March of the Machine
Open one box and you'll get $217.80 of cards, on average. A box costs $302 right now, so that means you're $84.01 short.
Cards inside
$217.80
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$302
TCGplayer market · from $280
Difference
-$84.01
Against you
Packs in the box
30
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 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.
$217.80 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$217.80
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$103.80
About 48% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
30%
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 30% 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.
-$84.01
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $302 a box you'd come up about $84.01 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$217.80
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.
Multiverse legend
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$1.90
Whole box
$57.00
$35.10 kept
Share
26%
Rare or mythic
The one guaranteed rare or mythic in every pack. This is where most of a box’s value sits.
Per pack
$1.62
Whole box
$48.60
$28.20 kept
Share
22%
Wildcard
An extra card of any rarity. Most of the time it is a common or uncommon, but it can be a second rare.
Per pack
$1.01
Whole box
$30.30
$12.60 kept
Share
14%
The List
A reprint pulled from a rotating list of older cards. It replaces a common in a small share of packs.
Per pack
$0.73
Whole box
$21.90
$13.80 kept
Share
10%
Single-faced uncommons
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$0.67
Whole box
$20.10
$4.20 kept
Share
9%
Mom foil with showcase
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$0.66
Whole box
$19.80
$9.30 kept
Share
9%
Single-faced commons
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$0.42
Whole box
$12.60
$0.30 kept
Share
6%
Basic land
The basic land. Worth essentially nothing unless it is a full-art foil.
Per pack
$0.19
Whole box
$5.70
$0.00 kept
Share
3%
Everything else
4 smaller slots — alternate-art pairs, bonus sheets and the like, each under 2% of the box.
Per pack
$0.06
Whole box
$1.80
$0.00 kept
Share
1%
The ten most valuable cards a Set Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
$63.07
You'll open one about 1 every 4 boxes
#2 most valuable
Phyrexian Altar
$55.48
You'll open one about 1 every 33 boxes
#3 most valuable
Blightsteel Colossus
$42.98
You'll open one about 1 every 33 boxes
Sword of Feast and Famine
$42.47
Urza's Saga
$42.43
Mycosynth Lattice
$35.07
Surrak and Goreclaw
$28.99
Sheoldred, Whispering One
$28.54
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice
$28.26
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
$26.26
353 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.
| Phyrexian Altar | rare | $55.48 | 0.03 |
| Blightsteel Colossus | mythic | $42.98 | 0.03 |
| Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer | mythic | $42.65 | 0.26 |
| Sword of Feast and Famine | mythic | $42.47 | 0.03 |
| Urza's Saga | rare | $42.43 | 0.03 |
| Mycosynth Lattice | mythic | $35.07 | 0.03 |
| Sheoldred, Whispering One | mythic | $25.62 | 0.26 |
| Atraxa, Praetors' Voice | mythic | $25.57 | 0.26 |
| Nesting Dovehawk | rare | $23.27 | 0.05 |
| Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite | mythic | $22.14 | 0.26 |
| Sea of Clouds | rare | $20.91 | 0.03 |
| Hall of the Bandit Lord | rare | $19.62 | 0.03 |
| Elvish Champion | rare | $19.42 | 0.03 |
| Uncivil Unrest | rare | $18.79 | 0.05 |
| Thousand-Year Elixir | rare | $18.24 | 0.03 |
| Ketria Triome | rare | $17.75 | 0.03 |
| Surrak and Goreclaw | rare | $17.10 | 0.09 |
| Tribute to the World Tree | rare | $15.91 | 0.51 |
| Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur | mythic | $15.06 | 0.26 |
| Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger | mythic | $13.93 | 0.26 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
