Booster Box EV Calculator: Is It Worth Opening?

Is a booster box worth opening, or worth more sealed? Pick a set and a product to see what an average pack pulls in today’s card prices compared with what the box, Elite Trainer Box or bundle costs. Every pull rate is editable: they are typical rates tracked by collectors, not official odds, and special sets vary more. Card prices are TCGplayer Near Mint market prices (updated weekly); sealed prices are TCGplayer market prices (updated daily).

Pull rates and card values

RarityCardsAvg. price1 pack inValue per pack
Bulk (commons, uncommons, reverse holos, rare)$

Chase cards: chance to pull at least one

CardPricePer packPer product
Expected value is an average over many products: most boxes pull less than this and a few pull far more, because a big share of the value sits in a handful of chase cards. Market prices are what cards sell for, before selling fees and shipping (about 13-15% on eBay or TCGplayer), so you’d keep less than the expected value if you sold your pulls. Not investment advice.

How the expected value is worked out

For each rarity (double rare, illustration rare, special illustration rare and so on), the calculator takes the average market price of every card at that rarity in the set and multiplies it by how often a pack contains one (“1 pack in 86” means a 1 in 86 chance per pack). Adding those up, plus a small amount for the bulk cards in every pack, gives the expected value of one pack; times the number of packs in the product gives its expected pulls. A rarity counts only if it has a rate, so you can leave one out or add your own. Prices updated Oct 29, 2026.

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