Following The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, Magic: The Gathering saw a big increase in collectability. With scalpers taking a keen interest in the game, suddenly many Collector Boosters and Secret Lair drops became gold dust. Thankfully, since then, demand and prices have somewhat stabilized; however, even that could only last so long.
Recently, we’ve seen a surge in demand for the most collectible of Collector Boosters. At first, the ultra-limited Tales of Middle-earth Special Edition boosters spiked thanks to a content creator’s self-imposed quest. Now, it appears to be the turn of Final Fantasy, as Collector Booster box prices have shot up this month.
MTG Final Fantasy Collector Boosters
For better or worse, there’s not a great deal that sets Final Fantasy Collector Boosters apart from regular Play Boosters. Almost every single showcase treatment can appear in either pack; however, there are some key exceptions. The chase Traveling Chocobo variants, for instance, are exclusive to Collector Boosters, as are surge foil and extended-art cards.
While this might not seem like much, many of these cards sell for serious money. Recently, in fact, many Final Fantasy surge foils shot up in price and have continued to climb since then. These cards, however, don’t hold a candle to the price of the Traveling Chocobos, which sell for between $1,800 and $6,500.
Even these high prices, however, are nothing compared to the serialized Golden Chocobo cards. Selling for between $60,000 and $91,000, these are the true ultra chase cards that people are buying boxes for. So far, it’s believed that over half of these have been found, but there are still just over 20 left to find.
Thanks to these cards being so valuable, Collector Boosters and boxes are only getting more valuable. After all, as more boxes are sold and opened without finding a Golden Chocobo, the odds for all other Collector Boosters having one increase. This, in turn, pushes prices up, as the expected value and hype around them increases.
An $800 Climb
While Final Fantasy Collector Booster Boxes have hit a new peak price recently, these boxes were never cheap. Back in June, for instance, you’d have to spend at least $1,100 per box, which was already obscene. Now, however, an unopened box will run you around $1,900, with shipping pushing it over the edge.
Curiously, despite prices being this high, we’ve seen a huge number of sales in the past month. With over 221 boxes being sold, it’s no wonder that prices have climbed so much so quickly. Looking online, however, many MTG players are entirely convinced that this current price spike will last.
For better or worse, it can quickly get to a point where actually cracking Collector Boosters isn’t viable anymore. While you can make your money if you get lucky with a Golden Chocobo, missing that is a huge loss. As prices rise and the theoretical loss increases, justifying opening a box for anything but entertainment value becomes incredibly difficult.
Despite this potential problem, it’s highly likely that boxes will keep moving hands as optimistic investors buy in. While this process does create demand, it’s more of a self-sustaining feedback loop than one driven by players. In theory, there will come a point when genuine buyers run out, and the market crashes because nothing sells.
Ultimately, while this scenario does feel likely, there’s no guaranteed when, or even if, it’ll actually happen. Since there are high-value pulls, the price of Collector Boosters and boxes could easily soar for a long while yet. Sadly, since we can’t predict the future, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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