Online rips vs physical packs: the receipt
Chaos Rising three ways on 7 October 2026: $200 reveals 310 cards in an app, 330 from sealed packs or 360 from one box. The price is not what separates them. What you can take home is.
By Alexander Korsager · Checked 7 October 2026 · We earn nothing from any app on this site
Chaos Rising: cost per card revealedTen cards a pack on all three. Tap one above.
- App pack63¢
- Factory pack60¢
- Booster box52¢
$200 on app packs: 31 packs for $195.30: 310 cards, held on the site. About 1.8 of them clear its $5 floor to be shipped.
The receipt
One budget, three ways to open the same set. 4 Pokémon sets that Packs.com re-creates, each beside its factory pack and box.
| App pack | Factory pack | Booster box |
|---|---|---|
| The money | ||
| Price | ||
| $6.30a pack · Packs.com | $6a pack · TCGplayer market price | $188.6636 packs · TCGplayer market price |
| $200 buys | ||
| 31 packs$195.30 paid, $4.70 left | 33 packs$198 paid, $2 left | 1 box$188.66 paid, $11.34 left |
| Cards revealed | ||
| 31010 a pack | 33010 a pack | 36036 packs of 10 |
| Cost per card revealed | ||
| 63¢ | 60¢ | 52¢Lowest |
| What you hold | ||
| Where the cards are | ||
| On the siteuntil you pay to ship | In your handthe day it arrives | In your handor a box left sealed |
| Odds published | ||
| Every carda chance and a value each | NoneMaker's page: “Cards vary by pack” | NoneMaker's page: “Cards vary by pack” |
| Average contents | ||
| $175.46at the app's own values | Not publishednot confirmed | Not publishednot confirmed |
| Cards you can take delivery of | ||
| About 1.8of 310: only cards worth $5 or more ship | 330all of them | 360all of them |
| Getting out | ||
| Sell at once | ||
| Full valueas coins, with no fee | Nono buyer built in | Nono buyer built in |
| Out as cash | ||
| $0no withdrawals: ship the card, then sell it | Sell it yourself13.25% + $0.30 or $0.40 on eBay | Sell it yourselfcard by card, or the box unopened: 13.25% + $0.30 or $0.40 on eBay |
Prices read 7 October 2026. Before sales tax and shipping, which are in no figure here. Whole units only.
The app here is Packs.com, which rebuilds named booster packs card for card. A factory pack also holds a basic Energy and a code card, left out of the count.
List price, market price, app price
One pack of each set at every price read on the day. The cheapest price on the page was the one marked unavailable.
Chaos Rising: one pack of ten cards
- Maker's list price · unavailable on the day$4.49
- Sealed pack, market$6
- Six-pack bundle, market$6.65
- 36-pack box, market$5.24
- App pack · +5% against the sealed pack$6.30
Perfect Order: one pack of ten cards
- Maker's list price · unavailable on the day$4.49
- Sealed pack, market$6.08
- Six-pack bundle, market$6.33
- 36-pack box, market$4.82
- App pack · +4% against the sealed pack$6.33
Ascended Heroes: one pack of ten cards
- Maker's list price · unavailable on the day$4.49
- Sealed pack, market$11.94
- Six-pack bundle, market$13.63
- 36-pack box, marketNot listed
- App pack · +3% against the sealed pack$12.26
151: one pack of ten cards
- Maker's list priceNot listed
- Sealed pack, market$29.10
- Six-pack bundle, market$27.56
- 36-pack box, marketNot listed
- App pack · −33% against the sealed pack$19.53
Pokémon Center listed $4.49 a pack in bundles and boxes, each marked unavailable and capped at one or two per buyer. Packs.com prices from card values, so its pack follows the open market, not the list.
What you can take home
A factory pack is ten cards in your hand. An app pack is ten cards on a site that ships only the ones worth $5 or more.
An average app pack's value: what can ship and what cannot
- Chaos Rising · $5.66 average in a $6.30 pack19%81% coins onlyAbout 5.9 shippable cards in 100 packs
- Perfect Order · $5.69 average in a $6.33 pack20%80% coins onlyAbout 4 shippable cards in 100 packs
- Ascended Heroes · $11.03 average in a $12.26 pack43%57% coins onlyAbout 14 shippable cards in 100 packs
- 151 · $17.57 average in a $19.53 pack58%42% coins onlyAbout 31 shippable cards in 100 packs
Green: value in cards worth $5 or more. Orange: value in cards under it. Summed from every card on each pack's published list.
Packs.com help centre, on shipping an order · read 7 October 2026
“Each card in the order must be worth at least $5, and an order can hold up to 50 cards.”Read the article
Nor is the app pack a sealed pack on a shelf: Packs.com says contents are “built from the live card catalogue, not from our shelf count”. What a repack is, and who fills it, is in what is a repack.
Turning a card into cash
The app buys any card back at once, for coins. Cash means a marketplace on every route, and the app card has to be shipped to you first.
- App card: sell back$0 cash$20 in coins at once. Coins buy packs; none of it can be withdrawn.
- App card: ship, then TCGplayer$9.62 cash$7.43 to have the order shipped, then $2.95 in TCGplayer fees.
- App card: ship, then eBay$9.52 cash$7.43 to have the order shipped, then $3.05 in eBay fees.
- Factory card: TCGplayer$17.05 cashAlready in hand. $2.95 in TCGplayer fees.
- Factory card: eBay$16.95 cashAlready in hand. $3.05 in eBay fees.
The card sells at its stated value on every route, which no page promises. Postage to the buyer is not counted. Packs.com charges shipping per order, so a second card in the same order ships for nothing more.
A factory box or pack left sealed can be sold on whole. Fees on four marketplaces, with tax and postage, are in the selling fee comparer.
Which one fits
The receipt does not pick a winner. What you want out of the pack does.
App pack
63¢a card on a Chaos Rising pack, opened on screen with odds on every card. Budget it as entertainment: about 81% of the average value is in cards that cannot be shipped.Factory packs
330cards in your hand for $200 at the market price, every one of them yours to keep, trade or sell. The maker's page gives no odds for them.Booster box
52¢a card, the lowest of the three on the day. Left sealed, it can be sold on whole. It needs $188.66 up front.After one named card and not the opening? See rips vs buying singles. Setting a limit first: responsible play.
What the receipt leaves out
Three sources read on one day do not make a quote. Four gaps to know before acting on a line.
Tax and shipping
Not countedPokémon Center says “Free shipping on orders over $20!” and marks these products “Final sale item.” A TCGplayer seller's shipping and any sales tax are not confirmed, and are not in the receipt.A market price is not an offer
$6TCGplayer's market price for a sealed Chaos Rising pack on 7 October 2026. A listing you can buy may cost more or less, and the figure moves.The app's odds are its own
Not confirmedPacks.com says “We study the pull rates of the real product and rebuild the pack so it opens the same way”. The maker's product pages give no odds to check that against, so a factory pack's average contents stay unknown.One-card packs are another sum
$25Fanatics Instant Rips' Pokemon Value pack reveals one graded card for the whole price. This page compares like with like: ten raw cards a pack.Questions people ask
Is it cheaper to open packs online or buy physical packs?
Per card revealed, they were close on the day. $200 of Chaos Rising bought 310 cards as Packs.com packs (63¢ each), 330 as sealed packs at TCGplayer's market price (60¢) and 360 as one booster box (52¢). The maker's list price is lower, and was unavailable.
Do you get the real cards from an online pack?
Only the ones worth shipping. Packs.com says each card in a shipping order must be worth at least $5. At its own odds that is about 5.9 cards in every 100 Chaos Rising packs. The rest can be sold back for coins, and coins cannot be withdrawn.
Why is the app pack priced like a sealed pack and not like the list price?
Packs.com says it rebuilds the pack from single cards and prices it from their market values and odds, plus a margin it does not size. On the day its Chaos Rising pack was +5% against the sealed pack on TCGplayer and +40% against the maker's list price.
Does this cover sports cards or slab packs?
No. The receipt is for four Pokémon sets one app re-creates. A slab pack reveals one graded card for the whole price; those are ranked on the best slab packs page. For factory sports packs opened online, see Topps Instant Packs.
Sources31
- Pokémon Center: Mega Evolution: Chaos Rising Booster Bundle pokemoncenter.com
- Pokémon Center: Mega Evolution: Chaos Rising Booster Display Box (36 Packs) pokemoncenter.com
- Pokémon Center: Mega Evolution: Perfect Order Booster Bundle (6 Packs) pokemoncenter.com
- Pokémon Center: Mega Evolution: Perfect Order Booster Display Box (36 Packs) pokemoncenter.com
- Pokémon Center: Mega Evolution: Ascended Heroes Booster Bundle (6 Packs) pokemoncenter.com
- TCGplayer: price feed for Chaos Rising Booster Pack mpapi.tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: Chaos Rising Booster Pack product page tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: price feed for Chaos Rising Booster Box mpapi.tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: Chaos Rising Booster Box product page tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: price feed for Perfect Order Booster Pack mpapi.tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: Perfect Order Booster Pack product page tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: price feed for Perfect Order Booster Box mpapi.tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: Perfect Order Booster Box product page tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: price feed for Ascended Heroes Booster Pack mpapi.tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: Ascended Heroes Booster Pack product page tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: price feed for Ascended Heroes Booster Bundle mpapi.tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: Ascended Heroes Booster Bundle product page tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: price feed for 151 Booster Pack mpapi.tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: 151 Booster Pack product page tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: price feed for 151 Booster Bundle mpapi.tcgplayer.com
- TCGplayer: 151 Booster Bundle product page tcgplayer.com
- Packs.com: Chaos Rising pack feed, price, chances and values api.packs.com
- Packs.com: Perfect Order pack feed, price, chances and values api.packs.com
- Packs.com: Ascended Heroes pack feed, price, chances and values api.packs.com
- Packs.com: 151 pack feed, price, chances and values api.packs.com
- Packs.com help centre: are the cards real help.packs.com
- Packs.com help centre: how to withdraw (ship) your cards help.packs.com
- Packs.com help centre: shipping costs and delivery times help.packs.com
- Packs.com help centre: what happens if a card is out of stock help.packs.com
- eBay: seller fees ebay.com
- TCGplayer: seller fees help.tcgplayer.com
Every figure was read on public pages between 6 October 2026 and 7 October 2026. Nothing here has been tested with money yet. Factory prices were read on Pokémon Center and TCGplayer on 7 October 2026; nothing was bought from either. The receipt's sums are checked in code against every set on the page.