Time Spiral
Open one box and you'll get $418.68 of cards, on average. A box costs $1,150 right now, so that means you're $731.32 short.
Cards inside
$418.68
Everything in the box, at today's prices
Box costs now
$1,150
TCGplayer market · from $1,600
Difference
-$731.32
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.
$418.68 is what the cards are worth to a buyer. It is not what you would be paid for them.
Worth to a buyer
$418.68
Every card at market price
What you'd keep
$204.84
About 49% of it, sold card by card
Stuck as bulk
30%
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 30% 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.
-$731.32
per box, against you
You would do better buying the singles
At $1,150 a box you'd come up about $731.32 short on average. Buying the individual cards you want will usually cost less.
Break-even price
$418.68
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
$3.30
Whole box
$118.80
$73.08 kept
Share
28%
Commons
The bulk of the pack. Individually worth very little.
Per pack
$2.86
Whole box
$102.96
$30.96 kept
Share
25%
Uncommons
Three per pack. Occasionally one is worth real money.
Per pack
$1.88
Whole box
$67.68
$18.72 kept
Share
16%
Tsts
One of the card positions in every pack of this product.
Per pack
$1.81
Whole box
$65.16
$34.20 kept
Share
16%
Foil (any rarity)
The guaranteed shiny card in every pack. Usually a common, occasionally something expensive.
Per pack
$1.78
Whole box
$64.08
$47.52 kept
Share
15%
The ten most valuable cards a Play Booster can produce, and roughly how often one shows up.
#1 most valuable
Gemstone Caverns
$321.31
You'll open one about 1 every 2 boxes
#2 most valuable
Claws of Gix
$259.98
You'll open one about 1 every 3 boxes
#3 most valuable
Scion of the Ur-Dragon
$174.80
You'll open one about 1 every 2 boxes
Tormod's Crypt
$150.00
Ophidian Eye
$148.60
Snapback
$131.89
Darkness
$99.66
Angel's Grace
$90.64
Reiterate
$79.37
Dandân
$73.89
80 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.
| Gemstone Caverns | rare | $57.12 | 0.46 |
| Norin the Wary | rare | $20.40 | 0.46 |
| Reiterate | rare | $19.65 | 0.46 |
| Trickbind | rare | $12.36 | 0.46 |
| Nether Traitor | rare | $10.86 | 0.46 |
| Sudden Spoiling | rare | $10.58 | 0.46 |
| Angel's Grace | rare | $9.30 | 0.46 |
| Stuffy Doll | rare | $8.86 | 0.46 |
| Scion of the Ur-Dragon | rare | $8.11 | 0.46 |
| Academy Ruins | rare | $7.69 | 0.46 |
| Living End | rare | $6.78 | 0.46 |
| Swarmyard | rare | $6.05 | 0.46 |
| Wurmcalling | rare | $5.98 | 0.46 |
| Vesuva | rare | $5.35 | 0.46 |
| Lotus Bloom | rare | $5.26 | 0.46 |
| Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder | rare | $4.96 | 0.46 |
| Flagstones of Trokair | rare | $4.46 | 0.46 |
| Wheel of Fate | rare | $4.19 | 0.46 |
| Demonic Collusion | rare | $3.73 | 0.46 |
| Ancestral Vision | rare | $3.63 | 0.46 |
Sets released around the same time, so you can see how this one stacks up.
