Looking for Cheap Magic Boosters?


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When I decided to start collecting Magic cards again I was quickly shocked at how expensive the booster packs had become.  Ten years ago, when I stopped playing / collecting, I could get a 15 card booster for about $2.00 which wasn't too shabby.  Obviously investing in a draft pack or just grabbing a booster was an easy impulse buy.

That's no longer the case.  With booster packs now selling for $3.99 it's much harder to justify picking one up three or four.  Even Tournament Packs jumped to a whopping $12.00-ish (previously about $8.50.)

I still wanted to collect but I was going to have to find a way to make it a bit more economical.

Thank goodness for the internet.  AFter some hard work I've managed to find several sources that have cut my booster cost back down to around $2.00 give or take.

If you're looking to buy some cheap boosters, tournament packs or theme decks here are some of the things you can try:

  1. Buy Bulk: While it may be a bit more expensive up front buying booster boxes (rather than packs) can cut down your cost dramatically.  At retail 36 booster packs comes to around $144.00 - buying a booster box on eBay can cost under $100 shipped.  One seller I use frequently, Baseball Card Collectibles, offers current set booster boxes for $91 shipped via UPS - that's $2.53 per booster or me $50 per box.  Savy buyers can easily turn this around selling the boosters at $3- $4 each for a decent profit!
  2. Amazon: Amazon is a tricky place to buy Magic boosters mostly because there are a lot of sellers who tack on hidden charges.  While you can easily find a booster listed for $1 when you go to get it shipped you might get hit with a $4 shipping charge.  What's worse is that many sellers don't discount large purchases.  Buy 10 booster packs that are listed at $1 each and you may get stuck paying 10 separate shipping charges.  That doesn't mean you can't get cheap boosters on Amazon though.  When buying on Amazon use your shopping cart before making a purchase.  Check to see if extra shipping charges are added and always confirm your total before checking out.  There are a couple of good sellers that offer boosters for under $3 and who only charge you one shipping charge regardless of the order size.  I've found one seller who has cheap Morningtide boosters ($1.75 / booster) who doesn't add up hike shipping charges as an example.
  3. Buy Tournament Packs: This is a 50/50 and really depends on your goals.  If you're looking to just boost your collection than a Tournament Pack can be a good buy - but only if you're not paying full price.  A Tournament Pack has the same number of rares, uncommons and commons as three booster packs - but it's priced slightly higher at retail.  On both eBay and Amazon you can find Tournament Packs for a discount though.  With a little work I've found several Tournament Packs for around $8 each which is a good deal considering the extra land pack that comes with it.

The trick in all of these cases is to be smart about your buying.  Generally I've found that buying boosters is a great way to kick start collecting a set but it fails miserably at finishing one.  The after market on individual cards (or even playsets) is so strong that you can often buy the last 20 or so cards you need very cheaply at your local comic shop.  Depending on the strength of the card in the current state of the game you can even buy playsets of individual cards for under $2.00 on eBay.



6 Responses to “Looking for Cheap Magic Boosters?”

  1. June 20th, 2008 at 4:13 am

    Welcome back Bill! I used to play Magic a lot back in the days of Invasion, and sort of petered out around 7th edition due to a lack of opponents… Anyway, you piqued my curiosity to surf around to see what’s happening in the Magic Universe. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot outside the official WotC information, so I think you’ve found a great niche :)

    Maybe I’ll build a windows VM and see if I can remember my Magic Online password. All those new Faerie and Elf cards look really cool…

    Cheers, Gary

    - Gaz
  2. June 20th, 2008 at 7:26 am

    I’m still shocked at how few blogs there seem to be that talk about Magic.

    Right now I’m concentrating on collecting the 10th edition set and I’m kind of re-learning a lot of the old rules alongside the new ones. It’s really fascinating and I’m definitely looking forward to finding some time to check out my local Friday Night Magic games.

    I’ve been shying away from Magic Online only because I don’t like the idea of spending money on purely virtual items. I know that they’ll redeem full sets for full sets but I can’t justify buying virtual cards and risking a miss on ever finishing a set.

    At least with real boosters and cards I have something that can get filed away and sold somewhere down the line (or maybe even introduce my kids to someday.)

    - WildBil
  3. June 28th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

    THE .70$ PACK DEAL HES TALKING ABOUT IS A SCAM!!.
    i checked and they almost fooled me. its some company from cali (when i called, it was some lady with her kids crying in the background) and they sell the packs at .70 cents but they charge 5$ per pack for shipping. it doesnt tell you till the last page too, so after attepmting to buy 11 packs at .70 cents a piece the final cost after shipping was OVER 60$. DONT GET SCAMMED!!

    - raztis
  4. June 28th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    Hey raztis,

    As I mention in the post - some of the “deals” try to trick you with excessively large shipping charges (see paragraph 3).

    Others don’t.

    There’s a seller that goes by “cardrushstore” that has some great deals and doesn’t charge a per pack shipping charge. Last I checked he had Morningtide boosters for $1.75 and 10th Edition bundles of 5 boosters for $11.20.

    cardrushstore consolidates the shipping charges which is nice.

    I should note that the link above just leads to Amazon search results for “Morningtide Booster Packs” and the current lowest priced item is at the top.

    - WildBil
  5. August 15th, 2008 at 1:44 am

    Hi raztis, do you know if there is a way to look at sealed boosters, because a friend bought a (the box was not sealed) tenth edition box and he didn’t get even one painland or bird or anything cool, we we’re wondering if there is a way, i don’t need you to tell me how, just want to know if there’s a risk…

    nice blog

    - Lucas
  6. August 15th, 2008 at 7:10 am

    Hi Lucas,

    Sorry no known way to tell what’s inside a booster. Every booster contains one Rare card (and maybe a foil of any commonality) and unfortunately there’s no guarantee that any of the ultra rares like a Painland or Bird of Paradise will make it into a Box.

    Sometimes your best bet with these cards is to hit your local comic shop or eBay.

    - WildBil
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