Friday, November 15, 2013

Question

Are any of you out there high volume case breakers?

I've been reading a little bit on Blowout's forums (not sure if that is a good thing or if it will make me jaded about the hobby). I'm wondering if people who do that are actually able to make a big enough profit to make it worth all the time spent ripping as well as managing sales online, etc. Or do they even make a profit at all?

I'm wondering because now that my seasonal job has ended and I'm looking for work in an area that still has high unemployment, a source of money would be a nice thing. And I have realized that my joy in the hobby is much more about just ripping packs to see what's inside than it is about collecting the cards. (Besides Braves of course!) I understand that there is a real risk if you're small scale, but does it balance out in the higher volumes where you have a better shot at landing the really rare stuff?

This is probably just a pipe dream but I sure would love to make some real money off ripping packs, as I'm sure most all of you would.

10 comments:

  1. The only person I know to do it and usually break even is Brent Williams from Brent and Becca. He'll break up to 50 cases of most products, sometimes making money, sometimes breaking even and sometimes losing his ass. He does it purely for the enjoyment and claims that he doesn't do it for the money because there simply isn't enough to make it worth it.

    It's such a gamble too. Can you imagine throwing down $10,000 on cases and getting just $3,000 back? That's a $7,000 hole. The money makers are those $2,000+ cards that you find in one out of every few dozen cases, so you have to buy in serious volume to be in play for those.

    Honestly, there's more money to be made spending the money at the casino than there is trying to flip cards nowadays. If Ebay never existed, it'd be a different story. It's just too easy for people to get PC cards for cheap. On the sellers side, Ebay now takes over 10% of your sale and that doesn't even include listing fees after you run out of free ones.

    I've been unemployed for almost a year now, living on student loans while trying to finish up my grad degree. I've got a 4.0 in my Masters of Business Admin. program and I've used that to try to develop business plans that would allow me to rip packs and turn a profit. Any way I see it, there's just no money there unless you can consistently beat the odds. It's frustrating.

    I have found that there is money to be made in investing in unopened boxes. When a new product comes out that is well-received, holds strong rookies, and likely wasn't over printed, you can purchase a box and double, triple or quadruple your money in just a year or two. Even that's a gamble, but with enough research and trend analyzing you could come out on top over time.

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    1. Sadly that is pretty much what I was expecting to hear. It seems like the Bowman products particularly are sought after two or three years after they come out because of the draw of the players that are showcased when they're newly drafted or in the low minors and make it big. Of course holding onto boxes/cases for that low without busting them would be rrrreally hard for me to do. I can't even make it out of the parking lot at Walmart without busting the packs I buy, haha.

      Thanks for the response though.

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    2. PS: In the case of a guy like Brent Williams I am guessing for it to not be about the money you have to have money to blow to begin with.

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    3. No joke. I do all this research on what boxes to buy and hold onto, but I don't know why. I bust them anyways. It's best not to mix business and pleasure I suppose...

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  2. What he said. Seriously though, I wouldn't consider trying to make a profit busting boxes/cases. I got into $20K worth of debt buying cards from 1998-2002. So not worth it.

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    1. Yikes!! That's definitely a scary thought. Maybe I should explore the possibility of opening up an LCS, as much of a risk as that is in itself. At least as a current day collector I know what fellow collectors like and hate to see in an LCS.

      Either that or get rich so I can bust cases without worrying about the money...yeah right!

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    2. It's my dream to get really rich and then do free case breaks for my blogger friends. How cool would that be!?

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  3. I know someone that would break a couple cases a month and do ok. He isn't getting rich but he isn't loosing money. It is kind of crappy the way he does it though. He buys cases and breaks them until he gets the case hit then stops busting and sells off everything he busted as well as the rest of the unopened boxes on ebay. So he gets every case hit without having to bust a whole case. (unless his luck is really bad)

    He quit doing it about a year ago because he bought a trucking company and doesn't have the time to mess with cards anymore.

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    1. It kinda makes him sound similar to a pack searcher, in a way. If you do it simply for the money and you aren't looking to complete a set yourself then that sorta makes sense.

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