By Brian Cooper |
Updated on January 8, 2024
As a collector and investor in trading card games, I’ve noticed lately a terrible slump in price when it comes to MetaZoo Cryptid Nation 2nd Edition Booster Boxes. Box prices are as low as they’ve ever been and that begs the question: Is now the time to invest in MetaZoo Cryptid Nation 2nd Edition Booster Boxes??
Usually when prices get so low on a booster box, I’m more inclined to stock up at the low prices. Over time, box prices normally rebound, but MetaZoo 2nd Edition has been a complete dumpster fire for a long time now. I’m just not so sure how long this one will take (if ever!)
First, it’s important to recognize the some of the same things I preach time after time: such as supply and demand, the current market conditions, and the overall health of the game.
MetaZoo Cryptid Nation is still a fairly new player in the trading card games market and they face tough competition from established games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon so I’m know they still face many challenges.
Despite this, MetaZoo has managed to gain a dedicated fan base and that SHOULD technically help a product like 2nd Edition. As more players join and the demand for cards increases, the value of sealed 2nd Edition Booster Boxes SHOULD rise as well.
Yep, there are a LOT OF “SHOULDS” here. But can MetaZoo 2nd Edition climb out of the deep price hole and be a viable investment?
Keep reading and I’ll tell you whether I think 2nd edition is a BUY or an AVOID-AT-ALL-COSTS type of product.
Understanding MetaZoo Cryptid Nation 2nd Edition Booster Boxes
Why 2nd Edition Boosters Might NOT be a Good Investment
As someone who has been following the growth of MetaZoo, I can tell you that I really believe the game is here to stay. It’s definitely been a rocky road but MetaZoo has done a lot to grow the brand and I don’t believe they’re going anywhere but UP over time.
So that should make 2nd Edition a great buy right? Not so fast my friend!
There are some great things behind this edition and some issues that could prolong this price drought for some time. First let’s talk about the negatives about Cryptid Nation 2nd Edition.
#1 Negative: Enormous Print Run
After a few successfull releases by MetaZoo in 2021 including Cryptid Nation 1st Edition and Nightfall, MetaZoo decided to let the printers run day and night on 2nd Edition.
Figuring 25,000 of each 1st Edition product and 40,000 of each Nightfall product weren’t enough, MetaZoo cashed in big time and printed a reported 75,000 of every 2nd Edition product which completely flooded the market.
Now when I say every product, that includes 75,000 Booster Boxes, Spellbooks, Blister Packs, Theme Decks and Release Event Boxes! So when you combine everything, that is a gigantic amount of 2nd Edition products on shelves.
Now there are reports out there that the number was closer to 62,500 of each product, but my guess is the 75,000 figure is probably more accurate.
And when you look at that number, it’s plain to see they tripled the print run from the 1st Edition and that was a lot of booster boxes for a brand that was still in slow growth mode.
Bottom line = too many booster boxes were printed and my number one investment rule of having a low print run went out the window (at least for now.)
#2 Negative: Timing
Whether we like to talk about it or not, Covid was still an issue in late December 2021 and early 2022 when 2nd Edition hit the shelves.
Collectors and players were preoccupied with that pandemic issue for sure and it was just a bad time in the United States and around the world.
It’s hard not take this timing issue into consideration as I think just about everything that happened in that 2020-2021 timeframe has ‘Covid’ attached to it. Yeah, sounds dumb but it’s reality.
And it wasn’t just a MetaZoo issue. Magic The Gathering was also in this slump heading into January 2022 and the sentiment was that there was too many products hitting the shelves and people couldn’t keep up with all of the new releases.
As soon as one product hit the shelves, another was being released soon after. For your wallet, it was a tough time to keep up.
So there was not a lot of great things happening in that late 2021 timeframe and unfortunately MetaZoo 2nd Edition was and still is a casualty of timing and a few other issues.
#3 Negative: Demand
Going back to early 2022 in my head, I remember people were still pretty enamored with Nightfall and working to get their hands on more of the limited print run Cryptid Nation 1st Edition booster boxes and singles. There was a decent demand for MetaZoo in general, but 2nd Edition was definitely not the focus.
And when everyone found out how much product was actually out there and that your 2nd Edition Mothman cards weren’t worth much because there was a quintillion of them, demand for those boxes dropped big time. And when demand drops, prices drop too.
I remember local game stores were dumping cases of 2nd Edition big time in an effort to get rid of the product at or sometimes below cost. Even my local game store contacted me about selling by the case as they were gathering funds to order MetaZoo Wilderness, which was scheduled to be released in March 2022.
They must have had 10-15 cases sitting in their store from what I can remember. Sitting there collecting dust as the demand was not there.
Times were tough and demand was low. A recipe for disaster!
Why Cryptid Nation 2nd Edition Might DEFINITELY be a Good Investment
With all of those negatives, how in the world could I possibly suggest that Cryptid Nation 2nd Edition could be a good investment? Well, let me tell you why.
#1 Positive: GREAT Set and Product
Cryptid Nation is simply a great set and players and collectors love it. And it has some resemblance to the original Magic Alpha, Beta, Unlimited and Revised sets that came out way back in 1993 and 1994. Now the print runs are drastically different (I think) but MetaZoo sort of followed the same pattern of releases like Magic did.
The cards themselves in the set are awesome. You’ve got the OG Mothman that everyone wants as well as the “Obnoxious 9” cards which include Chessie, Death Beam, Ghost Train, Growth, Phoenix Rain, Powerup Red, Sam Sinclair, Silver Bullet and Uncle Sam.
Yeah they’re stamped with 2nd Edition, but who cares! They’re still the same cards we all wanted when Kickstarter and 1st Edition hit the shelves!
So the bottom line is I think we all can agree it’s a freaking great set. And I think one day years from now we’ll look at Cryptid Nation (and yes, even 2nd Edition) as one of the great sets of the pandemic era.
#2 Positive: You WON’T See Prices This Low Ever Again!
I’ve been watching prices slowly going lower and lower for months now and I think we could finally be close to rock bottom. I thought it was cheap in the $60’s and it has fallen even further over the last 2-months.
But as you’ll see from the TCGPlayer screenshot below, prices are plateauing right now and have settled in the mid-$40’s which to me is a steal of a price for what you get in the boxes.
Could prices sink even further? Absolutely. But the way I see it, buying now and possibly buying it further on the way down if it gets into the $30’s is still not a bad decision. If you’re in it for the long run, buying sealed MetaZoo boxes for this cheap is still not a bad idea.
And remember this, I have yet to see a SEALED booster box for just about any modern Trading Card Game remain in the dumpster for an extended period of time.
The cheaper the box, the more people rip them open and the more rare a sealed box becomes. Same will happen here with 2nd Edition Cryptid Nation.
What’s the Future of MetaZoo 2nd Edition?
Hard to say really. Unless you have a crystal ball that will clearly tell you the future of the economy, the trading card game industry and specifically of MetaZoo itself, it’s too difficult to predict.
That being said, I can probably make a few safe assumptions based on my knowledge of MetaZoo, booster box prices over time and from studying the markets:
- The macro economy will eventually turn around and get back to a full bull market. Once that happens, it bodes well for collectibles like MetaZoo, Pokemon, Magic The Gathering and all of the other games out there.
- Cryptid Nation 2nd Edition Booster Boxes will slowly but surely get bought up and ripped open at current prices. There are players that love playing the game and collectors like me that really enjoy the cards themselves. Any time a booster box price dips this low, it eventually gets scarfed up. I don’t think this bodes well for 2nd Edition SINGLES prices as that market will be flooded, but as those boxes get ripped open there will be less of them and that’s why I think 2nd Edition is a great long term hold.
- MetaZoo is here to stay. I know there are a lot of naysayers who believe MetaZoo will ultimately fail, but seeing what they have accomplised over the last two years leads me to believe they will be a force in the trading card market. I stopped in my local Target store yesterday and saw blister packs on the shelves. Exposure like this will bring in new collectors and MetaZoo will thrive. It’s gonna happen….it already is to be honest. Sorry all you negative people….Metazoo IS here to stay.
So Would I Invest In 2nd Edition Boosters?
What it comes down to is that you really should make your own decisions based on your wallet and bank account situation. I don’t think you’ll get rich on 2nd Edition Booster boxes, but IMHO I think now is the time to buy if you like what you see and read.
I have a case of Booster Boxes up in my office and a few cases of the Release Event Boxes too. At current June 2023 prices (sub $50/box), I may pick up some more but not a lot. I just don’t have a warehouse to hold pallets of cases. If I did have a warehouse, I might consider holding more but that’s just me.
More so, I think this is a great time to have fun ripping open MetaZoo packs. If you can find boxes in the $40-45 range, you’re looking at just over $1.00 per pack!
Go find some cheap boxes on eBay or locally and have some fun tearing into those packs and looking for those Obnoxious 9 cards. Heck, even if you find a high grade Foil Mothman, it’s still worth $50-100 in PSA10 grade!
That’s all for now. I hope you enjoyed the post and we’ll be back here soon talking MetaZoo, Magic, Pokemon and just about anything else going on in the Trading Card Game world! For now, have fun investing in MetaZoo and Magic and see you soon!
