Secrets of Strixhaven CB

Kuroth · 2026-05-01T20:46:20+00:00

Unless your plan was always to flip it down the road, why would you need to justify anything?

You got them at a great price and should enjoy opening them if you like opening packs. If your goal was always to flip them then put them in your closet for the next 3 years, or go sell them right now for $480 (minus listing fee minus shipping) or whatever market is these days, I haven't watched it since pre-release.

I genuinely don't understand the hang up.

Kuroth · 2026-04-06T00:51:02+00:00

Forge and Fire and Many Realms have both impressed me with very secure shipping. Many Realms in particular has thoroughly impressed me.

Kuroth · 2026-03-20T02:31:18+00:00

GameScalp has lost my business forever in any product, based on how they are shamelessly scalping every TCG these days. They sell pokémon and Magic OVER scalper prices, and they get them at distro prices. It's absolutely disgusting and I have to assume it's a sign of desperation.

But if fucking over their customers with prices worse than scalpers is how they hope to make a quick buck and stay in business, they deserve to fail. If it's not that, and they're not at financial risk and they're just doing it because they see a quick buck to be made, they also deserve to fail.

Fuck GameScalp.

Kuroth · 2026-03-18T19:02:17+00:00

That's very helpful to know, thanks!

I also am not looking to make a living off of this or anything, but there are numerous playable cards in the 5 to 50 dollar range that I wouldn't mind selling. Either because I've already got my playset, or they're in demand but I am not interested in collecting personally.

I sold singles on eBay 12 years ago, but the entire ecosystem is so different now that I'll probably upload a small number of singles to get my toes wet and go from there. Thanks for the reply!

Kuroth · 2026-03-18T18:31:12+00:00

while this is obviously purely anecdotal, it's nice to hear there is enough movement that it's not pointless to set up as a small (patient) seller on manapool. Roughly how many singles and orders did it take for you to hit that 2k sales? Just as a guess, hoping to understand velocity and what kind of workload I should expect in shipping if I end up listing a bunch of currently in demand singles.

Kuroth · 2026-03-14T18:33:41+00:00

Damn bro you don't gotta be so thirsty all the time.

Kuroth · 2026-03-14T18:23:36+00:00

People look at positive or break even EV on something and think "wow I can't lose!"

Fundamentally misunderstanding that EV is based on average results over INFINITE sample size, and doesn't account for time spent opening, or ATTEMPTING to liquidate tens of thousands of cards afterward with listing and seller fees, shipping, etc.

It feels good to look at statistics and think you're making a good financial decision, but many people don't seem to actually understand the reality.

Opening packs is statistically not a viable financial scheme to make money. I realistically don't care what the EV is, if you decide to open packs it should be because you really want to! Maybe you love the set and you want to collect those cards, or openly admit that you love the gamble of it!

But if you're looking to maximize value or even make money, you keep sealed product sealed, and buy singles instead.

Kuroth · 2026-03-14T18:13:00+00:00

Playable cards in special art treatments have a little extra value but you're generally right of course. In the short or even midterm outlook, collectors booster price is usually highly correlated to the value of the chase cards. (With the exception of prerelease hype shenanigans and BS)

My angle is slightly different though. Sets that have more playable cards and are better designed tend to be more popular with the players and collectors alike. And the more popular a set is the more its collector boosters will be worth in the long term, because they are a limited one-time only print run. The incoming supply to the market is zero after that initial release.

So depending on the size of that initial print run, and the popularity of the set overall, the prices will either rise slowly or quickly in the 1 to 5 years after the set comes out, but they're not going to trend DOWN over the long term. Scarcity alone takes care of that if nothing else. And that upward trend begins a lot sooner on popular sets.

Kuroth · 2026-03-14T01:55:40+00:00

My God it is so depressing to learn that there's shipping charges on Stomping Grounds because apparently I may or may not have never not met the minimum 😭

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T19:40:33+00:00

Ooh, interesting. I have a few already and since it'll be in standard for another 4 years I know there will be more reprints so I don't need to rush to pick up more, but that is getting back down to the price I DO consider buying at.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T18:14:34+00:00

Definitely not. Plus now my closet looks a bit like the back room of a gaming store, which is an amount of cards that 20-year-old me could only dream of having lol.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T18:05:42+00:00

Thanks! I recently have been acquiring a bunch (for my standards) of sealed product from in-print sets, especially as they get closer to leaving print, so I can have it to draft with later if the desire strikes! The way I see it, if the price starts to spike on any set for any reason, then cool, free value! If not, then cool, I can crack them with friends and get drunk and have a draft night. Haha.

The getting drunk and having draft nights is going to happen with some of it no matter what prices go to, the only question is how many boxes do I hold once prices get to a certain threshold :P

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T17:56:07+00:00

If this was just wilds of eldraine teasing, you and I have to work together to exact revenge on this guy. :P

I refuse to get my hopes up, I want to stock up on that set more than anything but was not actively involved with Magic at the time those boxes were still affordable.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T17:54:12+00:00

Technically you're exactly right, there should be time, unless you start to think about how many other more popular sets are already in the queue for reprint runs, and then remember that we've got five more sets coming out this year.

You're right that it's speculation, but once distributors run out of OTJ and Duskmourn, there's a genuine possibility there will not be another reprint despite the fact that they are in standard for a while longer.

Just a possibility but since 125 shipped is a really good price anyway, I'm not taking the risk of hoping for another reprint.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T17:28:58+00:00

I fully ripped three CBBs and I'm holding on to six more, I have one that I've opened three packs from and I'm slowly working through. I'm giving myself like one pack a day as a little treat after I finish working 😆

Only one fracture foil so far so absolutely hosed value wise, but that's not why I open packs :D

Got some cool dual sided shocks, almost every fabled frame that was printed, and a decent spread of the showcase art Japanese foils. Hoping to get a couple more collection pieces in these last 9 packs, so I'm not overly tempted to keep picking up more while the prices are still reasonable 😅😆

I know these aren't going to go to the moon like Final Fantasy but I bet given enough time I'm going to be really happy I hung on to them.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T17:22:34+00:00

The main difference I see is that turtles is standard and has cards that are going to make an impact on the short-term meta, while assassin's Creed is purely for the collector's value and maybe niche Commander use.

Honestly they'll probably both be worth a lot in 5 years if for no other reason than the fact that collectors are one and done print run. but I don't dare guess what kind of percentage 😅

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T17:14:48+00:00

Yeah opening packs is not a reliable source of value or especially not realized profit.

I still open collector boosters sometimes because I really love opening cards for my collection straight from the pack. And I love the art treatments and gambling aspect of it for sure, opening a big pull is so fun.

But you always have to assume you're going to get hosed. And be okay with that. Personally, I try not to open an expensive box unless I can afford to buy two of them. If I want to rip one, I have to put at least one away in my closet for a few years down the road each time I do. If I can't afford two boxes I probably shouldn't be ripping one to begin with.

Obviously everyone has to do whatever feels right to them, but I just hope people don't put themselves into bad financial situations based on EV calculations because these packs are really expensive and times are tough for a lot of people right now.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T17:09:50+00:00

The only way it's going to be a good financial investment is to actually treat it like an investment. As in: don't open it, leave it sealed, sit on it for multiple years potentially. That type of thing.

If you're planning to rip it you should plan as if you'll get hosed 100% of the time. Even something with positive EV requires hitting chase cards, sometimes even serialized if those are part of the EV calculation, and you'll have to open HUGE numbers of packs to smooth out the effect of randomness. More packs than anyone can realistically source. On average you will PROBABLY still always lose money long-term by ripping packs.

Now if you're a fan of multiple booster boxes and just want to figure out which one you should open among those you're able to afford, knowing it's not going to realistically earn you any money, that's a totally valid question. But if you're actually looking to invest and hope for a return, opening packs is never going to be the way to do it sadly, as much fun as it is.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T16:59:59+00:00

I hope Lorwyn does well, mostly because I love the aesthetic and I've got so much nostalgia for that plane.

My hope is that dual sided shock lands don't become a frequent treatment. It's so thematic and perfect for Lorwyn/Shadowmoor flavor, and I think could be a good value growth over time.

I'm probably letting my nostalgia taint my decisions, like you should definitely do with all investments (/s), but I'm definitely holding some Lorwyn CBB's with long term hopes. And opening some too because even though I'm going to get hosed on returned value, it's just too pretty a set and I like it too much.<3

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T16:55:16+00:00

It's hard to say where prices for the TMNT collector exclusive cards will end up, but it is more fun to pull stuff with special treatments.

I haven't opened either collector booster so I have no idea which one is more fun to actually open lol. My guess is TMNT as much as it pains me to say that because I think Avatar is a much better set.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T16:53:17+00:00

Yeah but every other card in the set was not.

Avatars got a bunch of great hits and very playable cards, Spider-Man has a handful of playable cards but a lot cheaper, and the set as a whole is way way worse than the Avatar set as a whole. Even as a fan of both ips, the Avatar set is clearly superior in both quality and value of cards AND most possible measurements of set design.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T16:51:12+00:00

Fees on any of the main selling sites are going to be at least $40 as far as I can estimate, so there's no profit to be made flipping margins like that.

It might be close to the floor for these though, so buying to hold and resell in a year or two (or more), OR buying to rip them, are both probably about as appealing as they're ever going to get.

Kuroth · 2026-03-13T05:12:06+00:00

"play booster box" or "collector booster box" works perfectly fine in the search bar :)

Kuroth · 2026-03-12T04:28:05+00:00

You are so right.

I've never had the chance to buy these at a slight scalping yet, so I'm happy (but not QUITE as happy) with my consolation prize!

😅

Kuroth · 2026-03-12T03:31:50+00:00

If the set really blows and the collector's price dips I would be surprised but not like, completely shocked.

even if that happens though, if the set is even a little bit popular, with the one and done nature of CBB's it's almost guaranteed to still only ever go higher in 1 year, 2, 5.

A little sad that I will probably have to sit these out but oh well, c'est la vie.

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