Buying packs to chase a specific card is how the house wins. Buying singles — individual cards sold by name and printing — is how you build the exact collection or deck you want, at a price you control. Here's how to do it efficiently.
What is a single, exactly?
A "single" is one Magic card sold by itself, not as part of a sealed pack, box, or preconstructed deck. Every card in existence — commons worth a few cents, Reserved List staples worth hundreds — is a single on the secondary market. This is how most competitive players, collectors, and Commander brewers actually acquire specific cards.
Why singles beat packs for targeted buying
Booster packs are lottery tickets. The expected value of a $5 pack is routinely below $2 in singles once you account for what you'd actually use. If you need three copies of one specific card, buying those three singles costs a fraction of what you'd spend cracking packs hoping to find them. The exception is if you enjoy the opening experience or are collecting sealed product — but as a method for building what you designed, singles win every time.
Where to buy singles
TCGplayer is the largest U.S. marketplace. Hundreds of sellers compete on price and the platform aggregates their listings, letting you filter by condition, printing, and seller rating. Prices update daily and reflect current market rates closely. For most routine purchases, TCGplayer is the default.
Card Kingdom sells at fixed prices from their own inventory. You pay a small premium over TCGplayer's floor, but the grading is conservative and reliable — their LP often looks closer to NM-minus. Good for higher-value singles where condition matters and you don't want surprises. They also run a buylist if you want store credit while you shop.
eBay is worth checking for Reserved List staples, signed cards, and unusual printings that don't show up on the major platforms. Always sort by "Sold" listings to see what cards actually transacted for, not just what sellers are asking.
Your local game store (LGS) typically has a singles case priced competitively with online. No shipping wait, you inspect the card in person before paying, and your purchase supports the store running events. For a last-minute FNM need or a single Commander staple, the LGS is the obvious choice.
Check what you already own first
Before spending anything, search your own collection. It sounds obvious, but in a collection of a few hundred or a few thousand cards — especially one spread across multiple binders, boxes, and decks — it's easy to lose track of staples that appear across many sets and printings. Scanning your collection into Archivist means you can type any card name and instantly see how many copies you own, which printing, and what condition. Plenty of players have ordered singles they already owned, buried in a bulk box or at the bottom of an old Commander deck.
Once your collection is digital, it also changes how you browse for singles: instead of building a want list from scratch, you can compare a deck list against what you already own and only shop for the gaps.
How to compare prices by printing and condition
Two factors move a single's price the most: printing and condition.
The same card can exist in a dozen printings — regular, foil, showcase, borderless, extended-art, prerelease stamp, and more. All are tournament-legal (in most formats), but prices differ substantially. The cheapest printing is often a recent reprint with no premium treatment; the most expensive is usually the original or a sought-after collector version. Unless you care about art or frame, the cheapest printing that's legal for your format is usually the right buy.
Condition grades — NM (Near Mint), LP (Lightly Played), MP (Moderately Played), HP (Heavily Played) — directly affect resale and trade value. NM commands the highest price; LP is the sweet spot for players who sleeve everything; MP and HP are fine in a sleeved deck but can be hard to move later. See the full condition grading guide for what to expect at each grade and how a single step down can shift price by 30–50%.
Build a want list before you check out
Random browsing is the fastest way to overspend. A better system: list every card you need for a project, check prices for each, then buy in one batch to minimize shipping costs. Archivist's wishlist feature lets you search the full Scryfall catalog, heart cards onto a want list tied to specific decks, and check out directly on TCGplayer when you're ready to buy.
The wishlist also helps during price spikes. If a Commander staple jumps after a new product announcement, you can immediately see whether you already own it, have it wishlisted, or need to decide whether to buy before it goes higher. See the full guide on building and managing a Magic card wishlist.
Build your want list with Archivist
Search the full card catalog, wishlist cards to specific decks, check what you already own, and check out on TCGplayer — free on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Get Archivist on the App StoreWatch for reprints before you buy expensive singles
Before buying a card priced above $10–15, it's worth a quick check on whether it's been recently reprinted or is rumored for an upcoming set. Wizards of the Coast reprints Commander staples regularly, and a $30 card can fall to $8 after inclusion in a precon. Reserved List cards are the exception — they are contractually excluded from reprints in black-bordered sets, which gives their prices a permanent floor that reprinted cards don't have. For more on how reprint risk and scarcity affect long-term value, see are Magic cards a good investment?