What are Magic: The Gathering rips? A quick explainer
Magic: The Gathering and basketball card rips are sealed packs that contain real trading cards inside. The mystery element comes from the fact that you don’t know what cards are inside until you’ve ripped the packs open.
While this provides the element of excitement, it also carries risk, as there’s a high probability that the card inside the pack has a market value below the price that you’ve spent. That’s why card rips are products that should be enjoyed by keen Magic: The Gathering collectors, rather than people who view card trading as an investment.
Mystery booster packs have been available in retail stores since the first Magic: The Gathering trading card game was released in the 1990s. However, following the Magic: The Gathering boom in the 2000s and 2010s, online card rips have become massively popular.
Pros and cons of MTG card rips
Pros
Real MTG trading cards inside Fun for MTG card collectors Available in the USCons
Risk of losing value vs pack priceMTG card rips formats - Retail digital, and live breaks
Magic: The Gathering and WWE card rips usually come in one of these three formats:
- Retail - You buy a physical mystery pack at a retail store and rip it open yourself in person to reveal the MTG trading cards inside. This is the traditional pack rips method that’s becoming outdated and less readily available in the US.
- Digital/instant - You can purchase the packs online, and your MTG trading cards are instantly revealed. Although the pack opening is digital, you still own the physical asset. This is the most common MTG pack rips method today.
- Live breaks - This format combines retail and instant rips, as you can buy a pack, or a portion of a pack, on a live stream. The host then rips the pack open for you live on screen to reveal your MTG cards.
How do Magic card pack rips work online?
As the experts explained in the RipVault.gg review on this site, online retailers have digitized pack rips that you can buy and instantly rip on screen. Although the pack and the opening process are fully digital, you still own the physical trading card once it has been revealed.
Here’s how the process works step-by-step:
- Create - Open an account with an online card rips provider. You can discover the best NCAA card rips sites that also offer Magic pack rips later in this article.
- Deposit - Next, you need to fund your account via credit/debit card, bank transfer, e-wallet, or any of the other available payment methods. Note that some pack rips sites allow you to purchase directly without depositing and storing funds in your account.
- Browse - Take some time to look at the different Magic: The Gathering card packs that are available on the site. Packs will usually be organized in price tiers, with the more expensive packs having higher-value pulls overall.
- Fairness - The top card rips sites are fully transparent and openly display the expected value of the pack, the distribution, and the potential chase cards and pulls.
- Purchase - Once you’ve found a pack that you’re happy with, follow the on-screen instructions to complete the transaction.
- Rip - Immediately after purchase, the “rip” should happen on screen to reveal your trading card(s) within a few seconds. At this stage, you can decide what you’d like to do with the trading cards that you now own.
What can you do with your MTG cards after ripping a pack?
Most Magic: The Gathering (MTG) card rips sites give you some or all of these options with your trading cards after buying and ripping a mystery pack:
- Secure vaulting - The vast majority of sites will securely vault your trading cards on your behalf until you decide what to do with them. Always take a look at where and how your cards are vaulted; some sites vault the cards themselves, while others use third parties. Also check for any vaulting fees, as it’s usually free, but not always.
- Instant sellback - Usually, the site will instantly present you with a buyback offer that you can choose to accept or reject. On the best hockey card rips sites, the offer should be around 90% to 100% of the fair market value (FMV) and incur no hidden fees. Some sites offer direct cash payment for the buyback option, while others only give you store credit that you can use to buy more MTG mystery card packs.
- Sell on the marketplace - Some card rips platforms have an in-built online marketplace where you can list your MTG trading cards for sale to other users. Marketplace fees vary up to 10%, and some allow only fixed-price selling with an option for offers or trades, while others allow you to sell at auction with or without a reserve price.
- Ship to your home - If you want to have the physical MTG trading cards in your possession, you can have them shipped to your residential address in the United States. Shipping fees are typically between $15 and $35 for slabbed trading cards, which is quite high compared with standard online shopping items. However, you can generally have up to 20 cards per shipment. So you can limit the cost to $1.00 or less per card if you wait and ship in bulk.
Are MTG trading card rips available in the US?
Magic: The Gathering mystery card rips are available in all 50 states to US citizens and permanent residents who are aged 18+. The age limit is in place because of the risky nature of card rips. As mentioned previously, there’s a high chance that the value of your pull will be below the price that you paid for the pack tier.
Moreover, MTG card packs are not as widely available as Pokémon or MLB card rips, so make sure to register on a site that definitely offers Magic card packs. Below, you can find the two best MTG card rips sites in the US as rated by expert card rippers and collectors.
The best MTG card rips sites for US collectors
Just like the experts presented you with the best soccer card rips sites, here are the top options for Magic: The Gathering card rips. In the table, you can find key information, including the number of MTG mystery pack tiers, the price range, and the best feature of the two platforms.
Courtyard - 0% marketplace fees and $10 MTG card packs
Courtyard.io is an online mystery pack shop and marketplace that offers rips for several sports cards and trading card games. When it comes to Magic: The Gathering card packs, there are three mystery tiers that cost $10, $25, or $50. All packs are sealed until you have completed the purchase.
The average MTG card value inside each pack is roughly 95% or higher based on the value of the mystery pack price. For example, at the time of writing, the average item value in the $50 pack is $48, equating to 96%. However, any given pull could reveal a card with a higher or lower fair market value (FMV).
Once you have pulled your MTG card from the pack, you’ll be presented with an instant cash buyback offer that’s approximately 90% of the card’s FMV. You have a generous seven days to accept this offer, compared with the 24 hours that are common on most other card rips sites.
Alternatively, you can list your MTG trading cards on the marketplace, where there are 0% seller fees. Additionally, you can vault your cards for free or have them shipped to your home address for a reasonable shipping and handling fee.
Open That Pack - The best for specific MTG subset packs
If you’re looking for specific MTG card themes and subsets, Open That Pack is the ideal platform. There are 11 MTG mystery card pack ties on this site that cost between $16 and $70. This includes many specific subset packs, like Universes Beyond: Assassins Creed and Outlaws of Thunder Junction.
When you buy and rip one of these packs, the trading card inside is still random, but it is guaranteed to come from the specified subset release. Unfortunately, there isn’t a mystery pack for the much-coveted MTG Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth series, from which the most expensive MTG card ever was pulled.
Before you buy a pack, you can view all of the chase cards in the set and look at the distribution and probabilities. There is a platform where you can trade your cards for others of a similar value, or sell them for site credit.
The physical card shipping is done via UPS and is available worldwide, including in the US. The fees are reasonable, and your cards should arrive at your door within 1 - 3 business days, which is extremely quick, as other sites have shipping times of up to six weeks.
What to look for in a good MTG card rips site
To give you an idea of what to look for in a good site, here are some of the key aspects that the experts consider. You can check out this Rips by Triumph review for an example of an online card rips shop that ticks most of these boxes.
Getting started - How to sign up for an MTG card rips site
If you’re looking for physical packs, you can find the best Magic: The Gathering and baseball card rips near you here. The process of creating an online account varies slightly on each site, but here’s a rough guide detailing the basic steps:
- Visit - Click one of the banners on this page to visit your card rips site of choice
- Start - Click the “Sign Up” button to begin
- Register - Enter your email address or sign up using Google, Apple, or any of the other available options
- Create - Create a username and password as requested
- Personal - Enter your name, D.O.B, state, and any other personal info that’s required
- Verify - Enter the code sent to you via email or SMS to verify your account
- Deposit - Fund your account using any of the available payment methods
- Rip - Browse, buy, and rip MTG card packs
Magic: The Gathering card rips - Summary and conclusion
In conclusion, Magic: The Gathering (MTG) card rips are opaque mystery packs that you can purchase and tear open to reveal real MTG trading cards inside. You don’t know what you're going to get until after the purchase, which is why they are considered risky.
Still, it can be fun for casual and keen collectors alike, which is why the once-popular retail phenomenon has seen a massive revival boom online. On sites like Courtyard and Open That Pack, you can buy and rip digital MTG packs, but still own the physical card.
You can sign up to either of these sites via the banners on this page. Just remember that card rips are risky and are therefore better suited to collectors, rather than card traders or investors.
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