Is opening Pokémon packs worth it? How to check yours
On average, most modern booster boxes return less than they cost. How to put what you paid for your own packs next to what the cards you kept are worth today.
In money terms, usually not: for most modern sets, the cards in an average booster box are worth less at market prices than the box costs at retail. Your own packs are not the average, though, and whether they were worth it is a sum you can do: what you paid, next to what the cards you kept are worth today.
Opening a pack is the fun part: the last card turns over, and for a second it could be anything. Adding it up afterwards is not, so this post walks through it one pack at a time.
What does "worth it" mean for a pack?Link to this section
Two numbers, and each is easy to get slightly wrong.
What you paid. The amount that left your account, on the day it left. A box bought above its retail price, or paid for in another currency, cost you a different number from the one on the price tag.
What the cards you kept are worth. Not every card in the pack: the ones you kept. And "worth" here means a market price, the price the same card in the same print and condition has recently sold for.
A market price is not what you would get if you sold your copy today. A sale has fees and postage, and it needs a buyer. So read the result as what the pack turned into, not as money in your hand.
What is expected value, and why is your box not the average?Link to this section
Expected value, or EV, is the average worth of what comes out of a product over a great many openings. PokemonPriceTracker's booster box EV guide (February 2026) gives the formula as "EV = Sum of (each card's market price × its pull rate)", and its headline finding is plain: "Most modern booster boxes have negative EV at MSRP."
That is an average over a very large number of boxes. Yours is one of them. When one card in a set sells for far more than the rest, whether you pulled it decides your result, and an average hides exactly that.
EV also moves every day, because it is built from market prices. A set's EV this week is not what it was on the day you opened your box.
So EV answers "does this set pay for itself on average?". It cannot tell you what your own packs did. For that you need your own receipts and your own cards.
How to work out what your packs returned, by handLink to this section
1. Write down each opening. One row per pack or box, not per card: the date, the product, what you paid and the currency you paid in.
2. List the cards you kept, as exact prints. Set, card number, language and finish. A reverse holo and the plain print of the same card are different cards on the market, and so are its English and Japanese prints.
3. Note the condition. Raw near mint, raw played and a graded copy are three different prices for one print.
4. Pick one price source for each card, and keep it. A US marketplace and a European one each publish their own market price for the same card, one in dollars and one in euros, and the two often differ. Switch sources between two checks, and a card seems to move when only the source changed.
5. Convert to one currency before you compare. A card priced in euros against a pack paid for in pounds is not a sum until both are in the same currency, on the same day. The exchange rate moves your result too, even when the card's price does not. If you bought the box abroad, which exchange rate to record is its own small question.
6. Compare the total with what you paid. The kept cards' total minus the price of the pack is that pack's result, today.
7. If you want a cost per card, split the price by market value. Say a pack cost 8.00 and you kept two cards priced at 30.00 and 10.00. The first card carries three quarters of the cost, 6.00, and the second carries 2.00. That per-card cost is the number to compare against if you ever sell one card on its own.
A spreadsheet can hold all of this. Where it wears thin is upkeep. A price typed in today is stale next month. A box paid for in two payments needs two rows. Cards from the same box added a week later mean doing the split again. And a card priced in euros sits next to a receipt in your own currency. None of it is hard, and all of it is the part that gets skipped.
How Hundo does the sumLink to this section
Hundo is a money tracker first, so if you logged the pack when you paid for it, the payment is already there. Collectibles, part of Pro, starts from that payment.
- Add the cards you pulled. Open the set from "Browse sets", use "Find in set" to find each card, and tap "+ Add" on the exact print. The cards wait in a tray until you review them.
- Tell Hundo where they came from. In the review, choose "Opened a box or pack". Hundo looks through your recent expenses for the pack and links the likely one; if it picked the wrong one, choose "Not this one". If you never logged the payment, type what you paid or record it there. Opened two boxes and cannot tell which card came from which? Link both payments, and Hundo splits their total over all the cards.
- See the result. Hundo splits the price over the cards you added by their market value, and shows what the cards you kept are worth today next to what you paid. The "Opened boxes" list asks "Was each box worth it?" and answers it for every opening: what you paid, what its cards are worth today, and the difference, up or down.
- See where each price comes from. Hundo prices a card from recent sales of that exact print on the big card marketplaces. Where no marketplace prices a print, as with Indonesian prints, Hundo uses shops' asking prices and marks them "Asked" rather than "Sold". A card's page lists every source in its own currency, with a price history chart, and you can pin the source you trust or set your own value.
Your cards then count in your net worth, converted into your main currency, so the binder sits in the same number as your savings, your investments and your debts. How Hundo counts the rest, from property to gold, is its own post.
Hundo supports Pokémon cards only for now. It tracks single cards, raw or graded, and not sealed products. A graded card has a market price only where a source prices that grade; otherwise its value is the one you set.
What this sum will not tell youLink to this section
What you would get if you sold. It shows market prices, which come from recent sales, not an offer for your copy.
Whether to open a box or keep it sealed. That is a guess about where prices go, and no one can promise you one.
Anything about packs you did not record. A pack you never logged has no price, and a card you never added has no share of it.
Common questionsLink to this section
Is buying the single cheaper than opening packs for it?Link to this section
If you want one specific card, buying that card fixes its price before you pay. Opening packs for it does not: you keep paying per pack until it turns up, and the other cards in each pack are all that offsets the cost. Which costs less depends on the card's price and the set's odds on the day.
Should I open my booster box or keep it sealed?Link to this section
That is a bet on future prices, and no one can tell you how it turns out. What you can know is what the box cost you and, once you open it, what came out of it.
Do bulk commons count?Link to this section
Count the cards you keep. In Hundo, a card you do not add gets no share of the price, so the whole cost sits on the cards you did add. That makes the result stricter, not kinder.
Why do the English and Japanese prints of the same card have different prices?Link to this section
Because they are different cards on the market, sold to different buyers. Hundo prices each card as its own print: an English card is priced as an English card, wherever you bought it and wherever you live.
Can I see the value in my own currency?Link to this section
Yes. Each source prices a card in its own currency, often US dollars or euros. Hundo converts every price into your main currency, which can be any of 166 currencies, and counts the collection in your net worth.
Does Hundo scan cards with the camera?Link to this section
No. You find a card by its name or number, or open its set and tap the cards you pulled.
What happens to my cards if I stop paying for Pro?Link to this section
They stay yours, and your net worth still counts them. Seeing their values and adding new cards are part of Pro.
Which parts are free?Link to this section
Logging what you paid, budgets, reports and net worth are part of the free tracker, with nothing capped. Collectibles, the part that values your cards, are part of Pro.
Pokémon is a trademark of Nintendo, Creatures and GAME FREAK. Hundo is not affiliated with them.