Member-only story
Should You Buy Yu-Gi-Oh Cards Individually or in Packs?
Growing up, I was always so excited when my parents would finally relent and get me a pack of trading cards (Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, basketball, you name it). The suspense of flipping through each of the cards slowly, hoping for a really rare card at the end…and nothing. Oh well — I was still pretty happy I even got a pack of cards!
Fast forward 10 years, and I now have some statistics degrees under my belt — and a small Yu-Gi-Oh collection. Very small. It’s a pretty expensive hobby! Recently though, I wondered: How many booster packs do I need to buy to get every single card in a set?
There is some folk wisdom that buying a Booster Pack Case for all intents and purposes guarantees at least one of every single card in a set. A Booster Pack Case contains 12 Booster Pack Boxes which each contain 24 Booster Packs which each contain 9 cards for a grand total of 2,592 cards at a price point of at least $730! Is there a cheaper way or do you have to bite the fiscal bullet? So, if you’re a parent thinking of kickstarting your child’s collection or a collector looking to get cards, the following mathematical exploration may be interesting!
