U1s in AN, AQ, HL, FE, and TD

[weatheredwayfarer]

Hey all,

Does anyone know the chances of getting a specific U1 in a booster pack of sets that do not contain rares?

What I'm getting at is the fact that I want to buy an Antiquities booster box hoping for a play set of Mishra's Workshops plus maybe a full set to sell. Is this possible, or will I only receive 1 workshop?

Thanks,
Barry

[Muldoon]

If mishra's workshop is U1 , you will have a very small chance of getting more than one in a box.
Since 60 boosters = 120 U cards, and one U sheet = 121 cards, you will most likely get something similar to a sheet in composition.
Most boxes have kind of shifted boosters though as far as I know, so you could very well get three of some other U1 and zero workshops, or the other way around.
In any case, I vote strongly against opening such an old booster box just for playable cards.

[AzureWinter]

If you don't want to open it and yet able to tell if you gota workshop or not, you can do the "look through the pack from the back" method, but just to warn you, any magic player who knows about this will not buy those packs if you leave a trace that you looked thru them.

[weatheredwayfarer]

I bought just a few packs anyway. I don't know your method, so since I'm not planning on selling the packs, what exactly is it?

Barry

[hammr7]

All the early packs are a bit transparent, so you can see what cards are in the pack.  Many sellers search packs by carefully lifting cards one at a time within the pack.   If not careful, however, you leave tell-tale marks (creases or or point indentations, depending upon your method of lifting individual cards) on the package.

The practice was so prevelent that unless you got the cards from a sealed box (and saw the sealed box opened with your own eyes), there is a better than 50% chance that the pack was already inspected in this manner.  If you believe some cynics, the percentage might be as high as 90%.  This is why "sealed" boxes of early sets command such a premium.