I've read that contrary to popular belief the "A" at the end of the serial number does not mean it is a first run box. Is there a legitimate way to tell?
What is the expected value of the cards in a Zendikar box right now? If I pay $500 for a box will I get at least $300 or $400 worth of cards?
Not really. Biggest non-foils in the set are the enemy fetchlands then Iona and goblin guide. i'd say reasonably expect $200-$250 on avg. Biggest plus is the full art lands add like $40-$50 a box.
Scalding Tarn R $52.18
Misty Rainforest R $33.87
Verdant Catacombs R $33.23
Arid Mesa R $30.14
Iona, Shield M $28.31
Marsh Flats R $26.00
Goblin Guide R $18.99
Sorin Markov M $15.99
Nissa Revane M $12.50
Oracle of Mul Daya R $12.49
Bloodghast R $11.03
Eldrazi Monument M $10.54
Felidar Sovereign M $10.00
What is the expected value of the cards in a Zendikar box right now? If I pay $500 for a box will I get at least $300 or $400 worth of cards?
Not really. Biggest non-foils in the set are the enemy fetchlands then Iona and goblin guide. i'd say reasonably expect $200-$250 on avg. Biggest plus is the full art lands add like $40-$50 a box.
Scalding Tarn R $52.18
Misty Rainforest R $33.87
Verdant Catacombs R $33.23
Arid Mesa R $30.14
Iona, Shield M $28.31
Marsh Flats R $26.00
Goblin Guide R $18.99
Sorin Markov M $15.99
Nissa Revane M $12.50
Oracle of Mul Daya R $12.49
Bloodghast R $11.03
Eldrazi Monument M $10.54
Felidar Sovereign M $10.00
Hmm.. so long term you'd have more value in your collection if you bought say, five Khans boxes instead of one Zendikar box?
No, not at all. But that's also an unfair comparison. For one, I don't expect Khans to appreciate the way Zendikar did.
In general, though, you don't buy boxes to build collections. You buy collections (and singles) to build collections.
How is it 'no, not at all'?
I am building a collection via boxes, and I'm wondering if buying a single box of Zendikar at this point in time would be a valuable addition to the 4 - 6 boxes of each current set (and sets from this point on) that will be in the collection.
Khans EVs aren't the best, and a lot of its value is based in the mercurial (Standard cards). Zendikar definitely has better overall value, via the guaranteed full art basics, stable chase rares and off chance of Reserve List throw-ins. That said, I'm still not comfortable with your plan. Buying boxes has a lot of potential for waste, and just doesn't seem practical if you actually want to build a collection.
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I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
What is the expected value of the cards in a Zendikar box right now? If I pay $500 for a box will I get at least $300 or $400 worth of cards?
Not really. Biggest non-foils in the set are the enemy fetchlands then Iona and goblin guide. i'd say reasonably expect $200-$250 on avg. Biggest plus is the full art lands add like $40-$50 a box.
Scalding Tarn R $52.18
Misty Rainforest R $33.87
Verdant Catacombs R $33.23
Arid Mesa R $30.14
Iona, Shield M $28.31
Marsh Flats R $26.00
Goblin Guide R $18.99
Sorin Markov M $15.99
Nissa Revane M $12.50
Oracle of Mul Daya R $12.49
Bloodghast R $11.03
Eldrazi Monument M $10.54
Felidar Sovereign M $10.00
Hmm.. so long term you'd have more value in your collection if you bought say, five Khans boxes instead of one Zendikar box?
Don't do that either.
The problems with this are Zendikar EV is going to be in a freefall over the next six months or so between Iona and Goblin Guide being reprinted in MM2 and the extreme likelihood of the fetchlands being reprinted in Origins or BFZ block. The play for Zendikar sealed product is not to open it, but rather to stick it in the back of your closet and sell it unopened in a few years after it appreciates more.
Khans boxes are almost as bad due to not having a non-fetch card above $10 right now. If you truly want to accumulate Khans cards via product-like methods, redeeming sets from MTGO is not anywhere as negative as opening boxes is. Between redemption fees, shipping, and taxes, you're looking at roughly 100 USD/set for redemption, which is still not positive, but is a small enough hit that it may be a worthwhile way of accumulating fetchlands and reclaiming value from the rest of the set to redeem more sets.
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Hey all... I'm retired, not dead. Check out what I'm doing these days (and beg me to come back if you want):
What is the expected value of the cards in a Zendikar box right now? If I pay $500 for a box will I get at least $300 or $400 worth of cards?
Not really. Biggest non-foils in the set are the enemy fetchlands then Iona and goblin guide. i'd say reasonably expect $200-$250 on avg. Biggest plus is the full art lands add like $40-$50 a box.
Scalding Tarn R $52.18
Misty Rainforest R $33.87
Verdant Catacombs R $33.23
Arid Mesa R $30.14
Iona, Shield M $28.31
Marsh Flats R $26.00
Goblin Guide R $18.99
Sorin Markov M $15.99
Nissa Revane M $12.50
Oracle of Mul Daya R $12.49
Bloodghast R $11.03
Eldrazi Monument M $10.54
Felidar Sovereign M $10.00
Hmm.. so long term you'd have more value in your collection if you bought say, five Khans boxes instead of one Zendikar box?
Don't do that either.
The problems with this are Zendikar EV is going to be in a freefall over the next six months or so between Iona and Goblin Guide being reprinted in MM2 and the extreme likelihood of the fetchlands being reprinted in Origins or BFZ block. The play for Zendikar sealed product is not to open it, but rather to stick it in the back of your closet and sell it unopened in a few years after it appreciates more.
Khans boxes are almost as bad due to not having a non-fetch card above $10 right now. If you truly want to accumulate Khans cards via product-like methods, redeeming sets from MTGO is not anywhere as negative as opening boxes is. Between redemption fees, shipping, and taxes, you're looking at roughly 100 USD/set for redemption, which is still not positive, but is a small enough hit that it may be a worthwhile way of accumulating fetchlands and reclaiming value from the rest of the set to redeem more sets.
I agree with everything he just said. I would be looking into moto redemption especially for foils. Buying boxes of khans and keeping them for a few years would be worth money too. Though it wont be as lucrative as doing so has been in the past due to high level print runs. Only boxes worth doing that for these days would be like modern masters conspiracy FTV, special releases are the best bet.
Well the thing is I like buying cards brand new, and technically the only way to do that is to buy booster packs. Beginning with Khans I am collecting six boxes of large sets and four boxes of small sets. I collect everything, from the foil mythics to the regular commons. I like collecting the full gamut. I sort everything by rarity and then collector number, foils separate from regulars. Rares, mythics and all foils go in binders, everything else in storage boxes.
There aren't particular cards I want from any particular set, I enjoy leaving it up to randomness what kind of assortment of a particular set I get. For example I have a foil Temple Garden and a foil Breeding Pool from the RTR block. I would never be able to go out and get all the foil dual lands, but this way I have those in my binder and can say I pulled them from boosters myself along with everything else.
Anyways! I did find a confirmed first print run Zendikar box on eBay and just purchased it. Based on the posts here it seems like the cards I would get in a Zendikar box will add a lot of punch to my collection in the long term.
I don't think there is a way to "confirm" a first print run box of Zendikar. The "A" is no guarantee.
Holding onto Wizards Factory Sealed product is usually the best option, over a period of years its value should increase.
Well this guy got a case on release day and still has the cardboard case box with the date on it. You're right that I can't know 100% that it's a first run box, but I do believe it is.
And I do invest in sealed product in addition to forming a collection via opening boxes.
Investing in sealed boxes is the safest bet in MTG as long as you know what you're doing and don't stockpile born of the gods or crap like that that isn't fun to draft. Take KTK for example. Set was enormously popular to draft. Yeah print runs are very high but sealed product once it is stopped being produced begins to dry up. Innistrad had a massive print run. Now there's ONE box on SCG at 224.99 of innistrad. The best example I can think of are unhinged boxes. In 2008 when I started there was a massive glut of them since the basic lands weren't worth much. They went for a whopping $40 apiece on ebay. Now they are sold out on SCG at 549.99/7 years later and the price has increased by a multiplier of 13.75/over a thousand percent/completely ridiculous in terms of gains had I stockpiled them. Stockpiling cases/boxes of product that has a good draft environment is the best thing you can do in magic investment at this point as it doesn't matter if the cards in the set are reprinted or not as there will only ever be one khans of tarkir set with the exact same cards as khans of tarkir and that is itself. They revisit tarkir? Okay it doesn't have exactly the same cards as before unsurprisingly so the old set is still unique. Ravnica is a great example. The set is horrible value wise because virtually every money card has been reprinted at this point/they aren't worth much. Ravnica: City of Guilds is sold out at 600 on SCG because it is one of the best limited formats of all time. The cards inside a given box will virtually never add up to 600 as even if you open foil bob that's a quarter of the box price at 150 and making up 450 in value with just cards you pull in the packs is almost impossible.
1st print run of zendikar is pretty meaningless. If you can prove it is 1st run/could contain hidden treasures you might get people who are willing to pay more but I doubt it as there was, on average, 1 hidden treasure every 40 boxes or so if I remember correctly/good luck with opening something great from the old days. I know a guy who gets a case of every set each release who pulled a timetwister from his case luckily and the regional prerelease I attended saw a revised badlands opened but I can't remember anything else in the entire twin cities area.
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Yes I have done my research regarding investing in sealed product. My investment boxes are paid for with money that I had put aside for retirement savings. They always remain strictly separate from anything that I buy to open and add to my collection.
I will be tempted to keep the Zendikar box sealed for a while, and maybe end up just adding it to the investments if it goes up in value a lot. But we'll see.
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Not really. Biggest non-foils in the set are the enemy fetchlands then Iona and goblin guide. i'd say reasonably expect $200-$250 on avg. Biggest plus is the full art lands add like $40-$50 a box.
Scalding Tarn R $52.18
Misty Rainforest R $33.87
Verdant Catacombs R $33.23
Arid Mesa R $30.14
Iona, Shield M $28.31
Marsh Flats R $26.00
Goblin Guide R $18.99
Sorin Markov M $15.99
Nissa Revane M $12.50
Oracle of Mul Daya R $12.49
Bloodghast R $11.03
Eldrazi Monument M $10.54
Felidar Sovereign M $10.00
Hmm.. so long term you'd have more value in your collection if you bought say, five Khans boxes instead of one Zendikar box?
In general, though, you don't buy boxes to build collections. You buy collections (and singles) to build collections.
I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
Cubes:
Modern Banlist Cube
Monocolor Budget Cube
How is it 'no, not at all'?
I am building a collection via boxes, and I'm wondering if buying a single box of Zendikar at this point in time would be a valuable addition to the 4 - 6 boxes of each current set (and sets from this point on) that will be in the collection.
I'm officially proposing we retire the word "insane" from the MtG vocabulary.
"The best way to be different is to be better" - Gene Muir
Cubes:
Modern Banlist Cube
Monocolor Budget Cube
Don't do that either.
The problems with this are Zendikar EV is going to be in a freefall over the next six months or so between Iona and Goblin Guide being reprinted in MM2 and the extreme likelihood of the fetchlands being reprinted in Origins or BFZ block. The play for Zendikar sealed product is not to open it, but rather to stick it in the back of your closet and sell it unopened in a few years after it appreciates more.
Khans boxes are almost as bad due to not having a non-fetch card above $10 right now. If you truly want to accumulate Khans cards via product-like methods, redeeming sets from MTGO is not anywhere as negative as opening boxes is. Between redemption fees, shipping, and taxes, you're looking at roughly 100 USD/set for redemption, which is still not positive, but is a small enough hit that it may be a worthwhile way of accumulating fetchlands and reclaiming value from the rest of the set to redeem more sets.
https://twitch.tv/annorax10 (classic retro speedruns & occasional MTGO/MTGA screwaround streams)
https://twitch.tv/SwiftorCasino (yes, my team and I run live dealer games for the baldman using his channel points as chips)
I agree with everything he just said. I would be looking into moto redemption especially for foils. Buying boxes of khans and keeping them for a few years would be worth money too. Though it wont be as lucrative as doing so has been in the past due to high level print runs. Only boxes worth doing that for these days would be like modern masters conspiracy FTV, special releases are the best bet.
There aren't particular cards I want from any particular set, I enjoy leaving it up to randomness what kind of assortment of a particular set I get. For example I have a foil Temple Garden and a foil Breeding Pool from the RTR block. I would never be able to go out and get all the foil dual lands, but this way I have those in my binder and can say I pulled them from boosters myself along with everything else.
Anyways! I did find a confirmed first print run Zendikar box on eBay and just purchased it. Based on the posts here it seems like the cards I would get in a Zendikar box will add a lot of punch to my collection in the long term.
Holding onto Wizards Factory Sealed product is usually the best option, over a period of years its value should increase.
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
DCI Rules Advisor as of 5/18/2015
Well this guy got a case on release day and still has the cardboard case box with the date on it. You're right that I can't know 100% that it's a first run box, but I do believe it is.
And I do invest in sealed product in addition to forming a collection via opening boxes.
1st print run of zendikar is pretty meaningless. If you can prove it is 1st run/could contain hidden treasures you might get people who are willing to pay more but I doubt it as there was, on average, 1 hidden treasure every 40 boxes or so if I remember correctly/good luck with opening something great from the old days. I know a guy who gets a case of every set each release who pulled a timetwister from his case luckily and the regional prerelease I attended saw a revised badlands opened but I can't remember anything else in the entire twin cities area.
Currently Playing:
Retired
I will be tempted to keep the Zendikar box sealed for a while, and maybe end up just adding it to the investments if it goes up in value a lot. But we'll see.