Box Mapping Is Done

Box mapping is done, everyone.  It's a relic of the past.  It was still feasible as recently as Scars of Mirrodin, but starting after that, WOTC went to a four-track collation method that is so wasteful that even if you are using Jason Vinzito's Box Mapper app, you can't make any money on it.  It used to be that a backpack dealer could do pretty well with it and a small store with time to kill might be able to garner some benefit.  Especially back when the collation was simple.  But now?  A backpack dealer will be hard pressed to benefit, and a store absolutely will lose money.  It just takes too much time and labor to sift out a few target rares or mythics, against the very easy certainty of using buylists or otherwise just getting the singles explicitly, and then having to dispose of the bad packs somehow while not ruining the dealer's or store's reputation.  Just... forget it.  There is no good way.

I am going into business with some other folks to open a store.  Our original plan was to make box mapping information freely available to ensure that our customers are in the know.  However, it seems that is no longer necessary as the practice has become obsolete.   And seriousy, it's better this way.

People will continue talking about this perpetually.  It's too juicy of an urban legend not to (even though, for a brief time, it was not an urban legend, as you now know).  I'll probably get dragged through the mud a bit for engaging in this project.  That's OK.  Everyone likes to shoot the messenger.  Box mapping happened before I ever knew about it, and it will happen again (despite the pointlessness of it) long after I've turned out the lights and locked the door behind me.

I have taken the books and materials and withdrawn them from print.  Some amount of them may still circulate.  They are a historical curiosity at this point.  I recommend against buying any.

My future writing projects will have nothing to do with the collectible card game industry or box mapping.

I wish you all the very best.

Thanks for reading!
-RE