Mirage
Open one box and you'll get $751.32 of cards, on average. A box costs $2,574 right now, so that means you're $1822.34 short.
Cards inside
$751.32
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$2,574
TCGplayer market · from $4,000
Difference
-$1822.34
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.
$751.32 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$751.32
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$508.68
About 68% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
15%
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 15% 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.
-$1822.34
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $2,574 a box you'd come up about $1822.34 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$751.32
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
$14.23
Whole box
$512.28
$404.64 kept
Share
68%
Uncommons
Three per pack. Occasionally one is worth real money.
Per pack
$4.16
Whole box
$149.76
$91.08 kept
Share
20%
Commons
The bulk of the pack. Individually worth very little.
Per pack
$2.48
Whole box
$89.28
$13.32 kept
Share
12%
The ten most valuable cards a Play Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Lion's Eye Diamond
$797.61
You'll open one about 1 every 3 boxes
#2 most valuable
Phyrexian Dreadnought
$278.81
You'll open one about 1 every 3 boxes
#3 most valuable
Shallow Grave
$109.89
You'll open one about 1 every 3 boxes
Tombstone Stairwell
$62.28
Enlightened Tutor
$35.03
Worldly Tutor
$34.35
Harbinger of Night
$28.19
Mystical Tutor
$20.47
Final Fortune
$20.44
Forsaken Wastes
$14.89
110 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.
| Lion's Eye Diamond | rare | $797.61 | 0.33 |
| Phyrexian Dreadnought | rare | $278.81 | 0.33 |
| Shallow Grave | rare | $109.89 | 0.33 |
| Tombstone Stairwell | rare | $62.28 | 0.33 |
| Harbinger of Night | rare | $28.19 | 0.33 |
| Final Fortune | rare | $20.44 | 0.33 |
| Forsaken Wastes | rare | $14.89 | 0.33 |
| Hall of Gemstone | rare | $14.42 | 0.33 |
| Teferi's Isle | rare | $11.53 | 0.33 |
| Cadaverous Bloom | rare | $10.08 | 0.33 |
| Cursed Totem | rare | $9.64 | 0.33 |
| Zirilan of the Claw | rare | $9.49 | 0.33 |
| Chaosphere | rare | $9.07 | 0.33 |
| Grim Feast | rare | $8.37 | 0.33 |
| Unfulfilled Desires | rare | $7.93 | 0.33 |
| Spirit of the Night | rare | $7.83 | 0.33 |
| Frenetic Efreet | rare | $7.33 | 0.33 |
| Illicit Auction | rare | $7.17 | 0.33 |
| Shimmer | rare | $6.85 | 0.33 |
| Seeds of Innocence | rare | $6.29 | 0.33 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
