I'm looking to buy a box of something standard and was wondering what would be best. I'm looking for a variety of things but I'm also thinking of things for my trade binder as well. I'm split between buying Innistrad and Gatecrash mostly but also considering others. Any suggestions would be great.

Why not just spend that on the singles that you're hoping to open or trade for?

While most people are looking for new stuff, and buying singles themselves is almost always a better idea monetarily, I believe that if you were to buy a box Innistrad would be your best bet right now. You have three chase rares in Geist of Saint Traft, Liliana of the Veil and Snapcaster mage. In addition to that, you have the five dual lands, Garruk Relentless, Olivia Voldaren, Champion of the Parish, and Stromkirk Noble.

best advise, don't spend the money.
do realize you will end up with a bulk of junk commons.
spending $100+ for 36 rare cards. which for the majority, most only cost a dollar or less each.

the fact of the matter is- you never honestly get back what you spend putting into purchasing a box.

reasons to buy a box:
1.) drafting with friends- "usually helps if everyone chips in"
2.) hosting a private event.. again, helps if participants chip in on the cost.
3.) collecting boxes for future value. some sets are worth holding onto, but takes years . "vault that baby up"

--
don't get me wrong, I love cracking those cellophane wrapped lotto tickets too.
but in all serious measures, it's not worth buying boxes for personal use or deck building.

See my thinking was that I traded in a bunch of junk rares and commons to get store credit for them. The way I see it is that no was interested in the stuff online here or at my LGS so I'm not really out of any trade oppurtunities. I figured buying a box is a bit of a gamble, but I find more enjoyment in cracking a pack for that $30 Geist or Reckoner and have basically just paid 3 for it. Also I don't mind the extra commons/uncommons because my collection is relatively small.

Before you buy a box, contact Vincentarasin. He's the guy selling/trading fat packs.

I recently bought four fat packs for $100, including shipping. That gave me 36 packs (the same as a box), plus four land packs, four spindowns, four collector guides, and three boxes (he broke one of the sets down to keep it all in the smallest possible flat rate box). Not only did I enjoy cracking the packs, but I got decent pulls (including multiple shocklands and some other good rares/mythics), and I've been able to trade away the extras (boxes, guides, spindowns).

Well worth considering it, at least.

HikingStick wrote:Before you buy a box, contact Vincentarasin. He's the guy selling/trading fat packs.

I recently bought four fat packs for $100, including shipping. That gave me 36 packs (the same as a box), plus four land packs, four spindowns, four collector guides, and three boxes (he broke one of the sets down to keep it all in the smallest possible flat rate box). Not only did I enjoy cracking the packs, but I got decent pulls (including multiple shocklands and some other good rares/mythics), and I've been able to trade away the extras (boxes, guides, spindowns).

Well worth considering it, at least.

The problem with that is that I traded into a store and received store credit.

Well I bought a box of Gatecrash and got a lot of good things that I was looking for and some good trade stock. I think I came out ahead a little and ended up with about $150 in value.

srrogers1985 wrote:Well I bought a box of Gatecrash and got a lot of good things that I was looking for and some good trade stock. I think I came out ahead a little and ended up with about $150 in value.

What on earth did you open that you got more than the box's value?

LootPinata wrote:

srrogers1985 wrote:Well I bought a box of Gatecrash and got a lot of good things that I was looking for and some good trade stock. I think I came out ahead a little and ended up with about $150 in value.

What on earth did you open that you got more than the box's value?

If you tally it up, almost every box I've ever opened has put me ahead monetarily, at least while said box was standard-legal. Generally you'll pull a couple of chase rares, and if you're really lucky a chase foil. And even though you're not going to pull a mass of $50 cards, if you tally up all the $5 cards you pull out (not to mention the average of 2-3 $20+ cards I get in a box), the rares alone are typically enough to pull me even, and that's not even considering things like foils or $1-2 commons/uncommons that are used in almost every deck uses in Standard. Hell, buying a box typically gets me at least 3 of every common in the set, which makes filling in the holes cheaper overall. The problem is that when a set filters out of Standard, around 95% of the cards in a set depreciate almost overnight. Also, opening a box of boosters is just plain fun!

the_wizard_666 wrote:

LootPinata wrote:

srrogers1985 wrote:Well I bought a box of Gatecrash and got a lot of good things that I was looking for and some good trade stock. I think I came out ahead a little and ended up with about $150 in value.

What on earth did you open that you got more than the box's value?

If you tally it up, almost every box I've ever opened has put me ahead monetarily, at least while said box was standard-legal. Generally you'll pull a couple of chase rares, and if you're really lucky a chase foil. And even though you're not going to pull a mass of $50 cards, if you tally up all the $5 cards you pull out (not to mention the average of 2-3 $20+ cards I get in a box), the rares alone are typically enough to pull me even, and that's not even considering things like foils or $1-2 commons/uncommons that are used in almost every deck uses in Standard. Hell, buying a box typically gets me at least 3 of every common in the set, which makes filling in the holes cheaper overall. The problem is that when a set filters out of Standard, around 95% of the cards in a set depreciate almost overnight. Also, opening a box of boosters is just plain fun!

True, although I've found that the new Booster Battle Packs tend to be a better choice for the price. $9.99 for 2 packs and two 22 card prepacked minidecks (tend to have several of the more used cards or just good ones with the cards always in them), while packs are either the $3.99 for a normal pack or $1.99 for a mini pack (that really isn't worth it being 5 cards and no guaranteed rare/mythic rare)