MJ Holdings is notorious nowadays for their, what are essentially, gambling products.
They have numerous mystery box products on the market and all of them have an element of gambling to them. The boxes often have chase cards and chase booster packs seeded into them. People purchase these boxes in the hope of pulling a high value card / pack. The rates these more valuable products are seeded varies product to product.
Now with the Mystery Gems box you get two random booster packs and one random graded card.
These are my pulls from the Mystery Box…
I got one Lost Origin booster pack, a Silver Tempest booster pack, and a BCCG graded Sableye 10 mint or better. The value of the items in the box is as follows:
Lost Origin Booster Pack – $4.45
Silver Tempest Booster Pack – $3.13
BCCG Sableye 10 Mint – $24 (PSA 10, no BCCG found)
Total Expected Value – $31.58
Cost – $21.98
Profit – $9.60
Some how, bizarrely, I got more in value from this box than I spent! That is very unusual.
That being said, the BCCG Sableye may not be a PSA 10 equivalent. It’s not possible to tell unless I crack open the case and send it in to PSA.
This is because BCCG, a service from Beckett, is a mass submission service. They do not grade cards to the standards of basically any of the other grading companies. So a 10 Mint or Better could easily be a PSA 7. That is an anecdotal statement, but when you see the cards graded a 10 or Better… cards with bends in them… you tend to take these anecdotes as truth.
Another problem, the Mystery Gems box shows a Beckett graded card and a PSA graded card in the box artwork. This feels misleading. I have a suspicion that the vast majority of “Gems” are in fact graded by BCCG. That’s just a suspicion.
I know that the box artwork is supposed to represent the “rare graded cards” seeded in the boxes but I don’t think any grandparent or kid is going to make that connection. They’re just going to see the Becket and PSA cards and think “that’s what I’m getting”. There is a BCCG graded card on the box, that should be noted. The box also clearly states that chase cards are put into boxes at a 1:10 rate. So there is some info on what you’re getting in to.
As far as the Mystery Gems Box being a scam, it really isn’t. At least not literally. They do tell you the seeding rate, they tell you the product is random, and they basically tell you the product is genuine. That probably has a good amount of weight legally. So while it may feel like a scam, I’m not sure we can officially call it one. You’re just getting bad value for your money.
Now a tiny bit of information on MJ Holding…
MJ Holding Company, LLC is the largest North American distributor of trading cards (including gaming, sports, and entertainment), related trading card supplies, collectibles, toys, and hot trend items.
Linkedin
Brief History
December 2000: Purchase of MJ Holding and the beginning of the distribution business within the trading card industry at Meijer and Wal-Mart. Retail distribution store count of 500 stores.
October 2005: Purchase of Midland Hobby Supplies, Inc. increasing the distribution within Wal-Mart stores in the American Midwest. Retail distribution store count increases to 2,500 stores.
November 2006: Purchase of Steeds Marketing Ltd, launching distribution in Canada within Wal-Mart Canada, 7-Eleven Canada and other convenience stores. Retail distribution store count increases to 4,000 stores.
February 2009: Purchase of SCC Wholesale, LLC, increasing distribution within Wal-Mart stores across the USA. Retail distribution store count increases to 5,000 stores.
April 2010: Purchase of Vintage Sports Cards, increasing distribution within Wal-Mart, K-Mart and adding Toys R US as a retail partner. Retail distribution store count increases to more than 7,000 stores.
mjholding.com
So all you really get from that is MJ Holding is a big Walmart distributor.
Anyways, in the end Mystery Gems is probably not a product for anyone. It has two overpriced booster packs and a suspect graded card that you probably don’t want. Mystery Gems feels like another suspect product out of MJ Holding. If you’re a parent or grandparent, stick with a blister pack or a tin as a gift.