Stronghold
Open one box and you'll get $1751.40 of cards, on average. A box costs $3,875 right now, so that means you're $2123.10 short.
Cards inside
$1751.40
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$3,875
TCGplayer market · from $4,998
Difference
-$2123.10
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.
$1751.40 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$1751.40
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$1333.08
About 76% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
7%
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 7% 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.
-$2123.10
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $3,875 a box you'd come up about $2123.10 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$1751.40
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
$41.11
Whole box
$1479.96
$1239.48 kept
Share
85%
Uncommons
Three per pack. Occasionally one is worth real money.
Per pack
$4.29
Whole box
$154.44
$76.32 kept
Share
9%
Commons
The bulk of the pack. Individually worth very little.
Per pack
$3.25
Whole box
$117.00
$17.64 kept
Share
7%
The ten most valuable cards a Play Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Mox Diamond
$1131.80
You'll open one about 1 every 1 boxes
#2 most valuable
Sliver Queen
$301.14
You'll open one about 1 every 1 boxes
#3 most valuable
Volrath's Stronghold
$124.58
You'll open one about 1 every 1 boxes
Dream Halls
$36.87
Burgeoning
$35.28
Grave Pact
$33.34
Mortuary
$20.70
Horn of Greed
$19.60
Constant Mists
$19.44
Ensnaring Bridge
$13.79
44 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.
| Mox Diamond | rare | $1131.80 | 0.82 |
| Sliver Queen | rare | $301.14 | 0.82 |
| Volrath's Stronghold | rare | $124.58 | 0.82 |
| Dream Halls | rare | $36.87 | 0.82 |
| Burgeoning | rare | $35.28 | 0.82 |
| Grave Pact | rare | $33.34 | 0.82 |
| Mortuary | rare | $20.70 | 0.82 |
| Horn of Greed | rare | $19.60 | 0.82 |
| Ensnaring Bridge | rare | $13.79 | 0.82 |
| Volrath's Shapeshifter | rare | $13.75 | 0.82 |
| Hermit Druid | rare | $13.20 | 0.82 |
| Shaman en-Kor | rare | $6.93 | 0.82 |
| Awakening | rare | $6.51 | 0.82 |
| Intruder Alarm | rare | $5.74 | 0.82 |
| Ruination | rare | $5.28 | 0.82 |
| Sacred Ground | rare | $4.51 | 0.82 |
| Thalakos Deceiver | rare | $3.51 | 0.82 |
| Mogg Infestation | rare | $3.47 | 0.82 |
| Hidden Retreat | rare | $3.26 | 0.82 |
| Jinxed Ring | rare | $3.12 | 0.82 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
