Am I the only one that thinks this about Card Breaks??

[puremick]

I may get some flack for this post and will definitely hear from the sellers of breaks but oh well!
I am speaking on my experiences and observances of others that do card breaks!!
It seems everyone loves breaks..the dream of hitting the sell sheet 1/1 or something else really good keeps collectors addicted..yes like a drug. I have yet to meet anyone, or see anyone, that does breaks regularly, and has even close to a positive ROI! This hobby of collecting is done for more then just sole entertainment. We buy boxes/cards/breaks to collect for our PC, and then trade/sell the rest to get back in the game. Some do buy and resell to only make profit. BUT, if the vast majority of what I have seen, 90+% of the breakers don't come close to break even during a break, how is this good? The only people making money are the guys breaking/ripping all day! I don't break with no-names either..they are actually a few of the bigger names in breaking! I can honestly say that 90-95% of my breaks, lead to a negative ROI in terms of the selling market value. I see people like to say it's non-profit! Come on now! You are making money selling the box at whatever retail price so adding more on top during a break increases your net profit even after overhead costs. I can afford to do some higher end breaks, but how many people make out from this? Hardly any. Less in the long run as we start to get statistical and economical about it. But then you have the people that can't afford and are either addicted, sold by the marketing hype, or sold by watching and hearing the "Booms" during a break on a so so card! If you have done a handful of breaks and hit a good or better card, you may be ahead of the game. But how may of us that have done a lot of breaks can truly say, over the course of all breaks you were involved in, have even come close to getting your money back? I do understand this is not about making money back on everything we buy and sell, but if you have a -75% ROI, like most I would bet do, what's the point? There has to be a better way to do this! I guess waiting to buy your own box instead of doing 5 breaks...maybe a handful of friends buying in to a box and some sort of position system for the hits so everyone gets something? Just go to various websites and buy what you want? I think any of these will show your ROI improve big time! I don't know the answer but I do know that almost everyone that has done a decent amount of breaks, is very negative when it comes to ROI. If you think I am crazy, which I have been called before but not for this, look at your statements and see how much you have spent vs. the market value of your cards!! Can't wait to hear responses or ideas!

[roc21]

I watch breaks online often, but have never joined one. I understand the whole taking a chance on paying say $50 for example and hitting a $1,000 card. But I always say to myself when watching, those guys just dropped $50 and often higher and got a $10 card(example), or nothing at all. I would rather just go on ebay and spend $10 or $20 and buy exactly what I would want. Again, I know that doesn't really apply to the high end cards cause nobody wants to spend 1k to get a 1k card, they want to hit it for far less, and that is the "gamble" or risk to get the reward that people are drawn to. As mentioned about the ROI, it has got to be hard to get ahead. And I see guys constantly doing break after break.

How does it affect prices? Does it raise the prices being asked for on cards due to the fact someone paid way to much than the card is worth on the break?

[jdhaugh11]

Online breaks for the most part are not overpriced. The places I do them through end up costing the proportional amount. Meaning if I bought all the team spots it would come up to about what the case would cost me.
The problem is that the ROI for most box/cases these days are terrible.
I actually like doing the case breaks online because you can get in on case at a fraction of a cost, it makes the gambler in us not lose as much.
I have hit some very big cards and I have come away with nothing, but overall it is similar to what I would get when I buy a box or case.
Since my family is growing and I have less money to spend on cards than I used to, doing group breaks is much more fun than just getting a few packs from my LCS.
Also sharing the experience with others online is better than doing it all alone!

[gdelan1]

It's gambling for sure. For sports cards, I've never come out ahead. For NS cards, you do have a shot at getting your money's worth.

[TDiddy532]

I am both an avid group break participant and a degenerate sports gambler. The high I get watching the random for my group breaks is no different than the high I got last night watching the Celtics/Cavs game lock up the under as time ran out.

Zero difference. It's gambling. And like any good gambler, you only bet what you can afford to lose. I wouldn't join group breaks for $200 at a time if I couldn't afford to lose that $200 by coming up empty at the end of the break. Though to be fair, I stick to hit drafts so that I at least get "something"

Lastly, the success stories from group breaks are exponentially more fulfilling that just going out on ebay and buying the stuff you want. Not for everyone, but for those who do come out on top, there is NOTHING better.

[TDiddy532]

Furthermore...pulling a PC card or a huge hit out of a pack is still one of the best feelings I can think of.

[Crazybella8]

I don't understand why people pay for someone else to open their packs? If you buy into a break to keep all the cards from one team (your favorite) then I kind of get it! A lot of the thrill and enjoyment is actually opening the packs for me!

[Seahawks fan]

The thing that bothers me these days about Group/case breaks are the lack of "case hits" . They used to say right on the sell sheet that each case has one of the following........ Now many cases do not offer a case hit so there may not be anything great in your case at all. So if you buy into a case of 12 boxes and there is no case hit then you might aswell have just bought 1 box of the product with your money... same odds of a good hit and you are guaranteed hits instead of hoping your team in the break gets pulled. If you are buying into a non case multi box mixer.. same thing you can usually buy one of the boxes for the same price you paid to get in.

[puremick]

Originally Posted by Seahawks fan

The thing that bothers me these days about Group/case breaks are the lack of "case hits" . They used to say right on the sell sheet that each case has one of the following........ Now many cases do not offer a case hit so there may not be anything great in your case at all. So if you buy into a case of 12 boxes and there is no case hit then you might aswell have just bought 1 box of the product with your money... same odds of a good hit and you are guaranteed hits instead of hoping your team in the break gets pulled. If you are buying into a non case multi box mixer.. same thing you can usually buy one of the boxes for the same price you paid to get in.

I agree. I see a few items have stopped listing on each box how many hits there are! I prefer to just buy a box myself or buy what I want. I don't mind the multi box mixer where you are guaranteed a full box in the break!

[Hardware]

OP, I hear you. Newly registered and absent for about 20 years. I was excited to maybe get back in, but honestly I doubt it after reading on this forum. Where is the value in this stuff? I personally think many people have a gambling problem and max out credit cards to do case breaking. Not something I want to get into. I'm disappointed not much has changed. I just wanted to open some packs, complete sets and hope to get "some" money back.

[Spider-Fan]

I enjoy the fun of participating in hit drafts, but in the handful that I've randomed a top 3 spot, the case hasn't yielded anything I wanted for my PC. To that end, it's annoying to have to go through the trouble of waiting game for the draft to end, my cards to be mailed, listing, selling, dealing with that potential hassle, to finally use that ROI to buy something good for my collection. But, it is what it is...

[xbignick]

Lately I only do PYT because I can calculate the approximate value of the spot. So far I'm not down for how long I've been doing this, kind of free fun. I don't always get teams I like though.

[Big35Hurt]

Without reading all the responses, the thought of a box break is intriguing I have to admit. But to pay a chunk of money to only get a random team's card assigned to you is not appealing. I collect multiple players, so if I am going to spend let's say $100 on unopened cards, then I'd rather buy my own box and take my chances with that. I can get multiple players, get immediate satisfaction as cards in hand, and can still get a really good hit possibly.

[gdelan1]

Originally Posted by Spider-Fan

I enjoy the fun of participating in hit drafts, but in the handful that I've randomed a top 3 spot, the case hasn't yielded anything I wanted for my PC. To that end, it's annoying to have to go through the trouble of waiting game for the draft to end, my cards to be mailed, listing, selling, dealing with that potential hassle, to finally use that ROI to buy something good for my collection. But, it is what it is...

That's happened to me a couple times as well, but you can usually sell your top spot to someone else and either break even or make a little.

[jdhaugh11]

The places I buy into for group breaks are very reasonably priced and work out to be the same price or even cheaper when you add up all spots and compare to what a case is selling for online.
The problem is that most cases these days are returning worse than ever. The card companies have more patches and lower numbered cards than ever, but there are too many parallels, event worn materials and scrub autos among many other issues.
Also I have found that there are a few cases that are completely loaded, while there are too many dud cases.
Even when there is a good case, only a few of the teams do well, so you will lose out 80-90% of the time. When you do hit big, then that does make up for several bad breaks.
Then in some instances like this year in baseball, having the Cubs may be the only team worth getting, until you look at the price they go for. If you don't hit a Bryant auto then typically you didn't get your value (a few exceptions I realize).

[micorps1]

I like to do breaks but have found i get skunked for very low valued cards the most after about a week after a product release. And this is the career analyst in me watching the trends the last 4 months of doing breaks. It seems like the cases are loaded with the most hits upfront and then after the packers for these companies of the cases get lazy and put numerous hits of the same team and/or player, along with less valuable hits and just fewer hits. Seems the cases with extra autos and bonus packs for products like Bowman Chrome baseball are also more frequent in the first week of its release. Yesterday I was skunked on 3 breaks on products i was doing very well on in the first week of its release so will take a break from breaks until next payday. But my observations aren't just based on yesterday but overall the last couple months. Nothing the OP said is not valid imo about breaking. Those that do it know the risk. I like that all the cards i don't want I can send to COMC and build credit to use on items for my PC without a reel huge hit as long as its spent on COMC. My first cards finally hit my account on COMC this week and have already received over $300 in store credit which can fetch some very nice cards. I also have hit many high end card with comps in their raw form over $1k. My favorite product between hockey and baseball breaks so far has been Topps Tier One Baseball even though my most valuable hits didn't come from the product.

[jlzinck]

Originally Posted by micorps1

I like to do breaks but have found i get skunked for very low valued cards the most after about a week after a product release. And this is the career analyst in me watching the trends the last 4 months of doing breaks. It seems like the cases are loaded with the most hits upfront and then after the packers for these companies of the cases get lazy and put numerous hits of the same team and/or player, along with less valuable hits and just fewer hits. Seems the cases with extra autos and bonus packs for products like Bowman Chrome baseball are also more frequent in the first week of its release. Yesterday I was skunked on 3 breaks on products i was doing very well on in the first week of its release so will take a break from breaks until next payday. But my observations aren't just based on yesterday but overall the last couple months. Nothing the OP said is not valid imo about breaking. Those that do it know the risk. I like that all the cards i don't want I can send to COMC and build credit to use on items for my PC without a reel huge hit as long as its spent on COMC. My first cards finally hit my account on COMC this week and have already received over $300 in store credit which can fetch some very nice cards. I also have hit many high end card with comps in their raw form over $1k. My favorite product between hockey and baseball breaks so far has been Topps Tier One Baseball even though my most valuable hits didn't come from the product.

Hold Necrobump Batman