Mystery Booster

This past week I discovered that my local draft shop, Gamer-Corps, had a box of Mystery Booster (retail) for $150. On top of that, they also had two promos to go with it-Reliquary Tower and Mechagodzilla, Battle Fortress (Hangarback Walker). Together they represent about $30 in value. Ok, sure, sounds good.

As I wasn't drafting, buying singles, doing my normal spending out in stores, I decided to buy that box, help the store out as well. Why not... cheapest on TCG was about $175? And if landed a Mana Crypt, everything would be gravy. Though the odds were not good. 

Then the great debate in my brain took over- crack, hold, wait to draft?

Ugh!

I asked some friends and responses were basically one of each. Not super helpful. Then I realized- I haven't bought a box of anything Magic related (a full box of pack, etc) since the 90s. Now, that seems hard, but realize, I missed about 14 years of the game. I started getting the itch, and busted open those packs last night. 

Why? Cause I wanted to see... I have a hard time holding on to sealed product. Its a lottery card basically. However, Mystery Booster provides a real outstanding chance at getting some VERY good value on your investment. 

[slight aside] Guess its a good time to mention I just shipped off a chunk of cards to Card Kingdom in the hopes of landing another Volcanic Island. Thats the goal anyhow, but why now? Because my Bonus Round investment finally hit a critical level. I bought 18 of them for $0.65 over a year ago, and wound up acquiring others via trade for a grand total of 26 of them. Card Kingdom was offering $1.80 per, and 30% on top for a $2.34 per card in trade value. My investment for roughly $26 will net me $60 in trade value towards a dual land- which is exactly why I got them. 

The only hitch to this entire plan? Card Kingdom doesn't have any Volcanic Islands in stock to select. So it would be a waiting game for me. (they do have 1 EX Unlimited for $759. SLIGHTLY more than my current budget)

[small in-line update, just checked my account and it looks like CK graded my cards already, but has not issued the amount yet. After grading, and 30% bonus, looks like I should get $391.39. Enough for a VG graded Volcanic if they ever get one. "Only" lost about $20 in value due to grading)

Here are the winners of the Mystery Booster packs:

And while it doesn't look like much to the untrained eye, the middle row in the photo is the "money" row. 

Teferi's Protection, Bloom Tender, and Expropriate are the biggest values out of the box. Those three represent half my cost! ($74.07 according to TCG market)

After picking though and scanning a bunch because, honestly, I don't know many of the cards that might have value, I wound up with about $225 in value. (around $1 and up) Plus the two bonus cards... lets just call it at $250 total. Not too shabby.