Forgotten Realms boxes on pre-sale – Suggestions?
Economics forum
Posted on July 7, 2021, 7:27 p.m. by Brall
I don’t know much about buying boxes. The one time I did was when Homelands came out and it was an awful experience. But I’m a huge Forgotten Realms fan so I think this is my moment.
- What do you recommend buying?
- What are you planning to get?
- How much will they sell for this Winter?
Here are a few pre-sale prices from TCG:
- Draft Booster Box $144
- Set Booster Display $118
- Bundle $44
I was thinking about buying 3 Booster Boxes but I’ve never heard of Set Boosters so I looked it up and now I might get those instead. But there’s Bundles and other options as well. Lots of choices.
My thought is to open two and keep the third but I have no goals, no plan and I only play super casually with friends.
I am not an expert at Magic finance, but I will note that Forgotten Realms is a relatively low-power set. It looks like it will be a lot of fun to play in Draft and Sealed, and has a few neat cards for various pet decks, but it is far from the most explosive set in existence.
That makes it a suboptimal purchase from an investment standpoint - other sets with higher densities of Commander, Modern, and Legacy staplers will have a much higher ROI long-term.
July 7, 2021 10:22 p.m.
Thank you for the advice and information.
Do new expansions usually show a price drop on boxes shortly after they've been released? Is this common? I'm new to this part of the MTG economy.
July 9, 2021 8:50 a.m.
Also, side question: Will the draft and set boxes have a chance to include the dungeon cards in them or do they need to be bought separately?
Thank you in advance,
July 9, 2021 8:55 a.m.
Brall Usually, the biggest price drop for a set is after it rotates out of Standard, which happens a couple of years after its release. Between now and then, I expect this set to be slowly but steadily decreasing. I'm very far from an expert, though.
July 9, 2021 10:38 a.m.
The set isn't officially out yet so online retailers charge in inflated price. Also draft boosters have a slower time coming to market then set boosters.
July 9, 2021 10:55 a.m.
legendofa said, "Usually, the biggest price drop for a set is after it rotates out of Standard"
I play so casually that I actually don't even know how quickly a set moves through the phases of standard, modern etc... Approx how long will this set take to rotate out of standard?
July 11, 2021 3:46 p.m.
That's for singles. Sealed product doesn't have much of decline in price when it rotates
July 11, 2021 6:18 p.m.
Here’s my Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Set Boxes update:
Out of the three Set Boxes I bought I opened two and left one sealed (each Set Box contains 30 booster packs and each pack contains 14 cards).
Only received four Bruenors from the Drizzt saga characters, no others out of 60 set booster packs.
Not sure I can recommend buying boxes if you are looking for any kind of financial balance now. I acquired only four cards currently worth $10+. This tells me that the Set Boxes rank a little lower than hot garbage currently.
In the end, if you are collecting Forgotten Realms like me, DO NOT buy a box unless you plan on leaving it sealed. It was certainly a mistake for me to open any. I should have left them all sealed and bought the cards I wanted in singles.
This was my experience. Good luck to you all!
July 30, 2021 11:55 a.m.
Grubbernaut says... #13
Unfortunately, AFR has been a huge flop. Reminds me of Dragon's Maze.
July 30, 2021 12:05 p.m.
RaidenShogun69 says... #14
i'm confused. homelands released in 1995. if you've been playing that long, couldn't you tell just from the spoilers that forgotten realms would be a low power set? it doesn't offer nearly enough to non-rotating formats to keep the price up after rotating out of standard.
July 30, 2021 12:27 p.m.
RaidenShogun69, my post is mainly pertaining to the absurdity of getting only four cards worth $10+ out of opening 60 Set Boosters. Also getting four Bruenors and no other Drizzt saga characters (minus Wulfar and Cattie, of course).
I may have gotten unlucky or this might be very common. I don't have enough information yet to say but for now my advice stands to reason.
July 30, 2021 9:08 p.m.
RaidenShogun69 says... #16
What do you mean not enough information? We know what cards are in the set. I could have told you before you even bought the boxes that it would be a net loss.
Grubbernaut says... #2
You're highly unlikely to lose money, especially any significant amount, and since you're not buying in volume I'd just get whatever you can reasonably afford and not sweat over the few bucks' difference you might make.
They're unlikely to be meaningfully reprinted for a long time, if at all, so you can't really go wrong if you hold the product.
July 7, 2021 8:53 p.m.