While that’s not too exciting, you still need a baseline to compare what a cheap box looks like in practice. If you find a box that’s cheaper than $115 then you’re beating the baseline. This is what you want to use this as a baseline. This means you could find boxes for anywhere between that base price of $115 up to $130. Wholesale suppliers recommend selling boxes for a minimum of $115. When looking for a draft box of the latest Standard set, how much would you expect to pay walking into a random game store you found online? Let’s start with some frames of reference. So if you’re like me and want to draft cheap, where should you look? Retail Stores It’s been a few years since I was in college, but that same ideology sticks with me to this day. As broke college students we relied on a combination of scouting out the lowest prices, using store credit, and saving any extra packs we had from events to make sure these drafts were as cheap as possible. Some of my favorite memories from college were dorm drafts where one of us would walk to our local game store, buy a box of the latest set, and we’d all gather that night to draft. Let me walk you how I find the best deals on booster boxes and how these methods continue to evolve today. While each of these questions change the base price you should expect, the process of finding the best deals on boxes doesn’t change.

Is this an in-print Standard set for draft? A special limited print run set like Conspiracy? How about a supplemental set like Modern Horizons 2? This is a big question to tackle without more details. Dark Bargain | Illustration by Scott Murphy

Download magic the gathering box topper