New and Shiny - Market Manipulation

[packs]

The last comment on that thread is the most telling and probably explains a lot of what is being seen as shady. If you buy a case of product you only need to open the first or second boxes of the product to predict where the hits are.

Example: if I bought a case of 2022 Bowman Draft Jumbo I would only need to open the first box to know where every autograph in every other box in the case is. For example, if I open the first box of the case and the autos are in the third pack of each row, I could then theoretically only open those packs in every other box and sell all the rest of the unopened Jumbo packs to collectors under the guise that they "might" be the pack with the autograph, knowing the whole time they won't be.

If you're ordering multiple cases of product they tend to be packed the same way. You'll know with reasonable accuracy that the case hit will be in the 4th box down (making that up) of every case ordered.

Breakers know this too if they're serious case buyers. I will open up a channel to watch a break and the breaker will pull the 2 packs (for example) they know have the autos in them from the stack before even opening the first pack. Because they know where they'll be based on the first box of that case.

Breakers also become familiar with collation. I've watched a ton of videos where the breaker starts freaking out because of the sequence of the first three cards or whatever knowing what is coming. You see it a lot with the 86 Fleer basketball packs. If you see Clark Kellogg in your pack, you've got a good chance of seeing Michael too.