The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Open one box and you'll get $456.00 of cards, on average. A box costs $2,178 right now, so that means you're $1721.51 short.
Cards inside
$456.00
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$2,178
TCGplayer market · from $2,080
Difference
-$1721.51
Against you
Packs in the box
12
Each holds one rare or mythic
Box price from TCGplayer, checked September 2, 2026 · Card prices from Scryfall (TCGplayer market data) · last updated December 2, 2025
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.
$456.00 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$456.00
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$301.56
About 66% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
11%
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 11% 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.
-$1721.51
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $2,178 a box you'd come up about $1721.51 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$456.00
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 mythic showcase
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$10.75
Whole box
$129.00
$98.16 kept
Share
28%
Foil rare mythic showcase
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$4.89
Whole box
$58.68
$38.04 kept
Share
13%
Extended-art core rare mythic
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$4.83
Whole box
$57.96
$39.48 kept
Share
13%
Foil rare or mythic
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$3.95
Whole box
$47.40
$30.48 kept
Share
10%
Extended-art jump starter rare mythic
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$3.44
Whole box
$41.28
$22.92 kept
Share
9%
Nonfoil sol ring
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$3.26
Whole box
$39.12
$33.60 kept
Share
9%
Borderless scene
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$2.46
Whole box
$29.52
$19.32 kept
Share
6%
Uncommon showcase
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$1.08
Whole box
$12.96
$8.52 kept
Share
3%
Foil commons
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$0.90
Whole box
$10.80
$0.96 kept
Share
2%
Foil basic land
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$0.64
Whole box
$7.68
$0.00 kept
Share
2%
Foil uncommon showcase
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$0.63
Whole box
$7.56
$3.24 kept
Share
2%
Surge relic
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$0.62
Whole box
$7.44
$6.12 kept
Share
2%
Foil uncommons
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$0.56
Whole box
$6.72
$0.60 kept
Share
1%
Serialized sol ring
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$0.00
Whole box
$0.00
$0.00 kept
Share
0%
The one ring
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$0.00
Whole box
$0.00
$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
Sol Ring
$1215.29
You'll open one about 1 every 100 boxes
#2 most valuable
Sol Ring
$403.53
You'll open one about 1 every 33 boxes
#3 most valuable
Sol Ring
$339.31
You'll open one about 1 every 25 boxes
Ancient Tomb
$296.39
The One Ring
$284.79
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
$215.38
Cavern of Souls
$214.67
Gemstone Caverns
$199.56
The Great Henge
$174.41
Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
$135.22
331 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.
| Sol Ring | mythic | $1215.29 | 0.01 |
| Sol Ring | mythic | $403.53 | 0.03 |
| Sol Ring | mythic | $339.31 | 0.04 |
| Ancient Tomb | mythic | $130.04 | 0.13 |
| The One Ring | mythic | $99.56 | 0.18 |
| Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth | mythic | $91.29 | 0.13 |
| The Great Henge | mythic | $84.40 | 0.13 |
| The One Ring | mythic | $83.73 | 0.09 |
| The One Ring | mythic | $70.37 | 0.26 |
| Gemstone Caverns | mythic | $59.13 | 0.13 |
| Shadowspear | mythic | $56.89 | 0.13 |
| The Ozolith | mythic | $54.26 | 0.13 |
| Minamo, School at Water's Edge | mythic | $50.65 | 0.13 |
| Cavern of Souls | mythic | $48.25 | 0.13 |
| Cabal Coffers | mythic | $45.59 | 0.13 |
| Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth | mythic | $37.30 | 0.13 |
| Orcish Bowmasters | rare | $33.17 | 0.52 |
| Orcish Bowmasters | rare | $29.84 | 0.17 |
| Cavern-Hoard Dragon | rare | $26.87 | 0.14 |
| Bojuka Bog | mythic | $24.97 | 0.13 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
