Everybody's heard of box breaking, but what about box making?

[priestc]

Box breaking is when you but a box, open it all up, then sell the singles individually.

Box making is the opposite. You purchase the cards (usually in lots), put them into packs, then sell them by the box on ebay.

Does anybody here do this? Is this even a thing? Either as a hobby or as a business?

[swarmee]

I think you're trying to describe re-pack products. It's popular in Magic the Gathering, but I haven't seen much of it on eBay through sports card sellers. Usually just the box lots of random cards, but not resealed "random" packs.

Either that or you're talking about Leaf's Best of Baseball repack products or the most recent high-budget repack, Prospect Rush. You can read the 150+ page thread on Prospect Rush here:
http://www.blowoutcards.com/forums/b...it-parade.html

You can even watch videos of people opening their boxes, and usually being disappointed.

[priestc]

Originally Posted by swarmee

You can even watch videos of people opening their boxes, and usually being disappointed.

Yeah, I think the current crop of repack products kind of suck. It doesn't have to be that way though! I want to make my own product that when you watch all the unboxing videos, it'll always be the person being happy because they got awesome stuff. I just want to do it for fun, not as a purely profit making en-devour. Basically I want to buy cards, but not to just sit around the house collecting dust. The hard part is finding a machine that puts wrappers around the cards...

[swarmee]

I think most people that think about these expect them to be a scam. Not sure there's much value in repacking your cards so they can open then new. Why wouldn't they just buy unopened packs to rip themselves?

[steve B]

That's exactly what Treat inc and maybe a few other companies do. The ones that make those packages of 100 cards from one sport, or the boxes with say 20 packs plus 250 bonus cards.

For the most part those packages aren't worth getting. I pick one up now and then for amusement or if there's a card on top that I want or maybe some minis or die cuts I recognize inside.

Lately the quality has been pretty good. The last 100 card package I got turned out to be around 50% HOF or star players. Not valuable cards, mostly early 90's cards of great players. The one before that had a couple 60's cards in it.

Overall, you're paying ..........I forget is it $6 now? Something like that for 100 cards that aren't saleable by anyone else. I've heard those companies buy a LOT of cards, but only pay around a quarter of a cent /card, and want at least something like 100,000 card lots.

Steve B

[priestc]

Originally Posted by swarmee

I think most people that think about these expect them to be a scam. Not sure there's much value in repacking your cards so they can open then new. Why wouldn't they just buy unopened packs to rip themselves?

I feel like opening up packs is the default way people consume baseball cards. Up until about 20 years ago, the only way to buy baseball cards was through opening packs.

Plus there are tons of cards out there that can't currently be bought. For instance 1970s Topps. You can find unopened boxes, but the go for 1K or more. Compare that to how much a large lot of commons from that same era go for: usually around $0.05 per card. If you do the math, if you wanted to open up a pack to get some 1970s topps, you'll spend a fortune and get pretty much nothing of any value. In this context, buying cheap commons and re-wrapping them again kind of makes a little more sense.

[sbfinley]

There is a card shop out of California that does this. Basically they prepackage high value cards and memorabilia and then sell them together for an even higher price under the "Super Breakers" name. Boxes are usually anywhere from $1k to $5k. If you break one on your own your likely to take a hit unless you snag one of the top items, but the vast majority are broken by groups who "draft" the hits. It's basically a $300 gamble that you'll pull one of the top two draft slots and double your money.

This box was in the $4k range if I remember correctly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0KedoEFL68

There are some other smaller companies that do this, but not to the level of these guys, although Leaf occasionally does a product along these lines. Never touch one that does not provide a checklist (legally you could be buying a empty box or a handful of 1990 Donruss commons with no recourse) and you'll also notice the legit products usually include a sketch or unlicensed original card to skirt lottery rules (even though that's exactly what it is) in certain states/territories.