Collector Boosters are Magic: The Gathering’s own form of a lottery ticket. Packed with extremely rare variants, players can rip open one of these bad boys to try and get lucky. That said, like all good lottery tickets, these are pretty expensive. Even Play Boosters are pretty expensive compared to the good ol’ days, but a Collector Booster costs $20 or more a majority of the time.
The big attractive quality of Collector Boosters is collectibility. Rare treatments and serialized cards can sell for a lot of money. What many players don’t know, however, is that Collector Boosters themselves are collectible products. Only one run of these is printed per set. Once they’re gone, there’s no more to be found.
As a result, as the supply for a particular Collector Booster dwindles, the packs actually get even more expensive. The Lord of the Rings Special Edition Collector Booster Boxes are the most severe example, experiencing a $700 price increase over the past year.
The Real Prize Was the Booster Itself
As Collector Booster quantities dwindle on the secondary market, some more sought-after Collector Boosters are increasing in price, and not just slightly. For example, Wilds of Eldraine Collector Boosters suddenly increased from $280 to $330 in August, and now sell for as much as $350. Wilds of Eldraine Collector Boosters are a bit difficult to track because sample packs from the Commander Precon decks are impacting average prices.
Lost Caverns of Ixalan saw a similar spike, jumping from $314 to $335 in July. The Collector Booster box has only increased gradually from there, currently maintaining a price of $345. Conversely, the individual Collector Booster Pack lost half of its value in October, dropping to about $24. This is likely a result of the recent Mana Crypt ban in Commander.
Premium Collector Booster boxes are even more ridiculous. Fallout Collector Booster Boxes rose from $500 to $570 each in September.
Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is the most extreme example among the Collector Booster packs. The Special Edition packs are now approaching $1000. The boxes have been consistently increasing in price for a full year now, but most of the increase took place between July and October.
In comparison, normal Lord of the Rings Collector Booster boxes appear to be approaching $700. They have experienced a $100 price increase since the end of September.
Are These Boxes Worth the Price?
My gut answer is no, but you would need to take a look at all the other price spikes happening to be sure. Special variants from the Special Edition Lord of the Rings Collector Booster Boxes have been increasing in price all over the place thanks to extreme scarcity, but getting your money back on a $1000 box is a real challenge.
Of course, at the end of the day, whether these boxes are worthwhile or not all comes down to luck. If you hit the big card in any of these boxes, you will likely come out ahead, but your chances of doing this are against you. It’s like any gamble. The wise avoid, but the lucky get ahead. Are you feeling lucky?
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