http://sportstradercentral.com/images/front/1951-topps.jpgIn 1951, Topps produced its first set of 52 baseball cards. These cards were produced to mimic the game of baseball. The cards had baseball actions printed on them like “strike” and “Home Run” labeled near each player. Two friends could get together and play a game of “fantasy” baseball with their favorite Major League Baseball players. The foundation for “Pack Wars” was laid in 1952 when Topps added player statistic and biographical information to the back of their product. Topps intent was to sell bubble gum, but they started a market that would become a $1.2 billion dollar market at its peak.

Today there is a new game sports card collectors play called Pack Wars. Card collectors can play head-to-to head or as a group. This game is much like the card game War where two people split a deck of cards face down and turn over their top card one after another. The player with the highest card takes the set. After 26 sets of cards are turned over, the player with the most pairs wins. Here is how “Pack Wars” are played.

Head-to-Head Pack Wars
http://sportstradercentral.com/images/front/packwar.jpgHead-to-Head Pack wars can be played several different ways. A common way is for two friends to split the purchase a box of cards. If a box of cards contains 20 packs, then each player gets 10 packs and plays 10 rounds. The players must agree on 10 different statistics or a single statistic that will determine the winner of each pack. For example, if playing with Baseball cards you could use most career home runs, career batting average or most home runs in a season. There are dozens of statistics that could be used. Each player opens a pack of cards and finds the winning statistic. For example, let’s say the statistic used in the first round was “Career Home Runs.” Each player would sort through their opened pack and find the player with the most career home runs. The player holding the best cards wins the contents of both packs. If you are playing “Winner Takes all” then the player with the most wins after 10 rounds of play takes the contents of the entire box. If you are playing “Pack for Pack” then players simply keep the individual victories. In the “Pack for Pack” version winning the most packs is not the object. You are looking to win the packs that contain the premium cards like autographs, game used, short prints, rookies and other premium cards.

Another version of this is to split the 20 packs evenly and then place a predetermined number of packs into the pot. For example, let’s say each players places one pack into the pot, they will play head-to-head with 9 packs each. At the end of the match players keep their packs and the winner of the most rounds wins the pot. In this example, the player that wins 10 rounds wins the pot. This version is considered the safest as the loser still keeps some cards.

Group Pack Wars
My first introduction to Pack Wars was at the 2003 Hawaii Trade Conference at a Topps Sponsored dinner. After we all ate the pack wars begun. Topps provided dozens of high-end prizes and handed out packs in a series of rounds. Topps provided a host that ran the Pack Wars and determined the statistics used for each victory. First, the host announced a prize (like a factory set of cards) and assistants handed out a pack of cards to everyone. My first pack was a Topps Chrome Basketball pack of cards. The host announced that whoever could produce the tallest basketball player won the factory set of cards. I did not win the set, but I did pull a Labron James Topps Chrome rookie card and was excited about that because we kept the contents of each pack. This went on for about 15 rounds. As you can tell from this story, the group pack wars are best played in large groups like functions and conferences.

Below are some common statistics that can be used for Pack Wars. This example is a 12 round Pack War.

Baseball Rounds

Batting Average
Home Runs
Doubles
Runs Scored
Stolen Bases
Triples
Career Wins
Most Strike Outs
Tallest Player
Heaviest Player
Shortest Player
Oldest PlayerFootball

Touch Downs RB/WR
Touch Downs QB
Career Carries
Career Receptions
Career Carries
Career Yards
Career Sacks
Tallest Player
Shortest Player
Heaviest Player
Oldest Player
Youngest PlayerAny Sport

Lowest number card
Highest number card
Closest to a number
Tallest Player
Shortest Player
Heaviest Player
Lightest Player

I know when we used to play it back in the early 90's we used to go by the card with the highest value would take the pack. This was a fun way to pass an afternoon sitting in the card shop. Thanks for the read Mike, it brought back some memories.

Mike

I played the same way as Skippy played, where it was the most valuable card that would determine who won. The way we played was either by packs or boxes. If there were 5 collectors, best $$$ card would win all 5 packs. Same goes with boxes, where the buyer who had the most expensive card from his box would win all the boxes. Definitely was fun if the store owner would participate and increase the prize amount. Better if we won also. Nice article Mike.
Tony

Nice post!

we'd usually do tallest or heaviest player..... wasn't long before you knew who was an automatic winner for ya.

I like the statistic version/height, etc. since the goal is to be able to get lucky and steal the high value cards from your opponent.

You can't steal away the best card in the box if you play by value, as whoever pulls it automatically gets to keep it.

Kills the fun for me.

If there was anyone here I trust I would be willing to do it online.... hmmm. =)

~Dave

i used to do it most of the ways mike mentioned.... always lots of fun

chris B

I used to also play pack wars the way Skippy mentioned...The one cardshop I used to go to the owner would also play...Thanks Ed

Mike,
Good article and look forward to more in the future from ya.

DON

Very interesting! Thats the first time I've heard of doin somethin like that! Thanks!

Ashley=)

good stuff never done one of those