In this installment of Magic the Gathering Tips, I want to get away from the playing aspect a little bit and concentrate on something that I feel is just as important if not more so … how you go about buying your cards. You may or may not care about the little tidbits you’re going to read here, but at least be aware of this stuff.<\/p>\n
Let’s begin with the two basic ways that most people buy their cards, at least when they’re first starting out. As time comes on, they may continue alone one of these paths, both of them, include other options or toss these completely out the window because they’ve found that there’s a better way.<\/p>\n
The most common card buying method for new players is buying individual packs. Why? Well, mostly because it’s the cheapest method, or at least appears to be on the surface. But I’ll get into more of that later on.<\/p>\n
A pack of Magic the Gathering cards is roughly about $4 depending on where you live. Inside, depending on the set, you get 15 cards. Early expansions had \u00a0a lot fewer, which is why I said depending on the set. Any new set you buy is unlikely to have fewer than 15 cards but who knows? The only thing constant in life is change.<\/p>\n
By purchasing individual packs, a new player can slowly build his collection over time without spending a lot of money at one time. For many people, this is their only option, especially if their source of income is mom and dad’s allowance each week. When I was a kid, if Magic was around, I would have gotten enough money to maybe buy 3 packs a week.<\/p>\n
Another option, which is more expensive up front but actually cheaper in the long run, is to buy a whole box of cards. There are usually about 36 packs in a box depending, again, on the expansion. At $4 per pack, this would normally sell for $144 for a box. But, you can get a whole box, again, depending on where you live, for about $110. So as you can see, this is a $34 savings on every 36 packs. That’s not too bad.<\/p>\n
Those are your most common methods of buying cards, but they’re not the only ones and, in my opinion, not the best ones IF you’re looking to get the most value out of your purchase.<\/p>\n
Ah, but what is value? This is something that each person has to define for themselves, which is why all I can say is that the “better” way is only my opinion. Buying packs or boxes may be better for what you’re trying to get out of it. For example, some people just LOVE opening up a box of cards. And while it may not be the most economical solution, depending on what you’re looking for, it is a LOT of fun.<\/p>\n
But over the years I have found, since I always end up looking for certain cards, that buying packs and boxes is a no win scenario. To understand why, you have to understand the rarity system in Magic.<\/p>\n
Every pack in the most recent sets contains 15 cards that are broken down as follows:<\/p>\n
Let’s say I am looking for one rare card. Since we know that there are 36 rares in a box (1 per pack) my chances of getting that one card, if I buy a whole box, is 1 in 36, roughly. And that also depends on how many different rares there are in a set.<\/p>\n
For example, in Magic 2013, there are 58 rares and 15 mythic rares. That makes 73 possible cards to fill up those 36 slots in a box of cards. So you’re really looking at odds of 1 in 73 of pulling one specific rare.<\/p>\n
Let’s say that rare costs $20 on the open market and it takes you an average of 2 boxes of cards to pull that one card. That’s over $200 spent, on average, just to get that ONE card.<\/p>\n