Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

I'm thinking of doing some periodic mult-box group breaks through the Database here.  I'm thinking of doing it this way:

1. You choose a team and get a second random team to go with it. 

2. ALL cards will be sent, not just hits or inserts. 

3. The price would include shipping.

4. Breaks would be recorded and posted on my blog.

5. Since I want in with my teams, I reserve the Packers and the Cubs.  That leaves 15 slots for a football break or 14 slots for a baseball break.

The first product I'm looking at is 2017 Panini Plates and Patches football.  I'm thinking to make this work, it would be $30 per slot.  That's your choice of team, plus another random team, 3 boxes, all cards for $30.  I'm not going to buy the boxes if there is no interest, so I'm just throwing this out to gauge interest right now.  If you would be interested, let me know.  If there is enough interest, I'll get the boxes and let people know when the break will happen.  If it turns out to be a success, I'd like to do some periodically, just amongst us members.

I would be interested in a baseball card break. I just don't do football any longer.

Teresa

I feel like I might be missing something here.  Doesn't your proposal net you over a hundred bucks profit on the boxes *and* you get free cards for your PC?

Not really, when I factor in buying shipping supplies and shipping out 15 packages.  However, after I posted the original, I had a realization that Plates and Patches didn't have enough cards for everyone to have a chance to get cards.  I'm not much of a gambler, and a product that high-end wouldn't be fun if a bunch of people got left out in the cold.  I also realized that I most likely wouldn't have 15 packages to send out with that particular product, so I could cut the price to reflect lower shipping costs.  (I pulled out the Plates and Patches just because it is the most recent football release.)  I would much rather do a cheaper product where everyone would have a better chance to get something.

That said, when I read your post, I rechecked my math, and, yes, that was too much.  This particular product would be better at something like $26.

While I figure out the details (I've never hosted any kind of break before), the original question remains: would there be interest in the idea of group break?  It's all a moot point if people don't want it, anyhow.

And Teresa, I would love to do some baseball.  The only reason I didn't suggest Heritage to begin is that it was sold out on the sites I was looking.  June looks it could be fun, though, with a few great releases on the calendar.

TNT, I am somewhat interested in this idea. You need to work out the details though. I've never gone in on box breaks, but I know how they work. The good ones will still send someone something for their money though. NFL and MLB are NOT generally a good fit for doing a box break like this unless you are busting a case. There are just not enough cards in the boxes or enough cards of specific teams and players. For something like Plates & Patches, you need to do a buy-in for one team and have a random pull to cover any other teams. This is quite complicated these days. I'd be interested if you still want to do this though.

My two cents as someone who has done a couple breaks in the past:

First, if you are the person breaking the case, most people tha tparticipate do so understanding that your team cost is covered by everyone else's payment. You are breaking, sorting, shipping, and collecting payment, so most people are okay with that. If they aren't they shouldn't participate with you. There's nothing wrong with that! However, if you are breaking a higher-end product, you shouldn't so this. Here, you could be trying to pass off a large amount (generally, anything $50 or more is what I consider) and that isn't cool.

Speaking of higher-end products like Plates and Patches, you pretty much have to break a case (like spazmastic said). Rather than selling teams in the break, sell spots. For instance, 2017 P&P comes as a 12-box case, five cards per pack. That's 60 overall cards. A case runs about $1,200 (roughly). You could sell 10 spots and ask $120 per spot. Then you break your case online. Once you are finished, everyone that purchased a spot is listed in a random list generator and a random order will be generated. Then you conduct a snake-style hit draft, meaning that the first person on the list gets to pick a card, then the second, then the third, etc. until all 10 participants have picked a card. Then you go back through the list in reverse order, with the person who is 10th on the list picking a card, then the 9th, then 8th, etc. You would do this a total of six times, until all cards have been claimed. That's a pretty fair way to break higher-end product.

As for the lower end (as a baseball guy, I'm thinking all the Topps flagship products and even stuff like Heritage, Ginter, and Gypsy Queen), you can use the model you mentioned above. In breaks like this, most people are just trying to get a team set with a chance of getting a hit or a parallel or two. It's much easier to do the buy one/get one model here. 

Then you get products like Bowman, which features a team with seven or eight different players that have certified autographs in the product and other teams that have no players with certified autos. The best thing to do then is to essentially determine the per-hit cost of the case, then determine how many hits per team and multiply accordingly. This can get a little difficult, especially if you consider parallels a "hit." I just bought into a 2017 Bowman's Best case break yesterday, selecting the Rangers (who had only two players signing in the product) and it cost me all of $10. Other teams that had more players sign, like the Yankees, went for $140+.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but I hope that clears things up. And now I want to do a Heritage case break! Ha!

And when I say "There's nothing wrong with that," I mean that there's nothing wrong with people not wanting to participate if your team is covered! Reading it any other way makes me sound like a jerk, and that is definitely not what I was going for!

I would be interested in both football and baseball.  Obviously at something affordable (20 bucks give or take).  I call Chiefs and Royals now....