The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Open one box and you'll get $340.56 of cards, on average. A box costs $431 right now, so that means you're $90.04 short.
Cards inside
$340.56
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$431
TCGplayer market · from $408
Difference
-$90.04
Against you
Packs in the box
36
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.
$340.56 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$340.56
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$144.00
About 42% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
38%
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 38% 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.
-$90.04
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $431 a box you'd come up about $90.04 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$340.56
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 with showcase
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$4.34
Whole box
$156.24
$104.04 kept
Share
46%
Common with showcase
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$2.71
Whole box
$97.56
$8.28 kept
Share
29%
Uncommon with showcase
A special treatment — alternate frames and art that appear at a lower rate.
Per pack
$1.56
Whole box
$56.16
$22.32 kept
Share
16%
Foil incl. showcase
A foil version of this slot.
Per pack
$0.47
Whole box
$16.92
$9.00 kept
Share
5%
Basic land
The basic land. Worth essentially nothing unless it is a full-art foil.
Per pack
$0.38
Whole box
$13.68
$0.00 kept
Share
4%
The ten most valuable cards a Draft Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
The One Ring
$140.88
You'll open one about 1 every 5 boxes
#2 most valuable
Orcish Bowmasters
$56.89
You'll open one about 1 every 5 boxes
#3 most valuable
Orcish Bowmasters
$49.57
You'll open one about 1 every 2 boxes
Nazgûl
$45.82
Nazgûl
$43.57
Nazgûl
$41.07
Nazgûl
$40.14
Nazgûl
$35.97
Nazgûl
$35.94
Mithril Coat
$33.15
132 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.
| The One Ring | mythic | $109.97 | 0.21 |
| Orcish Bowmasters | rare | $49.09 | 0.22 |
| Orcish Bowmasters | rare | $40.97 | 0.44 |
| Mithril Coat | rare | $25.25 | 0.44 |
| Delighted Halfling | rare | $24.33 | 0.44 |
| Last March of the Ents | mythic | $22.21 | 0.11 |
| Last March of the Ents | mythic | $21.29 | 0.21 |
| Sauron, the Dark Lord | mythic | $18.71 | 0.11 |
| Palantír of Orthanc | mythic | $18.35 | 0.21 |
| Witch-king of Angmar | mythic | $18.08 | 0.05 |
| Sauron, the Dark Lord | mythic | $17.69 | 0.21 |
| Gandalf the White | mythic | $15.83 | 0.05 |
| Gandalf the White | mythic | $14.62 | 0.05 |
| Witch-king of Angmar | mythic | $13.93 | 0.05 |
| Aragorn, the Uniter | mythic | $11.62 | 0.05 |
| Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff | rare | $8.98 | 0.44 |
| Gandalf the White | mythic | $8.84 | 0.21 |
| Flowering of the White Tree | rare | $8.80 | 0.44 |
| Spiteful Banditry | mythic | $8.68 | 0.11 |
| Mount Doom | mythic | $8.26 | 0.11 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
