If anything has been made clear by the content coming out of this page, it’s that we can’t ignore a good deal. MTG is an expensive game, so getting the most for your money can make a huge difference in your collection. There is a ton of product available for MTG players, meaning there are a lot of poor decisions to make. Ironically, the MTG Sealed market is fantastic for players right now. A ton of products are available that are priced far below the expected value of the cards inside. The strange part is that, even though this is the case, no one is buying these products. Some MTG personalities have outlined this fact and are worried that no one caring about these insane deals may signal the end of sealed products.
Expected Value
As a quick disclaimer, these deals are being assessed with the expected values provided by Dawnglare.com. If these expected values are significantly below the average price on TCGplayer (taking recent sales before the actual market averages), then they may be something you want to consider. As a note, prices vary widely between different sites. As a result, if you check the averages between TCGplayer and Cardkingdom, you would be surprised how wide the range of cards you get may be. For reference, expected value refers to how much money an average product’s contents should retail for once opened (so for booster pack products, it could be worth more or less).
For those who are worried about jank commons adding to these averages, Dawnglare states that they do not consider any cards under $1 when calculating these averages. It isn’t necessarily a free payday, but there’s a very good chance, sometimes guaranteed if you have good channels for selling cards, that you can make a profit!
Exit From Exile (Expected Value: $90?)
We have to admit: we’re not entirely sure how Dawnglare got a $90 value with this one, but the values between Cardkingdom and TCGplayer vary about $15, with Cardkingdom coming in at an expected value of $75. Regardless of this difference, TCGplayer’s sales price for Exit from Exile is precisely $34.12 in recent sales, granting double the original product’s price at a minimum!
Jeska’s Will is the main attraction in this prebuilt Commander deck. The card is worth about $15 on the Secondary Market and can easily win a game of Commander upon resolution. Popularized by the Command Zone, Jeska’s Will can grant its caster a ton of mana and exile three cards for them to spend it on. Considering how easy it is to recast this three mana sorcery with cards like Underworld Breach, it’s easy to see why this card is one of the most played cards in all of Commander. Other expensive cards from this deck include Delayed Blast Fireball, Three Visits, Passionate Archeologist, Green Slime and more.Read More: MTG Market Foreshadows the End of Draft Booster Boxes!
Theros Beyond Death (Expected Value: $133)
Theros Beyond Death Booster Boxes are selling on TCGplayer for about $102. This is an excellent price, considering the average expected value of a box of TBD (Theros Beyond Death) is $133. What cards are in this set to support such a large expected value for a core set? You may be surprised!
Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger, Shadowspear, Dryad of the Illysian Grove, Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, Nyxbloom Ancient, Thassa’s Oracle, Thassa, Deep Dwelling, Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Underworld Breach are all cards that have some relevant value behind them. These all see play in non-rotating formats, giving them a stronger base behind their values. If you’re looking for some of these cards, buying a box outright is a financially savvy way to get some value.Read More: The List for Dominaria United May be the Best Ever!
Core Set 2020 (Expected Value: $144)
Core Set 2020 is easy to forget about. Many MTG core sets were tailored toward players getting into the game. It’s easy to dismiss them as a result. A lot of these cards do not do flashy things, but this set had a few exceptions that allow it to hold an expected value that’s about $17 higher than its asking price of $128, meaning that, on average, you should be making about $17 per box on this product!
Field of the Dead, Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, Cavalier of Thorns, Yarok, the Desecrated, Ajani, Strength of the Pride, Chandra, Awakened Inferno, and many more cards valued around $10 make this is pretty safe box to open for those fiending for some packs to open.Allied Fires (Expected Value: $43)
Like the Exit from Exile preconstructed deck, Allied Fires offers a set collection of cards valued at $15 above its asking price of $28. Should you have a consistent way to sell these cards, you could make a pretty good amount of cash.
Expensive cards from this preconstructed deck include four Narset, Parter of Veils, a Steam Vents (which should be incredibly easy to sell), Kenrith, the Returned King, and Ugin, the Ineffable. Should you be able to sell these with ease or are looking for some of the cards for yourself, Allied Fires is a pretty safe buy.
Read More: Suspicious MTG Player to make Thousands with Insider Info?
Party Time (Expected Value: $77)
At this point, we realized all of the recent D&D Commander decks are worth your money. Individual prices vary widely on these cards according to source, so knowing what sources to buy singles you’re interested in with these decks is incredibly important. Either way, should you jump in on TCGplayer’s Party Time price of about $51, you can expect a fixed $26 boost in value, so long as you’re after the chase cards in this product.
There are a few Commander powerhouses available in Party Time. Black Market Connections saw a huge uptick in price following Dominaria United’s spoiler season due to a ton of tribal synergies within the set. That card is now worth about $27.50. Deep Gnome Terramancer is another huge Commander card in white that goes for about $14. Round that up with Skullclamp, Sevinne’s Reclamation, Mother of Runes, Maskwood Nexus and Mutavault for a truly sweet deal.
There’s a lot more out There!
Is Sealed dead? Honestly, I think it’s too early to tell. Sure, there are some signs of Draft Booster boxes being a thing of the past, but Sealed product dying may be synonymous with MTG’s death altogether. While Sealed investments may come to an end, the game should go on.
We gave you the tools to check out stuff like this in the article! If you’re interested in buying a specific sealed product for yourself, this could be a great resource to check and see whether the expected value is in your favor or not. As a general rule of thumb, the older a product is, the higher the chances are that the EV for the product is not good. Scarcity is a massive reason for price jumps in Sealed products. Generally, you will lose money opening old sealed stuff, so do so with caution.
