Treasure Chest | Illustration by Dan Scott
Not too long ago we reviewed a website called boxed.gg as part of a guide on alternatives to buying singles. I’d never really experienced or heard of the whole “custom booster pack” thing they advertised, and I thought it was a novel idea for people who know how to manage their money well.
Now we’re taking a look at Pullbox.gg, which has a striking similarity to Boxed. Like, nearly identical. I’m not sure if this is a new wave of people capitalizing on this sort of high variance card collection method, or if these two sites are linked somehow, but here I’ll focus solely on Pullbox and what they have to offer.
And thank you to Pullbox for providing some on-site currency to test out the program!
What Is Pullbox?
Pullbox.gg is a website that offers cards from various TCGs in a sort of roulette-style fashion. Instead of purchasing singles or boosters directly, Pullbox has prearranged, themed boxes that you can open with their on-site currency. Each box has an array of cards that fit the theme across various rarities, with percentages attached to each item in the box. The higher rarity or price point for the item, the lower percentage chance that you’ll open it. It’s a lot like when you open a booster pack, with all the percentages of each hit laid out in front of you.
Why Buy From/Use Pullbox?
Pullbox is purely an alternative to buying booster packs or singles. If you’re on the hunt for specific singles, there’s no reason to play the odds here. But if you have a certain amount of cash set aside to spend on random cards, Pullbox is a consideration.
The odds are stacked against the best of the best cards, but if you poke around enough you’ll find boxes that have a high enough floor that you could drop a few bucks on them and walk away happy regardless of what you open. And of course, there’s the allure of the low-percentage chance of spiking some really awesome, rare cards. You shouldn’t approach this site with the mentality that that’s going to happen, and instead aim for more reasonable average payouts, which I’ll detail later.
Is Pullbox Safe?
From an internet and financial security perspective, yes, your information is safe with Pullbox.
There’s a larger question here about the “gambling” aspects of the site. I mention this because we reviewed a very similar website not too long ago, and this was a cause for concern with many readers.
Pullbox definitely flirts with the glitzy slot-machine-style overlays that you might associate with gambling, and that’s a fair thing to call it if you wish, regardless of the true legal definition of “gambling.”
The important thing to note here is that there’s no trickery at hand: All percentages are laid out in front of the consumer before they spend a dime. You know what the odds are for every card you could open on this site, and you can make informed decisions about where to invest your money, or not to invest your money at all! If this isn’t your thing, that’s fine!
But there’s one overarching caveat to all of this: Be responsible and spend within your means. If Pullbox is something that interests you and you want to try it out, maybe even crack some boxes on a regular basis, set yourself a reasonable budget and stick to it. Think of it like buying booster packs: How much are you planning to spend? Set that number ahead of time and avoid the “just one more try” mentality if you miss out on anything big.
Pullbox: Is It Worth It?
Let’s start with a look at the website itself. It’s pretty showy from the start, with a homepage that displays all sorts of boxes, recent hits, a live chat, and more. It’s a bit busy, though it helps if you minimize the chat bar.
The bar at the top of the screen displays a dropdown menu where you can toggle the game you’re looking for (we’ll focus solely on MTG here), your current coins (on-site currency), and your user information. We’ll need to check out the exchange rate for coins before we can do anything relevant on this site.
As you can see from the $10 option, $1 is worth slightly over 1 coin, so there’s a close to even rate between coins and $1 increments. You get bonus coins as you spend larger amounts on coins, but here’s my first piece of advice: If you’re going to test the waters with Pullbox, start with the $10 or $25 options. You may very likely find that this sort of wheel-spinning just isn’t for you, and you don’t want to drop $50+ just to walk away. I can’t really fathom spending more than $100 for coins, but let’s return to that overarching point: Spend within your means and be responsible.
You’ll see that I’m sitting on 146 coins to start with, which came courtesy of Pullbox themselves for the purposes of this review. That means free stuff for me, but I’m going to evaluate all pulls as though I actually spent $100 to open these boxes.
Browsing Product
Now to the meat of the site: the boxes. Clicking the Boxes tab brings you to Pullbox’s “inventory,” so to speak. This tab displays a selection of boxes, and each box contains a collection of handpicked cards that usually match a specific theme. There are a lot of nobs and numbers to point out right away.
The first thing you’ll want to know is, as Brad Pitt once said: “What’s in the Box?!” Clicking a box shows you the contents that you could open when you spend coins on it.
Let’s click on this “Pony Soup” box and see what we could get. Note that the cost to open the box is 1.32 coins, which is roughly $1.
Scroll down to see all of the contents of the box. In this case, it’s a bunch of My Little Pony Secret Lair cards, plus some other “pony” creatures to pad it out. And I use the term “pad out” intentionally. It’s extremely important to note the percentages attached to each card: There is not an equal chance to open every card in the box. The higher rarity and more expensive a card is on the secondary market, the lower percentage chance you have to open it.
Using the Pony Soup box as an example, notice that Bill the Pony and Ordinary Pony both have a 49.333% chance of being opened. Add those together and it means that 98.666% of the time you open this box, you’ll get a completely useless dud card. Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Applejack are the next “most likely” cards to open, each at a 0.296% chance. Fewer than 1% of spins result in a card worth opening here. To put that into perspective, you could spend roughly $100, open this box just under 100 times, and likely walk away with nothing noteworthy due to the low drop rates of the relevant cards. But you could get lucky and open some big-money card like Princess Twilight Sparkle. That’s the dream, at least.
This is the type of box I’d avoid, though there’s more to the site than sub-1% chances to hit rare cards. There’s another factor at play that you need to be very cognizant of: the Volatility meter.
Each box has a Volatility meter on it, which notes the risk-to-reward ratio of opening any given box. The higher the Volatility, the less likely you are to get anything worthwhile, though the appeal here is that the big hits are really big when you win. The Pony Soup box has a maximum Volatility, which is code for: “You probably won’t win anything, but there’s a slim chance you’ll pay $1 and win a $125+ Twilight Princess Sparkle.”
Huge, huge recommendation here: Stay away from high-Volatility boxes. These look very promising, but they’re created by design to basically never pay out the big-money items. Even worse, the “consolation” prizes are usually joke cards that you’d have no use for. Let’s look at a super enticing box to demonstrate this.
This box is called Power 9 Soup (what’s with all the soup?), and it’s the highest-volatility box on the site. And that’s because it has the Power 9 in it. Well… kind of. The percentages show that spinning this box nets you one piping hot copy of Hot Soup. Funny joke, but it’s basically impossible to open the advertised cards here. Less than .001%? Again, perspective: It’s estimated that you have a .005% chance of being struck by lightning during your lifetime.
The thing is, the box only costs 1.28 coins to open (less than the Pony box). It’s very tempting to say “sure, I’ll give it a couple spins,” spend $5, $10, maybe $20 opening the same box over and over, and walk away with a bowl full of Hot Soups.
I’m not a fan of this level of Volatility, and my strongest recommendation to users of this site is to just ignore high-Volatility boxes regardless of their proposed contents. Congrats to anyone who hit the elusive 1%-ers, but remember for everyone who spikes a 1% card, there are 99 other people who missed it.
But not all is lost, because I think there’s something to be said for the boxes with low, or even mid-level Volatility. For me to want to invest money into an experience like this, I have to know that I’ll get something worth my time and money, even if it’s not some big, expensive pull. Kind of like opening a Play booster: I know I’ve got a rare and a foil coming my way, even if it’s all just bulk. Some of these boxes leave you with stone cold nothing that matters (unless you’re collecting Bill the Pony cards), but I don’t mind the ones that have better “consolation prizes.”
Let’s explore a lower-Volatility box. Here I clicked on a box called “Borderless Horrors,” which has a fairly low Volatility and features borderless cards from Innistrad Remastered.
The higher end stuff is still pretty far out of reach, so don’t expect to ever spike that Craterhoof Behemoth. But you start to see cards in the 1-2% range. That’s still unlikely, but not impossible, and the box makes up for that by having a better floor for lower-end hits.
By looking at the second half of the box, you can see that the lowest hits are still cool borderless cards. You’re not hoping to open a borderless Rooftop Storm here (unless you are, zombie player), but paying the 1.2 coins to spin this box and “defaulting” to a borderless Rooftop Storm, or Thraben Inspector, or Abundant Growth isn’t as insulting as something like Hot Soup (which might as well be a soundbite that says “whomp whomp”).
Here's the bottom line:
- Avoid high-Volatility boxes. Your chances of getting the cards that matter are basically non-existent, and the low-end hits aren’t relevant cards.
- Thoroughly check out the content of boxes before spinning. Know your possible hits, the percentages of each hit, and decide if you’re happy “missing” on the box.
- Don’t expect to spike the biggest, rarest cards in the boxes. The boxes are designed not to pay out those items on a consistent basis. If you removed all the 1-10% cards from the box, would you still be happy rolling it?
- Set a limit before spending or spinning anything, and stick to that limit. This is the type of stuff that’s easy to get you into that “just one more spin” mindset, and that’s not healthy. If you haven’t hit anything interesting but you’ve reached your limit, you’re done. Step away and move on to something else.
Opening Boxes
Okay, so let’s actually spin some of these boxes. I’m writing much of this review before I open boxes so that I’m not influenced by any “big hits” I open. I’m going to open three individual boxes of different Volatility levels and share my results.
First up is the low-Volatility “Welcome Our Special Guests!” box, which costs 8.85 coins a spin. As the name suggests, this box is basically just every Special Guests card that’s been printed, and the low-percentage hits are still pretty reasonable cards.
And we hit… Desertion, with a value of 3.26 coins. To go back to an earlier point, that’s a net loss on my coins, but at least Desertion is a playable card, so it has that usual booster pack feel of “okay, at least I got something.” The low-Volatility boxes are going to feel like that a lot, with the occasional hits that’ll feel great.
For a medium-Volatility box, I selected “Best 1-Drops of All Time (Creatures).” This box has 56 total cards, many of which are 5%-ers like Gingerbrute and Voldaren Epicure. There are obviously some sweet hits, but the expectation is low on something like this.
I spun this box for 2.78 coins and opened an Orcish Lumberjack, worth an equivalent 2.42 coins in value. Not too bad, honestly. Though Pullbox, you can read up on the actual best 1-drops here if you’d like.
And to close out, let’s open a high-Volatility box aptly named “Dual or Bust!” As you might imagine, all 10 Revised Edition duals are available here with an individual drop rate of 0.024%. The rest of the box, the “Bust” as they call it, consists of useless basics, though you’ll get the occasional Battle for Zendikar full-art.
I spun this box for 2.11 coins and opened a full-art Mountain. Cool, but Bust indeed. This is why I said to stay away from these sorts of high-Volatility boxes. It's unrealistic to think I'd hit big on one test spin, but I could easily spin this a couple hundred times and sink $200 into what’ll eventually be a pile of basic lands.
Product Delivery
First thing’s first, you can return cards to Pullbox for a fraction of their coin value at any time. If you open something you have no intentions of using, like, say, 14 copies of Hot Soup, you can put them towards extra coins for additional spins. I’m having my entire inventory sent to me, first because I want to evaluate the full shipping process, and second because I hit a couple goodies with the remaining coins provided by Pullbox.
The Inventory is located in the dropdown menu with your username in the upper right corner. This displays every card you’ve opened from a box, and you select which ones you want shipped to you. Note the total value of the cards here is 98.12 coins, and I started off with 146 coins. There are some sweet hits for sure, though the overall loss is expected. Think about it: How often do you open a booster box worth more than what you paid for the box?
Here’s where I hit my biggest gripe with the site. Upon entering my shipping info, the shipping cost updated to 7.3 coins (it was previously blank). Obviously, I spent as much of my starting bankroll as I could, so I didn’t actually have the coins left to cover this. I was basically left with the option to add additional funds to my account, or “sell back” one of the bigger-money cards I hit. And you can’t just buy the equivalent funds; you need to purchase a coin bundle for minimum $10. I sold the Temporal Manipulation to cover the cost. There’s probably a nod to this in their on-site FAQ, but it was a major drag to run into while completing the order, and I assume others might have a similar issue. And from what I understand, the shipping cost is usually fixed, so I feel like it'd be a huge improvement to display it first.
I placed my order on April 19, and it arrived on May 21 (minus maybe a few days for post office handling). Pullbox’s FAQ states that orders may be shipped up to 30 days after they’re processed. That could go up to as many as 45 days for cards they might not have in their inventory.
This was a pretty colossal wait for my cards, 32 days total from placing the order. I’m not personally bothered by this, nor is it fully unexpected. Pullbox has its own collection of cards and stock, but they don’t have a comprehensive inventory of everything you could open on the site. That means you’ll sometimes hit a unique card, or a quantity of cards that they don’t have on hand, and Pullbox will have to collect those cards from another source. That’s all fine as long as you end up getting what you won, but just be aware that some big-item hits might take longer to arrive.
My order included an Invocation Sunder, a textured foil Kozilek, the Great Distortion, and a couple Special Guests cards, so I assume at least one of these wasn’t in Pullbox’s stock and they had to source it from somewhere else before they shipped it to me. My takeaway is that you should expect a longer wait time for larger orders, or orders that include rare or high-end cards.
As far as packaging goes, full seal of approval here. I got a small, secure bubble mailer, and the individual cards were sleeved, with the Sunder in a hard toploader.
Card conditions were all Near Mint or close to it (one card was marked Lightly Played+), and everything came as expected. Wait time aside, I’m happy with the final result.
The Verdict: Is Pullbox Worth It?
Pullbox is worth your money under a few conditions: You already plan to spend money on “random pulls” of some sort, whether that’s booster packs, booster boxes, or the like. And second, you stick to low- or average-risk boxes. Again, I think the high-risk boxes look enticing, but they’re basically money sinks with no real consolation prizes.
That all said, if you’re the type to crack boosters on a regular basis, you’re good with budgeting, and you don’t mind adding a few random cards to your collection, then sure, give Pullbox a few spins and see if it’s worth engaging with more from there.
If you’re in need of specific singles or you’re a little too trigger-happy on the slots, there are better alternatives out there.
FAQ Section
What Is the Beta Exchange?
The Exchange tab (currently in Beta) brings you to a marketplace where you can purchase high-end cards using your coins on the site. This is mostly for expensive cards, and it allows you to sort of purchase cards directly if you just want to buy coins and bring them to the Exchange, though the rates are higher than they are if you buy them from a typical card retailer.
What If I Don’t Want the Cards I Win?
If you open complete duds or cards you don’t really want shipped to you, you can return them to Pullbox for a fraction of their coin value. In other words, you can sort of invest unwanted pulls back into your bankroll, though usually at a loss (you’re probably not “selling back” anything expensive you hit in your boxes).
Can You Sell Cards on Pullbox?
Nope, Pullbox isn’t the place to go to try and sell cards. They have a marketplace for buying cards using their on-site currency, but you can’t exchange your physical cards for coins or anything like that.
Other Features
Just to touch on some other features of the site, you can get some free box openings or coins through various means, many of which require you to link a Discord account or join Pullbox's own Discord server. There's a level-up system that'll occasionally reward you with some freebies if you use the site consistently.
There's also a coin drop feature that'll filter some of the coins spent on the website back into a lottery-style event that will distribute those coins to active users. You need to have your phone number registered with the site to participate, and the coin amounts vary significantly, but free is free.
And there's a “Battle” feature which adds a sort of community event to the website, where participants can join box openings with other users, and set stipulations like “highest amount opened takes everything,” or “even distribution across all participants.” It's a fine community-building part of the site, and leaves room for customization.
Wrap Up
Vexing Puzzlebox | Illustration by Volkan Baga
I get the apprehension about this sort of website. It has a gambling-adjacent feel to it, but I think it all goes back to being responsible and only engaging with the ecosystem if you’re smart about how you approach it.
Forget those high-variance boxes and stick to the low-variance stuff that yields something of note if you “brick.” Honestly, the bottom line is that sites like this exist for people who find the randomness fun, and anyone else who doesn’t see the appeal of it can skip out. It’s an alternative to just buying stray boosters if you’re the type to do so. I’d rather see these sites ditch the allure of dual lands and Power Nine and just deliver the baseline fun aspects that make spending $10-20 on random Magic cards interesting.
Pullbox won’t be for everyone, but there’s a crowd for it, and I wish them the best of luck on their pulls. If you’ve visited this site before, how did it work out for you? How much did you put in, and what did you get out? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.
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