1973 Topps Box Break

[peterose4hof]

The guys over at blowoutcards.com are doing a group break of a 1973 Topps All-Series Box tomorrow night, Friday at 10pm EDT.

Should be fun to see what they pull and what condition the cards come out.

[DBesse27]

Stupid gamble.

[Rich Klein]

it's sold out according to the message I got in my email

[HRBAKER]

Heard it was brutal, did anyone watch?

[swarmee]

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=222740

[RollieFingers]

Heard it was brutal, did anyone watch?

only brutal for people griping about it and people paying for it.

I just liked seeing the old cards.

but $17.00 for a number times 660 is just grand theft

[mintonlyplz]

Houdini no less! Appropriately named gent. After watching what little value was pulled from the packs...u would think unopened wax would take a hit. Definitely not good PR for unopened material. What a scam!

[swarmee]

It wasn't a scam. That's the price of the box on the market, direct from BBCE. Everyone who entered this break knew their expected ROI was low. It was a lottery ticket type break. This one didn't work out because the centering (mostly just the back centering) was awful.

If you want to blame someone for the price point, blame the unopened market. Nobody in the break feels like they got hosed, and many expressed interest in doing it again. Do you blame people when your lotto numbers don't come out?

[savedfrommyspokes]

I agree about the centering....I wondered if it was just the camera angle on some, but it appeared that the star cards were o/c(IE the 2 Clemente cards)....based of the centering, the fact that not many cards were called out for high potential future grades, the tape job on the box, and that one pack (out of 24) appeared to already be opened, I could only wonder if the box had already been searched. Also, I am not a sequence expert (especially with the all series 73s packs), but while there were some duplicates, if the sequences in packs were more typical, IMO, there should have been more duplicates.

If all of the participants knew the box itself had been taped and one pack opened, would they have been as willing to buy in?

[ashes13]

This is an example of why PSA 8 and above cards sell for a premium. You can open a entire box of packs and pull very few centered, mint condition cards. It really shows you how difficult it is to actually find nicely centered, mint cards from the 70s and before.

Also for most unopened, the value lies in its unopened form. Opening the packs is pure gamble. Most times you wont get your money back, but there is always the chance you buy a box or pack with gem mint cards throughout or a gem mint HOF rookie card that graded a 9 or 10 pays for the entire box. Most times you dont, but sometimes you get lucky, just like going to the casino.

I enjoyed watching the rip and dont see a problem paying $20 for a chance to get lucky. Its not a wise use of $20, but its simply a gamble. Gambling is never wise, but it can be fun and if you get lucky it can pay off. For those who can afford it, buying an expensive wax box and opening it, may even have a better expected return then taking that same money to the casino and trying to get lucky and probably a lot more fun.

Although I missed out on this one, I would likely participate in more of these vintage breaks. They interest me much more than the modern breaks. I would prefer if you simply received a "slot" number rather than card number. So you were assured of getting a card. For example, you received card #3 in pack #5 of the box.

[swarmee]

For example, you received card #3 in pack #5 of the box.

This is another way of doing it, but would have tripled the slot price. And $50 for a common is a tough pill to swallow as well. You also would have guaranteed 48 people get either gum stain cards or wax stain cards.

I won one of the wrappers in this break as well. So I did get some value for my $55.

[RollieFingers]

It wasn't a scam. That's the price of the box on the market, direct from BBCE. Everyone who entered this break knew their expected ROI was low. It was a lottery ticket type break. This one didn't work out because the centering (mostly just the back centering) was awful.

If you want to blame someone for the price point, blame the unopened market. Nobody in the break feels like they got hosed, and many expressed interest in doing it again. Do you blame people when your lotto numbers don't come out?

Yes, it was a scam.
Believing the box is worth that much on the open market is also silly/foolish.
Im not saying you are foolish..the concept/idea is

Just my opinion, don't take it personal

[swarmee]

Scam: a dishonest way to make money by deceiving people (www.m-w.com)

It was not dishonest and nobody in the break was deceived. Therefore, not a scam. Scam implies illegality, which this also was not. Choose your words better.

It was a low probability gamble. Nothing more.

[Republicaninmass]

I received two gum stained commons, one other common and a wrapper for four slots. I did better than most! With a ever do slight chance to hit a whopper, the low price point was worth it. I had been looking for a 450$ slot on a break and I am glad I saved my money on that one. Maybe the 1960 would have struck gold