Buy/Sell/Trade Forum

Unless I missed something but I thought the box breaker said that people were paying a crazy high amount of $23 per team for HOBBY boxes? I watched the videos and those were retail boxes. So SaintOrm, your calculations are way off. He would have made a profit of at least $200 even after shipping.

Guys seem a little hostile. Glad I didn't participate. I have done a few breaks but I am a Brewers fan and I didn't jump in because I didn't think I should have to pay as much for the Brewers as someone did for a more valuable team. I might participate in a future break if it is constructed as more of a break even for the host with prices adjusted to allocate fairly to the different teams. Hopefully there will be a future break where everyone feels it was a positive experience.

The blaster was retail, but the DK and SC were hobby boxes.

Neither of the two members that have voiced negativity toward this break bought into the break. I bought three spots and am happy with what I will receive. Anytime with a break, you take the chance of going hitless, but that is how they work. For a first time breaker, I feel he did a good job. Everyone starts somewhere. He was also forthcoming when the break had to be split up.

Good to hear some positives. I would like the opportunity to get in some at a fair price. I hope the breaker reads all this and doesn't give it up.

I'm always open to constructive feedback.  It was my first break after all.  When I first had the idea of trying a group break, I had three reservations about doing it.

1) What if it didn't draw enough interest and I wouldn't be able to afford to do it?  There was no issue here.

2) What if I had trouble opening the packs right there in front of everybody?  I think we've all had a little trouble getting a pack open before.  I'm not going to lie; there was some nervousness from doing all of this inches from a camera and it probably made for some unsteady, messy opening.  The cards, however, are safe, secure, and packaged as we speak.  And SaintOrm, thanks for the tip about the card saver helping to sleeve cards.  I'll definitely use that for when I page and sleeve my own cards.

3) What if I open a can of worms in this forum that I didn't intend to?  I really like this site and its community because its about the cards, not about the best hits or best collections.  I've been on other sites' forums, and I worried that having a group break here would lead to some of the petty bickering here that I have seen there.  My idea was just to do this as if we had a bunch of collectors gathered together to crack open some boxes and split the cost, only virtually.

I'll be transparent with you about that here.  After PayPal took their fees, I received around $308.  I spent $83 apiece on the Stadium Club, $70 on the Diamond Kings, and $21 on the blaster.  That's $257 for the cards.  I calculated about $3 per package shipping, for $42 there. That's $299 total.  I also bought team bags and bubble mailers, which I am not including in the price here because I didn't use all of them.  I promise it was never meant to be a money grab; my "profit" was less than $10 and some Cubs cards.  Yes, there is some risk, as with any break.  (Last year I took part in a similar break in which I know the guy wasn't making a profit; I paid $35 dollars and ended up with just base of my team and pretty high cost per card, but I can't complain.)  In all, each person is coming away with at least 30 cards.  The box confguration for a Stadium Club blaster is 8 packs of 5 cards, so most people ended up with a similar type haul for the price of a blaster.

BSwagger, to your point, I just followed the format I've seen done by other bloggers and that I've liked when I've participated, but I get that it doesn't benefit collectors of smaller market teams as much.  I didn't feel too comfortable trying to figure out a fair price for each individual team, though.

Will I do it again?  I don't know.  It definitely won't be a regular thing.  I wouldn't want people to feel pressure to participate month after month or something.  We'll see.  My biggest concern is still number three; I just want this site's community to be in it for the cards!

I'm glad to see you stepped back in and gave that additional information. It sounds like overall the break worked out pretty fairly for all those involved.

If there is a next time please weight the teams price according to present value. I think it's easy enough to look at what a breaker was paid for each team to get a percentage and then apply that percentage to what your cost is. I might buy my favorite team then. Thanks for giving this a try.

Just got my package!!  Those extra cards you threw in were very nice and not expected.  Thank you very much sir!