Amazon has cut the Magic: The Gathering The Hobbit Play Booster Box to $157.99 as of October 23, the first time it has dropped below $160.
That is $46.96 off the $204.95 price the box usually carries, a 23% discount. It works out to $5.27 for each of the 30 Play Boosters, the standard 14-card packs, inside. A price tracker confirms it as the lowest the box has hit since Amazon first listed it, and it beats the previous record low set in September. Amazon sells and ships this one itself, with Prime delivery as soon as October 24. Walmart matches the price, but through a third-party seller, Cataclysm Games.
The box also includes a foil Middle-earth Box Topper, a reprint from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. Every pack guarantees a foil card and one to three rares or better, with a chance at alternate-art and borderless versions.
The more useful number is on TCGplayer, a marketplace for trading cards. Its lowest listing for the box is $140.49, just $1.44 above its $139.05 market price. That is $17.50 under Amazon's record low, or roughly 58 cents a pack.
It also shows how loose the $204.95 "usual price" is as a benchmark. The market price sits $65.90 below it, so a 23% discount on that figure is less dramatic than it sounds. Amazon's new price is a good deal against its own history, not against the wider market.
For anyone who wants a sealed box shipped fast from a single seller, Amazon is now a defensible choice. Buyers who will accept a marketplace listing can pay about 58 cents less per pack.