Cipher Booster Box Value

[Raith]

So, I was wondering after I opened my booster box what others pulls were like, because my box was nothing but value. I was wondering if I just got a lucky box, or is this a card game / set that just yields great value from its boxes.

For example, I pulled the following from my 16 packs (value is based off of average price of sold listings on ebay, the same way my local card store finds prices for other card games such as MTG):

SR Warrior From a Grim Future, Lucina - $40

SR Mage of Dark Obsessions, Tharja - $40 - $45 ($35 low)

SR Sable Order, Camus - $25 - $30

SR Manakete Princess, Tiki - $40

Box Promo - $15

R+ Man of Flowers Fragrance, Inigo - $25

As you can see, my box that cost me about $85 got me well over that in value from just a few cards. This isn't including all the rares I got obviously, which would well push it over $200 I would say.

So, to those who also bought boxes, were you able to make back the price of the box from your pulls? I have been thinking it might be better to just buy boxes to complete my collection, since I can just sell off everything I don't need to help pay for the boxes, potentially saving me hundreds of dollars if I were to just buy them. Especially the signed cards, which seem to go for upwards of $100 each depending on the card. If I pulled one of them from a box, that alone would pay for it.

[BoxPuff]

It is common for people to have these cards when they purchase box sets. There're people got signed Marth card, SR Gaius, SR Tharja in the same box.

Here's the thing. What you see may not be what other people see, if you know what I mean.

For example. I have a B01-080SR Tharja card, which is actually just about 1300 yen -1500 yen (~11 USD) on the Japanese market, and I want to keep this card. Then this card can be priceless.

But if I want to sell this card on the US market, and priced it at 35 USD. It still worth nothing UNTIL I make that sell. If there's no one wants to pay that much for this card or they simply cannot afford it, then it is impossible for me to make profits from it, even it is indeed very valuable. Buyer's market and seller's market are totally different things. No matter how many cards you have, you can't actually say "this card alone can pay for this whole box" if no one buys it.

I am NOT saying it doesn't worth it to buy box sets. I myself bought 6 boxes, and I gave most of my extras as gifts to my friends. But it is important to know, depending on which markets you are looking at and the relationship between demand and supply, the worth of these cards can be very different. Especially box promo, they are not actually very rare on the market. Other promo cards, such as P01-003PR~012PR, are much more exclusive since you can only get them at first-hand if you are in Japan. (since people can get 013-015PR through magazines/guides so they are rare but not THAT rare.)

There's no signed cards can go up to 100 USD. Most of them are around 20 to 30 USD. For popular characters like Marth and Lucina, they could be around 50 to 60 USD top. Don't trust pricing on eBay... A lot of people just put whatever prices they like to fool people. :/

Edited August 23, 2015 by BoxPuff

[Kirie]

The values you're listing for your cards are on the high-end. For example, if you look at sold US Ebay listings, all of the recent sales for Tharja SR, Tiki SR, Lucina SR are in the US$20-US$30 range, not US$40 or more; Camus SR is US$10-US$15; Kamui promo is US$5 at best. The cards were indeed selling for more on Ebay a couple months ago back when Cipher was first released, but now that more people have boxes and there are more cards around, the values have lowered. This is pretty common for TCG after-market values; you get the best bang for your buck right at the beginning when demand is high and supply is low. It's good to look at sold listings, but you can't go back too far or you'll get a distorted picture of the value.

That said, you did get a lucky box, yes, since a lot of your SRs (Lucina, Tharja, Tiki) are of the most popular characters available as SRs, and your R+ (Inigo) is an in-demand card for people who like to bling out their decks because Inigo is a very popular deck at the moment.

You also paid kind of a lot for your box, though. You can get a box for about US$41 + shipping if you order from AmiAmi. It's much easier to recoup your money if you're paying less to begin with. :)

For myself, I managed to make enough money selling pulls to buy a second box. :3 I've got 2 boxes on order for Series 2 and will probably use the money selling singles from that to put towards purchases of Series 3, etc.

[Raith]

The values you're listing for your cards are on the high-end. For example, if you look at sold US Ebay listings, all of the recent sales for Tharja SR, Tiki SR, Lucina SR are in the US$20-US$30 range, not US$40 or more; Camus SR is US$10-US$15; Kamui promo is US$5 at best. The cards were indeed selling for more on Ebay a couple months ago back when Cipher was first released, but now that more people have boxes and there are more cards around, the values have lowered. This is pretty common for TCG after-market values; you get the best bang for your buck right at the beginning when demand is high and supply is low. It's good to look at sold listings, but you can't go back too far or you'll get a distorted picture of the value.

That said, you did get a lucky box, yes, since a lot of your SRs (Lucina, Tharja, Tiki) are of the most popular characters available as SRs, and your R+ (Inigo) is an in-demand card for people who like to bling out their decks because Inigo is a very popular deck at the moment.

You also paid kind of a lot for your box, though. You can get a box for about US$41 + shipping if you order from AmiAmi. It's much easier to recoup your money if you're paying less to begin with. :)

For myself, I managed to make enough money selling pulls to buy a second box. :3 I've got 2 boxes on order for Series 2 and will probably use the money selling singles from that to put towards purchases of Series 3, etc.

The 3 most recent listings for Tiki SR are 32.99 with $10 shipping, As a seller of Magic Cards, I can tell you for a fact that it doesn't cost $10 to ship a card, and it is just a way that sellers like to make their listing more attractive and still get the price they want. So basically, you are probably making around $30 from a single card, which is almost half the price of the box (around $6 shipping and 10% Ebay final value fee)

Also, I should have mentioned that I am from NFLD Canada, so all these prices are in CAD instead of USD. hat could be where the prices are getting messed up between us as well :P (and why my box was a bit over $70 instead of $40... even though I bought from amiami as well)

It is common for people to have these cards when they purchase box sets. There're people got signed Marth card, SR Gaius, SR Tharja in the same box.

Here's the thing. What you see may not be what other people see, if you know what I mean.

For example. I have a B01-080SR Tharja card, which is actually just about 1300 yen -1500 yen (~11 USD) on the Japanese market, and I want to keep this card. Then this card can be priceless.

But if I want to sell this card on the US market, and priced it at 35 USD. It still worth nothing UNTIL I make that sell. If there's no one wants to pay that much for this card or they simply cannot afford it, then it is impossible for me to make profits from it, even it is indeed very valuable. Buyer's market and seller's market are totally different things. No matter how many cards you have, you can't actually say "this card alone can pay for this whole box" if no one buys it.

I am NOT saying it doesn't worth it to buy box sets. I myself bought 6 boxes, and I gave most of my extras as gifts to my friends. But it is important to know, depending on which markets you are looking at and the relationship between demand and supply, the worth of these cards can be very different. Especially box promo, they are not actually very rare on the market. Other promo cards, such as P01-003PR~012PR, are much more exclusive since you can only get them at first-hand if you are in Japan. (since people can get 013-015PR through magazines/guides so they are rare but not THAT rare.)

There's no signed cards can go up to 100 USD. Most of them are around 20 to 30 USD. For popular characters like Marth and Lucina, they could be around 50 to 60 USD top. Don't trust pricing on eBay... A lot of people just put whatever prices they like to fool people. :/

Well, not USD, but the most recent signed Lucina SR that sold on ebay (only a week ago) was for $95 + $10 CAD. I am assuming that equals around 60 USD, but still a single lucky pull like that and your box is covered. If you wanted to flip it faster, you could always undercut the competition and go for like $80, which still covers the price of the box.

I get what both of you are saying though, with most boxes probably not going to churn out as much value as I am expecting. I just thought it might be a cheaper way of completing the set, as completing a set in any TCG is never cheap, but for some reason the cards in this game are going for stupid amounts of money.