Unsurprisingly, the Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lair drops turned out to be incredibly popular. Thankfully, the mechanically unique drop still hasn’t sold out, but the reprint-focused drops only lasted five hours. Considering these drops offered fantastic flavor, and decent value too, it’s no surprise that players rushed to pick them up.
Beyond the individual cards in the Secret Lair drop offering compelling value, this Sonic-themed Superdrop also had some exciting bonus cards. Ahead of the Superdrop’s release, it was revealed there would be eight unique bonus cards. One of these was a Command Tower reprint, while the others were different flavors of Chaos Emerald.
As reskinned copies of Lotus Petal, these bonus cards were always going to be worth a pretty penny. At the very least, copies of this card sell for around $22 on average. Unsurprisingly, these new chase bonus cards are selling for a whole lot more than this.
A $1500 Chaos Emerald
Thanks to some fittingly speedy shipping, some MTG players have already received their Sonic the Hedgehog Secret Lairs. Unsurprisingly, these were quickly cracked and the contents ended up on sites like eBay. This often happens to MTG bonus cards, since they can be easily flipped to recoup some of the drop’s price.
This trend has continued for the new Chaos Emerald bonus cards, which are already selling for obscene amounts of money. On eBay, completed sales have been for as much as $1500; however, the average sale price is closer to around $700. Notably, many recent sales have ended via best offer, leaving the final purchase price unknown.
While this obscenely high price may be hugely exciting, especially if you’ve ordered a Sonic Secret Lair, it’s too good to be true. Magic: The Gathering has a long history of MTG cards selling for way over value when they’re first released. These Chaos Emerald bonus cards are merely continuing this tradition, as prices are crashing already.
Currently, on eBay, there are dozens of Chaos Emerald bonus cards listed for sale. Many of these are listed at $500 – $750; however, there are a few cheaper ones. A $449 listing, for instance, includes a yellow Chaos Emerald alongside the entire Friends and Foes drop. Given the past sale prices, this may seem like a steal; however, none of these are selling. In fact, looking at early open rates, these Chaos Emeralds may be extremely overpriced.
Not So Precious Gemstones
Unlike many of the past Secret Lair bonus cards we’ve seen, Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t appear to have a clear chase card. In the past, we’ve gotten ultra-rare Relentless cards and a special Hatsune Miku Snapcaster Mage. This time around, however, it seems that the Sonic the Hedgehog bonus cards are largely on equal footing with one another.
Looking at prices on eBay, the reskinned Commander Tower, Master Emerald Shine, definitely looks like the more common card. That said, while prices start at just $6.50, there are far fewer listings for this bonus card available. Sadly, this makes determining the rarity split of the Sonic bonus cards a lot more troublesome than usual.
From early reports, it seems the Chaos Emeralds are somewhat chase, but they’re not exactly rare either. Reddit user iamnotwason reports opening fifteen drops and finding three Chaos Emeralds, which isn’t terrible odds. Sadly, there’s no telling if this is incredible luck, terrible odds, or the actual pull rate.
Until more drops reach the hands of players, it’s unclear how common each of the Chaos Emeralds is. We’ve seen before that different Neon Ink colors of MTG cards can demand different prices, but there’s no guarantee that’s what’s happening here. If it is, then some of these new Lotus Petal variants could legitimately be worth $1500 in the future.
For now, that price is definitely too high as the market has yet to establish itself. Outside of the first few sales, it seems players aren’t willing to spend so much on unproven rarity anymore.
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