Magic: the Gathering’s collaboration with Spongebob Squarepants is certainly one of the strangest Secret Lair crossovers that the game has seen. Many of the crossovers that appear in Magic’s Secret Lair series have some sort of fantasy element involved, but Spongebob’s aesthetic is completely different. Some MTG players love being able to live out some of the internet’s greatest memes, while others wish the collaboration never happened at all.
While this has made many MTG players incredibly divisive about Spongebob’s appearance, there was no disagreement on the crossover’s potential. MTG X Spongebob had the potential to be immensely popular. With this in mind, the absolute plummet of Spongebob singles on the secondary market may shock some players.
Spongebob Surprisingly Cheap
Despite MTG X Spongebob’s successful Secret Lair sale, the individual singles for these cards have lost a lot of secondary market value. While this isn’t unusual for cards that first appear in circulation, the drop for MTG X Spongebob cards is a lot more than many may expect. All of the MTG X Spongebob singles lost at least 50% of their original values.
Spongebob Squarepants, for example, has had his Rainbow Foil version drop from $44 to just $18. The nonfoil version somehow has an even larger price discrepancy, dropping from $60 to $14. This is, by far, the largest drop among the MTG X Spongebob cards, but other characters have also fallen in value.
Nonfoil Patrick Star has dropped from about $8 to $2. Nonfoil Plankton has dropped from $12 to $3.50. Mr. Krabs has similarly dropped from $15 to $3, and Squidward has dropped from $15 to $3.50. Finally, Sandy Cheeks has dropped from $11.50 to $4. In all these cases, nonfoil prices have both higher zeniths and lower nadirs. These cards’ current secondary market average is also higher than the current sales.
The case is much the same for the other MTG X Spongebob Secret Lairs, but the drops are a bit less severe. For the Internet Sensation Secret Lair, foils dropped off a lot harder than the nonfoil cards. Night’s Whisper dropped from $23 to $5. Force of Despair saw a decrease from $22 to about $5. Daze also dropped to $5 from $26.
According to TCGplayer, the lands have also lost about half of their value. They are generally retailing for about $5-9 each in both variations.
Cards That Held Some Value
While a majority of the MTG X Spongebob cards have failed to retain a significant portion of their value, there is some extreme demand for a few cards over the rest. Counterspell is the biggest outlier here, with both copies of the card still demanding over $20. Worth $45 around release time, Counterspell has still dropped off significantly, but it is currently the most expensive card from the MTG X Spongebob Secret Lair release. This card has a severe premium over Counterspell’s cheapest variants.
Gary, the Snail is also still worth a decent penny, which shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Gary is a skin for Toxrill, the Corrosive, which has a decent secondary market value thanks to being a powerful boss monster in Commander. Both copies of Gary have still lost about 50% of their original value, but currently retail for $13 and $20 for nonfoil and foil respectively. For reference, Gary is currently cheaper than Toxrill itself, but I would not expect that to last for long.
There also isn’t an appropriate amount of market data for the MTG X Spongebob bonus cards yet. Considering how much this Counterspell is going for, it’s safe to say that hitting a Counterspell Bonus Card may be a home run. Smothering Tithe should also be worth quite a decent chunk of change.
Are the MTG X Spongebob Secret Lairs Still Worth it?
Now that prices of individual cards have dropped off significantly, buying singles for MTG X Spongebob has become a more reasonable decision. You may have trouble finding paper copies of these cards in the wild, but they are more than available online.
Ultimately, if you can get the MTG X Spongebob Secret Lairs for their original value, they are still a better deal than buying all of the cards separately. Counterspell carries the value of the Internet sensation drop, and between Spongebob and Gary, you should make your money back for the Legends drop. Add the bonus cards on top, and there’s still a strong chance you walk away with a ton of value.
If you don’t want one of the expensive cards mentioned here, however, you may be better off buying singles. Many of the Spongebob cards are reasonably affordable on their own, but they may not stay that way.
MTG Secret Lair cards commonly have an additional premium attached to them due to their scarcity. This is especially true for reprints of cards that don’t individually have a high secondary market value. Cards that do have a higher secondary market value tend to fall more in line with other premium copies of the card.
So, if you’re in the market for some specific MTG X Spongebob cards, perhaps to acquire a playset of them, we would recommend grabbing your desired cards sooner than later. They could drop in price further of course, but it’s tough to know for certain. Past precident suggests that these cards won’t stay cheap forever.