Is It Worth It To Buy A Collector Booster Box? A Magic: The Gathering Product Review

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

WELL, ACTUALLY, Modern Horizons Booster Boxes contain 36 packs, not 24 as I accidentally typed in this video. Sorry! All the talk of MASTERS boxes like Modern Masters 2015 put my brain in 24 pack mode, I guess.While I have you here, please go watch my NEW video on $50 Mono Red Burn that KZbin buried. K, thnx!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/p2TSgnuCdpp6qpY

[@nickolaslillogodoy3496]

Already watched it when it came out, great video, I loved the idea so I built a version myself in standard xd. Anyway gonna watch it again if that helps you. Sorry that youtube behaves this way :'c

[@tzunami2002]

You know how many and in wich order the Foil Extended Cards appear per Display... why did you not adress this issue? To not mess the whole thing up anymore? I am not going to talk about it here but the numbers and the possible position of the F.E.A. in the boxes is pretty clear, mappable and known by a lot of people so far... is it really better to not talk about it than?

[@UraseiRyuu]

Nice video as always prof! But... (there's always at least one but) Wizards is not charging you 350$ for the collector's booster box, your LGS is. The boosters are being sold at 170~190 from the distributor to the shop, and the shop is literally robbing you almost 200$ for it. I bought one of these boosters boxes for only 210$ (aproximately) , cause my LGS is not robbing me, it's treating me like as the loyal customer I am. On another topic I did buy these booster boxes and I love all of them, I got full sets (one of each) of the foils and non-foils showcase frames. Love your video! Keep up the good work and thank you.

[@Mrtfarrugia]

No booster box game for this? You've got a kid you can put to work and some organs you could sell.

[@victorcousins97]

Tolarian Community College prof you’re an English major. You should know Apple in old English was used to refer to many fruits. The Orange was named after the tree then later the color was named after the fruit in the 1520s.

[@mulldrifterz6469]

Many Magic: The Gathering players ask the question; What would the Professor look like with a mohawk, before completely shaving his head?

[@coreygish7516]

Mulldrifter Z haha yes I ask myself this constantly!!!

[@RPGRelicHunter]

We do ask this

[@cadenchampion3244]

Mulldrifter Z He oughta donate his long hair to locks of love instead of letting it only be cut and go to waste.

[@corvidcognition]

Mohawk mohawk mohawk!

[@Jambamjar]

Caden Champion locks of love isnt a good charity to donate to! They often throw perfectly good hair away and dont accept dyed hair. There are way better hair charities to donate to

[@nicholasjensen1077]

I’m honestly surprised the prof. didn’t just say, “No, it’s not.” And end the video.

[@AgentPedestrian]

He started a vid with that joke once. Forget which one. But ultimately his style is always to explain why

[@CathrineMacNiel]

@@AgentPedestrian its the spellslinger starter kit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXK3eKKrg92ll9k

[@MeagenImage]

Split the cost with three friends and have a Collectors' Draft, while you drink champagne and snack on caviar.

[@ich3730]

thats so extra, i wanna do that

[@sethmasters2147]

MeagenImage and you still have to have friends to defray the cost as 100$ for caviar and your champange is the cheap portion of your evenings enjoyment.

[@statictv6656]

I support this idea

[@joshuanorris5860]

Yeah or do the exact same thing except do it with 120 normal packs lol

[@mattm7798]

Will Grey Poupon be present?

[@trumpetperson11]

Jeez, never thought of it that way, but its basically asking the consumer if they think that one collector's pack is worth the same as 10 normal packs. TEN, that's crazy.

[@MasterDoctorBenji]

The holiday gift box is offering the same thing 80 vs 40 with all the same stuff but a single collector booster.

[@MrVariant]

Yeah i buy a prerelease online. Love the promo embercleaver and showcase bonecrusher giant I got. The deluxe version says hold my beer to the collector's pack. Funny how Prof can say $450 deluxe I too expensive (4 more packs for $100 with extras is a steal by that logic) yet buy a $350 box. Booo! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mWalqop9pJqhiqM

[@MasterDoctorBenji]

@Ceygar except it's just a fat pack box. Foiled sure but it's a box

[@92bagder]

or 3 modern master packs, 5 modern horizon packs, a bundle box for the same as ONE pack

[@PeterAuto1]

As a LGS we pay only around 5 times more for the collector booster than the normal. But the item is now unlisted at our distributor. So the price is more due to the scarcity

[@Huandamonia]

Over at Alpha Investments, it was discovered through opening dozens of boxes that not only does every box contain four Foil extended art cards and/or foil showcase rares/mythics, but that they are all clumped together when opening them. It is highly advised not to buy individual packs since the seller is able to, with solid accuracy, tell which packs only have foil rares and only sell those.

[@tombullard6167]

Huandamonia correct although it.doesn't rule out chance at extended art planeswalker in the showcase border slots but I still wouldn't recommend buying loose packs or any packs for that matter, I got a box for $230 which is a steal compared to everywhere else I see them being sold but I was still disappointed at that price....I got extended art foils of Fervent Champion and Lochmere Serpent 😳 then my last 2 hits were Showcase foil Giant Killer with best hit in box being Foil Showcase Murderous Rider. So I was pretty disappointed just wish my foil rates pulled had been at least extended regular or extended foils bc then I woulda been super stoked bc pulled regular foil Once Upon a Time and Fabled Passage

[@grandmasterlubu6332]

@@tombullard6167 oof, I got a foil showcase murderous rider and a regular ass oko out of a 40 buck bundle the other day. Some other decent stuff too.

[@sadino123]

"Maybe my gut was right to go with the D." The Professor- 2019

[@jerrywilliams408]

These can also contain non-foil common tap lands. That should NOT happen with this type of product.

[@The_Ajna]

Wait they do? That’s so dumv

[@jerrywilliams408]

@@The_Ajna Yep. I have pulled two.

[@SUPERC0W7]

There was a Wind-Scarred Crag pulled just in this video.

[@PhyreSpore]

Not to mention they can also have chaft cards from the planeswalker decks. Seriously, who thought that was a good idea!?

[@k9commander]

Those two lands are from the Planeswalker decks. They're the crap cards of the ancillary card slot.

[@Shrp91]

Prof, I hope you don't lose to much money on this video for buying this overpriced product. We already knew it wasn't worth it. I appreciate the commitment to the series and wanting to let people know this isn't worth it. I just don't want the channel to suffer for wotc's sins.

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

Videos like this WILL lose me money by themselves. There's no way ad revenue will cover the cost of this box. However, I am able to do videos like this because the overall channel has money coming in to it via Patreon, merch sales, my sponsor, etc.

[@Vian888]

Yeah, we knew these were a disaster when Rudy was cracking them early on. I appreciate you doing this video because it supports my impressions on this product. Hopefully WotC takes note for future premium booster products.

[@nerv007]

Thanks for taking the hit for us in the short term to confirm that something like this is bad math the gathering.

[@VEXX1]

most of the collectors boxes you can sell the singles and just about make your money back

[@deadtotheworld00]

@@TolarianCommunityCollege now that you've said that I'm probably going to buy some merch for Christmas!

[@fajenthygia5760]

I was bored and sleep deprived, and bought one pack. Got a foil extended art royal scions. I am quitting while I'm ahead.

[@FartRave]

Got a showcase Ugin from an M21 collector pack, first and last one I buy

[@FartRave]

I should clarify that I am also quitting while ahead, as Ugin is the card I most wanted out of the pack, value be damned

[@flowdaflava6574]

Don’t worry, I’m sure prices will go up. Collectors and the market tend to shake their heads when new stuff hits so thus the market tanks, when it becomes a norm, we will adjust

[@ujai5271]

30 dollards per pack is insane. I thought they were overpriced at 20!

[@bobdole8830]

Good old magic greed

[@kairanm]

If you live in Brazil you pay around 19 BRL for a normal booster, and the minimun salary here is around 900 BRL, so we buy a collector booster every time when we want to improve our collection, but the normal one :/

[@WangerZ3291]

in other words, you're better off buying the singles.

[@MrVariant]

@@timk1719 really, C? Hate repeating my comment but deluxe is better for 4 packs and extras with $100 more. Just embarrassing. I can't take this channel seriously.

[@joelmonteiro1419]

Wizards will keep pushing the prices of packs until nobody buys them. Great game run by an awful, greedy company.

[@captainkarnage9874]

TFW when you can buy 3.5 Scalding Tarns for 1 Collector's Edition box

[@jakeglass4607]

Lol

[@jacobshaffer7831]

YIKES

[@BaileeModern]

Or much much more if you use certain Chinese retailer

[@jtizzle450]

yeah or 2 mana crypts :O

[@paradox5435]

Alright here we go, modern decks in or under the $350 price range... Mono red blitz $228 Mono red burn $289 8 whack $172 Twiddle storm $238 Need I go on? All of which are semi meta

[@Kayametra]

Even Gifts Storm can be had for $275. It just won a Open

[@64bitrobot]

I love the showcase frames, but honestly, I could just buy the singles I want of them. I would much rather have 120 regular booster packs.

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

I love the showcase frames too. Thankfully,t hey are all in the regular 4 buck boosters.

[@heathertaylor16]

In 120 regular booster packs? You can open a LOT of showcase frames. Also, 120 boosters is 5 different pods of you and 7 friends drafting. Because YOU CAN'T EVEN DRAFT THE COLLECTOR BOOSTERS! The alternate 58 are over-represented so that you open enough of them, but it warps the card pool and the available draft archetypes.

[@arashikagehayabusa2910]

@@TolarianCommunityCollege The non-foil commons are only in the collector boosters. Really only makes a difference if you're a collector, or prefer non-foil for certain reasons (i.e. no curving).

[@gregzo2021]

No saved you 18 minutes (but still watch it cause the prof is fantastic :))

[@kalman0966]

Good looking out m!

[@yonyon5432]

5:28 THE GOAT TURNED INTO FOOD I'm traumatized

[@Jay-rb5pg]

What did you think happened to goats irl?

[@joshuanorris5860]

The goat was born food

[@immuneimmunity9212]

@@joshuanorris5860 If you want to be technical. We're all born food. Also the rat turned into food shortly after the goat lol

[@joshuanorris5860]

@@immuneimmunity9212 :P

[@arcanumkonrad8200]

Damn vegan...

[@stevenluoma1268]

The cheapest I can find a box of eldraine in my entire city is equivalent to about 114 usd from a small shop owned by two really nice people who put so little markup on their stuff that I worry about them. The US sure seems magical when it comes to magic cards and food sometimes.

[@jeremywigington6176]

I was SO hyped to buy Collectors booster when they were first announced. I assumed 6-10$ a pack or so. With basically all foil plus guaranteed Showcase and Extended Art, I was thinking of saving and buying my first Magic booster box. But @ $30 a pack, I might save up and get 2 or 3 (packs) for fun. $30 a pack is ridiculous. Also, this is the second video I have seen of someone getting a Wind Scarred Crag in one of these. There is ZERO reason that card should show up in these boosters. This is another example of WOTC having a great idea that fails in execution. C grade is way too generous.

[@wintercat1027]

I would've given a D because that's what it gave me when I got screwed on my pulls

[@LowinBayrod]

And no lube

[@GlennShiraishi]

The Extended Arts look more like the MTG Arena extended art card styles... Or at least that's the impression I get from them.

[@eildonp]

Bought a regular booster box, got the buy a box promo as well as a collector booster for buying the box from my LGS and in the collector booster I opened a Chulane and a Worthy Knight non foil with the expended frame. Not too bad. But I gotta say the foil alternate art for the adventure cards looks amazing.

[@TreeCutterDoug]

Thanks for saving me a ton of money!

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

That's my job!

[@ExtremeMedium]

$30 packs stuffed with Wind-Scarred Crags and Tranquil Coves aren't for you. And you should be thankful.

[@N1ghthavvk]

You are paying so much for the advertising department at wizards to allow them to print on the back of the token card. Or should I say, the front of the advertisement insert?

[@PadovanCaio]

Boy, it's a hard "D". If you live outside US, it's a "F".

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

Absolutely can see that view. Like I said, came close to giving it that.

[@hansgruber3352]

That's what she said!

[@landel_]

1 box of "omg if I could break even it would be amazing" = more than the average salary in many countries. I'd go with Z-

[@NefashusLP]

"This product is not for you."

[@joshuanorris5860]

Nope, Its for whales :p

[@Dracinard]

Not for anyone. If I was a whale I'd want to spend my money on fetch lands and Modern staples. I'd foil out my commander deck, get some super art planeswalkers and cool alternate arts. If I had money to burn I'd try collecting the Power Nine and running actual dual lands rather than proxies. Buying 12 boosters for some stretched artwork and foil 2 dollar rates would not be on my radar.

[@NefashusLP]

@@Dracinard I think I got this from a video from Rudy. "This product is not for you" and its kinda true, its a product aimed at people wich a lot of cash. Ofc those cards look really nice and I'd like some, but the price is too high. Especially as a student, no way to afford and even IF I had that spare money to spend, I would spend it on other stuff.

[@WusigiDr1]

I found these at my store and they got price matched to regular booster prices. Got 6 for 4 bucks each :3

[@dannykstick]

Which store? Barnes and noble?

[@Toshirozawa]

nice lie

[@dongiannini4902]

I dont think hes lying. My local target had a full peg of collector boosters, but they didnt change the price from a regular one. Needless to say i cleared em out. Didnt open anything of note but hey I got 14 collector packs for 4.99 a pop so i was thrilled either way

[@DailYxDosE]

@@dongiannini4902 my target’s section is empty always

[@Foxpawed]

Got my fill of gambling on them when I did a pack war with my LGS owner for one pack. Three foil 5 drop commons and a foil 7 drop. Won an Oko, signet and an extended art Torbran for my commander deck between the two packs.

[@Afronoha]

Prof, off topic question: why are you signing cards over illustration, especially when it's so pretty. Wouldn't it be better to put a signature over text box?

[@oldestman4598]

Hey Prof, huge fan! I'm a budget Commander player but I love videos like these even when they're way out of my price range. Honestly, if I had the money and I was only interested in the chase cards, I would just buy the singles over the box. As a Commander player, I love pretty versions of Commanders but will usually get the cheapest versions of everything else for the 99. I like how they are pushing pretty cards like "extended" art and foils but this product is definitely not for me. Thanks for the content!

[@graenko792]

I thought the point of collectors packs was every card in them was foiled

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

Nope, as you can see, many are not.

[@statictv6656]

They should've foiled the collector box

[@cross_lair]

My LGS was giving one of these boosters to the early birds that bought one of the first boxes, I happened to be the first one buying an Eldraine booster box so I got mine, I got a borderless Questing Beast and a foil Emry, really good pack

[@rawpower2025]

I don't wanna sound like some pessimistic, "If you don't like then don't play or buy" kind of person in MTG but I do not like the outrageous sealed product prices or the way these collector's items are handled...

[@saskak6069]

As a side note, where from is this music? I recognize it from a visual novel at least. 😂

[@jcreyes4869]

As of right now the professor has raised the most amount, good luck and hope you provide a video of your trip to the barber hahaha

[@MTGUnpacked]

Very thorough! You're probably better off just buying the collector cards you want on the secondary market. The chances of pulling the good stuff from packs is slim!

[@amadeustd3418]

I didn't know you could get the borderless planeswalkers in the normal booster packs. I shall keep that in mind

[@hjge1012]

Haven't bought any MTG cards in ages, but is that really what foils come down to these days? They barely even look foiled. Or is it the camera?

[@DimT670]

It's the camera. Eldraine foils look amazing

[@pokemonnerd3962]

i love seeing the MTG card artwork! love it!

[@adolphus28]

All the Mythics and Rares in Throne of Eldraine/ELD have at least one version of the special card treatment. So in total of the 15 Mythics and 53 Rares in the set. Mythics - Borderless Planeswalkers 3, Showcase 2, Extended Art 10; Rares - Showcase 5, Extended Art 48; There are also with Uncommons - 9 Showcase and Commons - 14 Showcase.

[@littleteemot2988]

I love love the showcase of this set and love your channel so I support your patreon!!

[@LivingThing28]

Videos like these are why I’m supporting Prof on patreon

[@DatBrasss]

Hey Prof! You should invite Spice 8 Rack to do an Office Hours as Yawgmoth.

[@tcgtingles926]

Insightful as always. Your sacrifice is appreciated. :)

[@jasonmiller3543]

Wow, glad I watched this first. Really dodge an expensive bullet there. I will stick with just a regular booster box for some games with friends.

[@youthought202]

I got a foil extended art scions, which helped even out what i spent on the packs

[@haganedragonlatency775]

Hi Prof, I don't know if you seen or heard how the booster boxes often have 4 foiled showcase/alt art cards in them, but they are usually together in the front on the left or in the back on the right. Letting stores easily map where they can open the money ones and sell the rest.

[@enchantedeve2297]

I won the buy a box collectors pack from the draft of a regular Eldraine box with my friends and I honestly can’t even remember what was in it. The mishmash is kinda confusing. Great video!

[@omniviking]

My Local Game Shop offered a pre order, so I got a box for around $200 . I am happy with my purchase. you are only looking at the one big card in each pack, please go nack and play buy a box game and give value for any card over your normal $2 base and see how much worth you received. some of the alternative art commons and uncommons are worth a few bucks

[@Trazynn]

Looks like they took your extended art feedback to heart as the Neon Dynasty cards are indeed extended rather than enlarged.

[@mf8759]

I know this video is an old post but I purchased two D&D booster boxes and I was able to get almost every card from those alone. I love them!

[@losmiercoles]

Like always, thank you very much, I was looking where to spend some christmas money, and collector boosters aren't the place. Those "is it worth it" videos are extremely helpful, even a magic veteran finds themselves confused when looking at all those products sometimes.

[@snowy5599]

The music is just so cheery that even though we see you getting ripped off, it kind of makes me feel better....

[@turbofrog_froggy]

In general, I don't buy collector's boosters unless I get one for free, or as an add in, or something like that. One exception: I absolutely LOVED Theros: Beyond Death. In terms of aesthetics and flavor, it's my favorite set to date. I did purchase a collector's booster box of TBD - not for VALUE, but because I wanted the bling. I have a lot of decks that use even 2 cent commons from Theros, and I got some awesome foil versions and alternative border versions to bling out my deck with. I had a lot of fun cracking the packs and putting all the shinies into my decks, so it was worth it to me. It's not something I plan to do regularly, but if another set came out that spoke to me the same way and that I turned to for brewing as often, I would consider it.

[@darkjigoo]

7:27 You can get cards exclusive to planeswalker decks in these!?! That alone pretty much spoils any interest I COULDVE had in buying one of these.. Actually a joke

[@thundercade64]

Yep, really, really wish I would have known that before I picked up a few.

[@Fiveways87]

All it takes for me is how the professor says smorgasbord. Just wanted to let you know you create great content and very helpful for magic buyers such as myself.

[@tiredsentinel1724]

Hey Professor, just wanted to let you know the kids and I took a trip to a friend recommended card shop, we all got Welcome Decks, and we’re diving in this weekend! MTG +3

[@galidroo]

I thought that your comparison of the cost vs other gaming systems helped put it into perspective

[@Miluriel]

Thanks, I just got tempted to gamble for the extended art foil Emry, and this video definitely cured me of that.

[@Toshirozawa]

I personally did not buy any collector booster packs, just a box of regular Eldraine, however I did buy 2 collector boxes which I plan on keeping sealed for several years and seeing where the value goes.

[@vmcampos]

Great video as usual. My biggest Agree is that there should have been uniformity in the contents of the booster. Oh, well. We'll see if they continue to iterate on Project Booster Time™️.

[@jonunciate7018]

I've been watching a lot of box opening for these and they don't seem to be completely randomized. There are 4 packs next to each other that contain the "super rare" card, either an extended art foil rare/mythic, or a story book art foil rare/mythic in every box I've seen opened. Don't buy loose packs unless it is from a reputable seller. They could just open a box until they open those 4 packs and then sell the rest. What is nice about these packs is you can get multiple rares and mythics in each of them and that is what we typically open packs for anyway when not drafting. I wonder what the average number of rares/mythics per pack is? If the density is high enough one collector pack could be the same as buying multiple draft packs. I'm still not convinced it's worth the price unless you plan to sit on a sealed box for a four or five years to resell it...

[@stuffandnonsense8528]

Absolutely love the art of this set and the showcase frames. Not bothered by the extended art.

[@emjackson81989]

I got 1 with my box, bought 2 from my LGS for about $25.00 USD and another 2 about a week ago from my local Target for about $21.00 USD, I think it was worth it. I got a foil extended art Rankle and an extended alternate art Oko: I'm planning to sell or trade them at some point for other cards. I mainly bought the packs to get some trade fodder for my up and coming trade binder along with other cards I no longer want. In this regard, I think it was worth it.

[@patrickcallison2167]

One of my favortie magic memories was meeting the professor at this years magic grand pre in seattle and having him sign my mat.

[@Snaglbeest]

I give this product and "F" for "Fire the Investors, they are ruining your goodwill."

[@MerolLord]

As a comparison if you really wanted to collect all the showcase cards... you can buy 1 of every showcase card for about 30 bucks + another 23 for Brazen Borrower, on card kingdom

[@arashikagehayabusa2910]

They may or may not end up with financial value, but I noticed that you did not make note of certain version exclusive cards within the collector boxes. Specifically, the non-foil showcase commons, non-foil brawl commanders, non-foil planeswalker deck planeswalkers, and the non-foil buy a box Kenrith are all additional exclusive cards on top of the ones you mentioned. Your video even noted the fact that the non-foil Alela you opened is at about $9 right now. Sure you won't get a lot of these to make up your financial value (I think I've seen around 2-3 per box in the opening videos I've watched). But it is worth noting that these versions are exclusive to get a fuller picture of what you can get in these packs.

[@Duskrequim]

I Bought 5 Collectors booster packs. I got them super cheap at a walmart (store had them marked at $5 a pack by mistake) I pulled Full Art Foil Foilo of Fancies and a Full Art Foil Once upon a time. I also got both Garruk and Rowan and Royal Scions as non foil non alt art Planeswalkers. I pulled Alt art foil giants cloak. It was pretty much super packs. But that was because I benefited from a stores mess up. I agree though... the Ravnica collector packs were NO Commons.... if they had done that in Eldraine the price may been more equivalent.

[@bradlewis261]

0 Comments, huh? Anyway, something's gonna snap with the consumer-base eventually if Wizards keeps throwing trash like this at us, expecting us to buy it

[@ironocy496]

For less than the cost of 1 collector booster box I bought 2 prerelease kits, 1 draft booster box, and 1 fat pack. One prerelease kit had a stamped foil Questing Beast and special frame non-foil Bonecrusher Giant. The draft booster box had a foil super art Garruk, non-foil super art Royal Scions, and a non-foil regular art Oko along with Fabled Passage and another special frame Bonecrusher, in all it had 7 mythics. The fat pack had a normal Oko, Fabled Passage, and Murderous Rider and a few other decent cards, 3 mythics total. I spent about half the money, opened way more packs, played sealed and draft games, and pulled about the average value of a collector booster box minus a foil "extended" art card which I think are slightly kess ugly than Amonkhet masterpieces.

[@jimhopkins3972]

I got lucky(ish) with my Buy-a-Box promo Collector's Pack, and cracked a foil Brazen Borrower, which I'll actually use. Overall the value started out at about the cost of the pack, but in the last couple of weeks it's dropped by about a fifth to a quarter. Not terrible, and I did get a Modern-usable card.

[@mikeg1032]

Boy thats a close one. Almost baught one i couldn't decide. Thanks!

[@discard-dead]

I bought 2 packs. Opened one and got a nonfoil extended Great Henge and a regular foil Gadwick the Wizened, the other pack I’m keeping sealed for whatever. Am tempted to buy a box and keep it sealed to see how it ages. I wish it was all foil though, like the Shards of Alara premium booster packs. They were fun and imho worth it at the time. On another note, I’m an alterer and when I saw the extended art cards I thought to myself “heck, I can do that...”

[@TreeCutterDoug]

Thanks so much for the critical review! I've been hemming and hawing about buying a few boxes, and waiting for the price to come down a bit... But I don't think they'll get low enough to justify it for me. I'd much prefer a couple of boxes of modern horizons, or 3&½ regular boxes of Eldrain.

[@pb75530]

I got a murderous rider alt foil and non-foil in the same pack. Some of the packs are packing five rares/mythics in a single pack. It is a product for a specific type of player. If you don't want to pay a bunch for the packs, then get the regular ones. No one is forcing people to buy them, so I don't get all the anger.

[@Rev0lutionary]

While you only focused on the price points of the ancilleary, extended, and foil slots, there's still a good swath of value in the foil common/uncommon slot and showcase slots. Showcase Merchant of the Vale is 2$ non-foil, and foiled I'm sure it's just a bit more. Merfolk Secretkeeper and Smitten Swordmaster is a solid dollar all day in the showcase frame. Not to mention some of the chase rares in these slots; Murderous Rider, Realm-cloaked Giant, Brazen Borrower, Fae of Wishes, Bonecrusher Giant, even Lovestruck Beast in showcase are worth just as much if not *more* than their non-showcase counterparts. Is it worth it to get *a* booster? Likely not. There's too much variance, and considering that each box has 2-4 extended art foils in them means that you might or might not hit a jackpot card on your single booster. A box, however, negates a lot of that variance and if you were to total up the value of all the cards in them across 12 boosters you might break even or turn a small profit if you hit a big hitter like Oko or Tree. Though once again, this product isn't for everybody. It's supposed to be for the people that enjoy the Mythic style products they tried to introduce with Ravnica/Spark that caused a gigantic mess on the Hasbro site and later on Ebay. Putting this product in an LGS's hands to sell is a good thing in my opinion, as it allows for the people that actually want the product to be able to get it instead of scalpers just maxing credit cards to try to easy double their money.

[@DeviousPie2]

Did you shuffle your 12 packs prior to opening them? It seems a large number of the Collector's Editions have mappable packs that have foil+extended art card or foil+showcase rares in the last slot. Basically, under no circumstances should you buy single collector's boosters. You will almost certainly not get showcase foil or extended art foil in them.

[@arashikagehayabusa2910]

Your comment is one of the only ones I've seen that says the mapping applies to both Foil Extended Art and Foil Showcase Rare/Mythic cards. The rest I've replied to state that it's always 1-4 Foil Extended Art cards, which appears to not be true (this video as a case in point). While I have seen that the 1-4 are right next to each other in a box, what is the mapping method to determine which of those packs will be a Foil Extended Art card of a Foil Showcase card? Also, how do you know how many your box has gotten? My box for example only had 3 Foil Extended Art cards and no others (no Foil Showcase card).

[@DavidArcher_]

I got a single pack and got a foil extended Piper of the Swarm. Not worth much since it's not really played in Standard but I shoved it into my Marrow-Gnawer rat tribal Commander deck. I'm satisfied.

[@theDelta9er]

If I remember correctly, I think Collector's Boosters are the only place to get the foil versions Superart/Showcase cards, and Extended cards both foil and non-foil. But that still doesn't justify $20 for one pack. I can still go buy a Guild Kit for that price.

[@almogdov]

I bought 4 boosters (not boxes), they had decent-ish content. nothing that really justifies the insane price. I did expect that though, that's why I only bought 4 since what I wanted wasn't the pay-day but the experience of opening a couple. Me and a buddy did 2 booster fights with them and it was fun enough. Financially? can't recommend this.. the volatility is pretty insane. Experience? well if you don't mind the price tag, those are a unique experience and I do have room in some of my decks for a couple of the cards I opened (extended art Wishclaw Talisman and foil extended Midnight clock for example). So, if you want to crack to resell? I say no. If you want to buy one or two (boosters) for the experience? I say Yes. (note, I did somewhat forced my supplier to sell me at cost without profit for about 26$ each, that effected how many I bought)

[@TheWorshipleader21]

There was a store in Tucson that was charging 50 a pop for these

[@tylerfoster3742]

The collectors boosters are the only way to obtain the following: Extended-art cards Non-foil common special-art cards Non-foil ancillary cards that are typically foil. None of these exclusives make it worthwhile.

[@arashikagehayabusa2910]

Time may tell on the non-foil ancillary cards, considering they are only 1 per pack (far more limited than the showcase cards), there are 31 of them (only 7 are the non-foil exclusives), and how popular those cards end up as commanders (excluding the 2 non-foil planeswalker deck planeswalkers). The non-foil brawl commanders are at around $6-$9, and Kenrith non-foil is going for $12 or so. Alela and Korvold have held at $9 or so, while Chulane, Gwyn, and Kenrith have gone down a bit. Pulling any of these means you really need to make up $13-$19 of the collector booster price out of the $25 paid. So I definitely think it's worth it to pull these to try and make up if not overcome the price of a collector booster, at least right now.

[@mindustrial]

I suggest all to watch Rudy's openings on Collector Boosters. He has found a pattern in the packs and can almost point out exactly which packs will have the box toppers even before opening any pack. So there is a lot of possibility you get hosed when opening single packs.

[@arashikagehayabusa2910]

"almost point out" is the key expression, since I think in the third video he clearly says "this will be a foil extended art" and then proceeds to get it wrong. The main point though is to not buy loose packs if you believe the mappable theory (which I'm personally on the fence on).

[@ronkeinan154]

I got a foil extended art Oko in a regular booster pack in my box. I think it was worth more than every card I pulled in War of the Spark combined.

[@kyalchatten3999]

Thanks for blowing your cash for us Prof, hope you get some good pulls!

[@kyalchatten3999]

Foil Realmcloaked, BANGER!

[@Neo_Way]

This video just solidified my booster luck. I recently attended an event where some of the biggest mtg content creators were promoting Arena and bought myself a collector's booster... I got a borderless foil Blacklance Paragon from that one booster

[@AgentPedestrian]

It's an interesting gamble from the company to see how many corners they can cut before they end up with an unsellable circle

[@Argascend]

I have to agree with you on the extended art. It really sucks because they've shown they can do good extended art in the past but I guess it's just cheaper to enlarge the existing art.

[@TopsideCrisis346]

It's essentially the same thing as going to your local 7-11, and trying to choose between the $1 scratch ticket and the $10 one. Sure, the $10 scratcher is bigger and shinier, and you might hit an even bigger jackpot (you might also have a 747 crash through the roof of that 7-11 right there and send you on your merry way, but hey, people still play the lottery). That said, between the two, your odds on one ticket are essentially comparable to the other, so you're most likely just throwing your money at the state. Prof has said it before, and while I have yet to fully take it to heart, I will reiterate the idea that boosters exist solely for drafting. Buying packs individually and cracking them in the hopes of finding high-value cards or specific pieces for a deck is a sucker's bet (albeit one I take about five times a week). Consider - for the same price as one Collector Booster Box, you can purchase the two most expensive cards available therein as singles, thus negating any further need to purchase this product ever again. Moreover, if you really want to get the rest of these premium cards, you can simply hunt them down, one by one, out of regular packs, just by attending a few drafts. If that's too much effort, and you just want the cards themselves, singles from the base set go for a fraction of what these super-shiny collector cards will set you back. In closing, let's remember that the point of buying Magic cards is, ultimately, to play Magic. Some would argue that speculating on card value is the "real" game of Magic, but bear in mind that card value is ultimately determined by a card's usefulness within the metagame at any given time. If a card sees no play, it's worthless, a curiosity at best. We shouldn't buy cards to have pretty things to look at. We should buy cards to play Magic. If you agree, then no amount of "bling" should impact your gameplay - or financial decisions.

[@mikeelarsen1964]

10/10 for all you awesome alliterations.

[@NamathCB]

EXACTLY!!!! ONLY 1 in 4 even HAS an extended art or alt art foil in them from a booster box!!! And as far as loose Walmart/Amazon single packs, I opened 15 of those and ONLY ONE extended art foil but PROBABLY just my bad luck

[@kargas20]

I feel this should be considered a "mtg finanse" target Item. If you can afford, a mass openning of theese you might end up with a profit, if you have more limited funds you might consider a long term investment (and I'm taking loooong term), this product reminds me of the all foil booster boxes of the Allara block.

[@EngineerWilky81]

From what I've seen in box openings of the Collector Booster box and the box I've opened that you usually get at least 2 Foil Extended Art cards. I've seen some openings have 4 Foil Extended Art Cards. Interesting that yours only had a single Foil Extended Art card. Also, I was noticing that the Showcase edition of the Common cards aren't available in the draft boosters. All the Common Showcase cards I have came from Collector Boosters. I bought a box and I liked opening the packs. It is the most expensive MTG product I've bought. Before that the most expensive was a booster box of Modern Horizons. I would give it a grade of C. If you enjoy pack cracking and don't mind the steep price, it's a fun product. If you're just wanting to opening to get certain cards, as the Professor says, it's always better to buy the singles than cracking packs.

[@MidoriTheAwesome]

I had insane luck with the pack I got with my booster box, so I did buy another pack when they hit the shelves, and I got the packs for 25$ at target. For that price, I think it's a fun gamble, but not one that I really plan on pursuing further. I don't regret my purchase

[@theoreowhisperer2560]

Wow! This is the first box opening of the collector product this far where I did not see someone get a bare minimum of at least 4 foil rares / mythics in any combination of the extended or showcase artwork out of their box. Really drives the point of this video home.

[@arashikagehayabusa2910]

I believe you're referring to the mappable theory, but I believe others have said it's 1-4 foil extended art and/or foil showcase rares/mythics. Which makes me wonder though, how would you map which ones are the foil extended arts and which ones are the foil showcase rares/mythics?

[@deleteduser6074]

Remember premium shards of alara packs, a 36 dollar draft was considered expensive! How times have changed in a few years

[@sdawg35]

I got 4 collector packs because I had preordered 4 booster boxes of draft packs, and I personally pulled better on my booster boxes than the 4 collector packs. Both my foil extended art Oko, and Garruk came from the boxes.

[@CrimsonHiroX07]

Hey Prof. Can you prod some of the people at WotC to see who is in charge of product design? And if its the accountants, please tell them to let accountants do the finance and leave product design to play-test and/or the marketing team?

[@mahartma]

It's fun to watch Rudy open them, I would not spend the money though. What the collectors edition made painfully obvious is that the extended/super art should become the standard for all Magic cards from now on. The little boxed-in artwork of normal cards is too 90's