$41.04 kept
Share
39%
Commons
The bulk of the pack. Individually worth very little.
Per pack
$1.72
Whole box
$61.92
$3.60 kept
Share
31%
Uncommons
Three per pack. Occasionally one is worth real money.
Per pack
$0.94
Whole box
$33.84
$2.16 kept
Share
17%
Foil (any rarity)
The guaranteed shiny card in every pack. Usually a common, occasionally something expensive.
Per pack
$0.53
Whole box
$19.08
$11.16 kept
Share
10%
Basic land
The basic land. Worth essentially nothing unless it is a full-art foil.
Per pack
$0.18
Whole box
$6.48
$0.00 kept
Share
3%
The ten most valuable cards a Play Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Garruk, Primal Hunter
$56.15
You'll open one about 1 every 3 boxes
#2 most valuable
Grand Abolisher
$51.43
You'll open one about 1 every 2 boxes
#3 most valuable
Angelic Destiny
$39.52
You'll open one about 1 every 3 boxes
Sorin Markov
$39.12
Jace's Archivist
$31.58
Primordial Hydra
$28.85
Primeval Titan
$28.54
Sundial of the Infinite
$25.61
Jace, Memory Adept
$22.42
Grave Titan
$20.73
68 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.
| Grand Abolisher | rare | $18.27 | 0.62 |
| Birds of Paradise | rare | $12.00 | 0.62 |
| Sundial of the Infinite | rare | $11.40 | 0.62 |
| Sorin Markov | mythic | $9.89 | 0.31 |
| Jace's Archivist | rare | $8.88 | 0.62 |
| Primordial Hydra | mythic | $8.35 | 0.31 |
| Primeval Titan | mythic | $7.87 | 0.31 |
| Jace, Memory Adept | mythic | $5.65 | 0.31 |
| Phantasmal Image | rare | $4.93 | 0.62 |
| Manabarbs | rare | $4.76 | 0.62 |
| Goblin Chieftain | rare | $4.75 | 0.62 |
| Reverberate | rare | $4.48 | 0.62 |
| Visions of Beyond | rare | $4.41 | 0.62 |
| Worldslayer | rare | $3.30 | 0.62 |
| Quicksilver Amulet | rare | $3.06 | 0.62 |
| Drowned Catacomb | rare | $2.38 | 0.62 |
| Time Reversal | mythic | $2.35 | 0.31 |
| Angelic Destiny | mythic | $2.31 | 0.31 |
| Call to the Grave | rare | $2.23 | 0.62 |
| Garruk, Primal Hunter | mythic | $1.86 | 0.31 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
