The Hobbit
Open one box and you'll get $539.28 of cards, on average. A box costs $719 right now, so that means you're $179.99 short.
Cards inside
$539.28
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$719
TCGplayer market · from $705
Difference
-$179.99
Against you
Packs in the box
12
Each holds one rare or mythic
Box price from TCGplayer, checked October 8, 2026 · Card prices from Scryfall (TCGplayer market data) · last updated October 8, 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.
$539.28 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$539.28
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$384.60
About 71% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
9%
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 9% 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.
-$179.99
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $719 a box you'd come up about $179.99 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$539.28
Pay less than this and you're ahead on average.
Prices move week to week. Open a retailer to see what a box actually costs right now, then plug it into the calculator above.
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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
$24.46
Whole box
$293.52
$237.24 kept
Share
54%
Booster Fun treatment
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$14.70
Whole box
$176.40
$126.12 kept
Share
33%
Foil rare or mythic
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$3.32
Whole box
$39.84
$20.88 kept
Share
7%
Foil commons
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$1.09
Whole box
$13.08
$0.24 kept
Share
2%
Foil uncommons
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$0.96
Whole box
$11.52
$0.12 kept
Share
2%
Foil journey land
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$0.38
Whole box
$4.56
$0.00 kept
Share
1%
Surge hoard uncommon
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$0.02
Whole box
$0.24
$0.00 kept
Share
0%
The ten most valuable cards a Play Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Smaug the Magnificent
$24500.00
You'll open one Not in this booster
#2 most valuable
Mox Amber
$530.76
You'll open one about 1 every 9 boxes
#3 most valuable
The One Ring
$477.20
You'll open one about 1 every 25 boxes
Gleaming Splendor
$459.77
Smaug the Magnificent
$232.91
Arcane Signet
$190.01
Galadriel, Light of Valinor
$186.33
Orcish Bowmasters
$178.65
The One Ring
$154.49
Sauron, the Dark Lord
$133.92
252 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 Amber | mythic | $213.85 | 0.11 |
| The One Ring | mythic | $130.09 | 0.07 |
| Arcane Signet | mythic | $65.47 | 0.11 |
| Gleaming Splendor | mythic | $62.67 | 0.21 |
| Orcish Bowmasters | mythic | $58.94 | 0.07 |
| The Reaver Cleaver | mythic | $48.29 | 0.11 |
| Dáin of the Ancient Halls | mythic | $44.76 | 0.14 |
| Galadriel, Light of Valinor | mythic | $39.97 | 0.07 |
| Treasure Vault | mythic | $37.91 | 0.11 |
| Thranduil the Strategist | mythic | $35.63 | 0.14 |
| Galadriel's Dismissal | mythic | $33.93 | 0.07 |
| Sauron, the Dark Lord | mythic | $33.67 | 0.07 |
| Mithril Coat | mythic | $32.83 | 0.07 |
| Gleaming Splendor | mythic | $30.72 | 0.20 |
| Smaug the Magnificent | mythic | $29.97 | 0.21 |
| Delighted Halfling | mythic | $27.45 | 0.07 |
| Thorin, Company's Leader | mythic | $26.42 | 0.14 |
| Cavern-Hoard Dragon | mythic | $26.15 | 0.07 |
| Last March of the Ents | mythic | $23.17 | 0.07 |
| Chief of the Wilds | mythic | $21.91 | 0.14 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
