Incredibly, I stopped in at a local shop and picked up one random UM booster pack. Put it back, picked up another. Ended up with a Liliana!
Anyways, my original question was more about box or pack mapping within a box. Definitely more comfortable with a local shop when buying loose boosters though.
Hi everyone, long ago Magic player just now getting back into it after about 20 years away. Loving it!
In retrospect, I should have just bought a UM Booster Box, but had been randomly picking up 3 pack blister packs off and on from Target (weirdly prices ranging from $30 to $49). Each pack I was amazed at the quality of the cards inside - great mythics, rares and foil mythics and rares too. Then, with Target inventory gone, I decided to do one more little tranche of buying and picked up 8 boosters from an online store. Not a huge thing, but still over $100 spent. Opened each one and everything was crap! Each foil was a common. One crap mythic. Each rare was pretty much the lowest demand/weakest rares. It was such a different experience than every other pack I had opened up to that point. These were loose boosters not the 3 pack blister.
So, I'm wondering about the things I've seen mentioned but havent researched since I've been back about box or pack mapping. Is it possible when buying loose packs of recent sets for them to have been somehow sorted out from strong to weak? Is there a lesson that you should either not buy loose boosters or only from certain online shops? Just looking for some general insight and guidance on how this all works nowadays.
Anyways, my original question was more about box or pack mapping within a box. Definitely more comfortable with a local shop when buying loose boosters though.
In retrospect, I should have just bought a UM Booster Box, but had been randomly picking up 3 pack blister packs off and on from Target (weirdly prices ranging from $30 to $49). Each pack I was amazed at the quality of the cards inside - great mythics, rares and foil mythics and rares too. Then, with Target inventory gone, I decided to do one more little tranche of buying and picked up 8 boosters from an online store. Not a huge thing, but still over $100 spent. Opened each one and everything was crap! Each foil was a common. One crap mythic. Each rare was pretty much the lowest demand/weakest rares. It was such a different experience than every other pack I had opened up to that point. These were loose boosters not the 3 pack blister.
So, I'm wondering about the things I've seen mentioned but havent researched since I've been back about box or pack mapping. Is it possible when buying loose packs of recent sets for them to have been somehow sorted out from strong to weak? Is there a lesson that you should either not buy loose boosters or only from certain online shops? Just looking for some general insight and guidance on how this all works nowadays.
Thanks!