Need help: Value of Magic: The Gathering unopened sample pack

[jaron80]

I just found an unopened, 10- card sampler pack of Magic:The Gathering cards. On the front, it says "Starter Level" in an oval; below that, it says "Special Offer Inside"; at the bottom, it says "Sampler (then underneath, "not for resale"). On the back, it says "Not for resale. For promotional purposes only. This sampler contains 10 actual cards from the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. Special offer also included". There is a number under the bar code: WOC17086. It also says "Booster illustration by Mark Zug", and the picture on the front looks like a rhinocerous, holding a spiked weapon,wearing an amulet and armor on its back.
Might you be able to estimate its value? I didn't want to open it to see what cards were inside in case it might decrease the value. Thanks!

[Swords to Plowshares]

It's a starter 2000 sampler. The cards inside are worthless and I can't imagine it is worth much sealed.

[jaron80]

Thank you!

[Oakminster]

For future reference, you can see lots of cards and retail prices at Card Kingdom.

[Chronos]

It's a starter 2000 sampler. The cards inside are worthless and I can't imagine it is worth much sealed.

Huh, I would have guessed that an anthropomorphic rhino with an amulet would be from Alara, much more recent than 2000.

[Quimby]

Originally Posted by jaron80

I just found an unopened, 10- card sampler pack of Magic:The Gathering cards. On the front, it says "Starter Level" in an oval; below that, it says "Special Offer Inside"; at the bottom, it says "Sampler (then underneath, "not for resale"). On the back, it says "Not for resale. For promotional purposes only. This sampler contains 10 actual cards from the Magic: The Gathering trading card game. Special offer also included". There is a number under the bar code: WOC17086. It also says "Booster illustration by Mark Zug", and the picture on the front looks like a rhinocerous, holding a spiked weapon,wearing an amulet and armor on its back.
Might you be able to estimate its value? I didn't want to open it to see what cards were inside in case it might decrease the value. Thanks!

Generally those have nothing but commons (there are 4 rarities, common, uncommon, rare and mythic rare) and are packs given to Wizards employees to give out at shows and stuff. Unless it was extremely old (and to be honest i don't think they made these types of packs back then), I can't imagine the cards inside are worth anything.

[Meeko]

If it is what I think it is, you have 1 each of 5 basic lands, A stone rain, a python, a merfolk of pearl trident, a giant growth.

That's off the top of my head.

Then again, I worked for WOTC around the time of the 2000 sampler packs. I still have a few myself.

[Meeko]

In short, you have less than crap. [Frankly]

[Meeko]

I want to say perhaps a Spider as well. I can't even be bothered to get up to check this for you. (That should tell you something, in and of itself.)

[Chronos]

Eh, Stone Rain might be worth a little. For all the variants they've come up with, I don't think they've ever made anything strictly better than Stone Rain. And Giant Growth is quite common, but can come in handy. Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, though, isn't worth the price if you get one for free, and basic lands are really only ever sold in bulk, since they're worth so little individually.

Of course, by "worth a little", I still mean "probably less than a dollar".

[Brainiac4]

The real value is the fun of opening it. It's kind of like Schroedinger's box... it goes from potential to actual when opened. Sure, it probably has crap in it - but what if we're wrong, and it has a really cool card in it? If it doesn't, you have some nice bookmarks.

[Cliffy]

Back when Unlimited was first out and Magic had just started spreading East, I worked in a comic shop that made money hand over fist on that stuff. At that time, Wizards sold the game in 60 (?) card starter packs as well as boosters. Every day people would look at our display box of starters, agonize over which one to pick, and then finally choose the second to last one back on the right side. Whereupon we'd wait till he let the store, grab a handful of packs from behind the counter, and randomly fill the display box back up.

I have no idea if there really was a correlation between the best cards and their position in the box, but if there was, I'm sure we had a lot of disappointed customers. Didn't stop 'em from coming back the next day, though.

--Cliffy

[glowacks]

The art is probably http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Ca...verseid=106504. Many rhinos in Alara block take their name from this guy, who shares many characteristics they have. He was also anthropomorphized only on that edition of the card; he was depicted as a animal-like beast in his previous printings.

He doesn't appear to be listed in either product named "Starter" - those packs might be stuff that came with 10th edition though.

[glowacks]

Now that I think about it more, there was a special foil promo of Rhox done soon after his release in Nemesis that was included in the Starter 2000 materials, but was not actually part of that set; the promo has the Nemesis symbol: http://img.coolstuffinc.net/products...promo/rhox.jpg

[Chronos]

That would seem to clear that up, then: That matches the description of "rhino in armor with spiked weapon", with art by Mark Zug, and the cards that get foil promos done tend to be the same ones that get featured on the package art.

As an aside, though, the coolstuffinc link appears to have some amusing hotlinking protection. You'll have to copy and paste the correct URL after clicking the link.

[JSexton]

Crack it open. Maybe you'll get lucky and there will be a misprinted card with some collector value.

[JSexton]

Oh, and the contents are: Spined Wurm, Stone Rain, Python, Merfolk of the Pearl Trident, Armored Pegasus, Forest, Mountain, Swamp, Island, Plains. A white bordered Stone Rain is not worth anything, as it's one of the most reprinted cards ever.