Results 11 to 16 of 16
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07-24-2014, 11:04 PM #11
Everyone has made excellent points - the group break checklist site is also something I just recently found ( wish I found it earlier )- and I wont consider most product breaks until I`ve skimmed over their info - and most of the breaks i`ve done have come off eBay - but now days i pretty much stick with just 2 or 3 of the major breakers on there. If you check often you`ll see lots of new breakers trying to get started with only a hundred feedback rating - not saying that anythings wrong with the new crop of breakers - but i would at least get my feedback up to at least 500 thru selling cards or boxes before even thinking of starting breaking - i think some new guys see running box breaks as easy $$ - one funny thing I saw recently on a break listing - of course I usually just go for the predators in breaks so one caught my eye - it was Classic signatures - so I checked and of course didn't find any predators in the series - someone still bids the opening bid toward the end - glad I did my homework -
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07-25-2014, 05:58 AM #12
Another reason I will miss Panini - they post downloadable checklists for products at least a couple of days before release, which allows me to perform some basic data analysis and determine a team-by-team "value" by weeding out the commons (and the common inserts that will sell for a buck or so), figuring out that team's hits and applying a subjective valuation factor (usually with Montreal/Edmonton and this year Colorado as "10" and Phoenix at "2") which yields a coefficient to multiply against the retail (or personal, if you so wish) value of a case. Sometimes I have to extrapolate (with varying degrees of expected accuracy) when print runs aren't given, but I have found that the 90 minutes or so this takes (probably would only take 30 if I were a better Excel user LOL) allows me to gain a very thorough understanding of a team's "value" within a product and I vary my bidding/purchasing accordingly. I've been very happy with the results. It's more difficult to do this with as great a degree of accuracy with Upper Deck products (for which the group break checklist listed above can be a good starting point), but it is possible.
I would never get into a group break without having some kind of information like that. Even if you only collect one team, you should know if you're overpaying versus expected value.
There are a few excellent breakers on eBay, notably breakawaysc and ksehd and drcanadax (although he doesn't break as much). I've also had good experiences with 450Sports in Quebec (and am friends with them on Facebook), revolution10 in Michigan and most recently with Bruce's Box Breaks. STL, one of the sponsors here on SCF, also runs an honest break. Don't let the fact that eBay has a problem with "mystery" or "chance" auctions (which is technically what these are) deter you from getting some smokin' deals!
I have occasionally posted my subjective rankings on SCF but feel free to send me a PM anytime if interested. Not sure how much I'll be breaking with the UD monopoly back in place, though.
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07-25-2014, 02:57 PM #13
You CAN analyze Upper Deck checklists with Excel, but there are a few steps involved.
1) Go to the UD checklists and open the main page for the set you want
2) Click the "View Checklist" list which will open a full checklist of all cards in a new window
3) Press CTRL+A to select the entire contents of the page
4) Press CTRL+C to copy the contents of the page.
5) Open Excel and click in the upper left box (field A1)
6) Press CTRL+V to paste the copied page into Excel
7) After paste is complete, a small menu will appear at the lower right of the last entry. Click the down arrow to open this menu and Click the icon that looks like a clipboard with lines on it ("Save text only" or "save destination formatting". This will remove any graphics and only display text.
8) Click-n-drag to select the first row (player, team, card # etc)
9) Click the "Sort / Filter" button on the menu ribbon ("HOME" tab)
10) Click on the filter option.
This will place a small down arrow at the top of each column. Using these arrows you can choose which items to display and which to leave out. If you select Blue Jackets it will only display the records that say Blue Jackets, etc...
It seems like lot of work, but it really isn't and only takes a few seconds once you get the hang of it.Hidden Content
Collecting: Hidden Content (95% complete) / Hidden Content (88.4% complete) / Eric Lindros (35% complete) / Ilya Kovalchuk (45% complete)...and to a lesser extent...Hidden Content (65% complete) / Hidden Content (48% complete) / Brian Propp (70% complete)
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07-26-2014, 11:11 AM #14
What's stopping the sellers from doing that is listing in the auction the NHL sticker number that is on the box.
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07-26-2014, 11:22 AM #15
how so? like does UD have the contents of every serial number on file somewhere?
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07-26-2014, 11:33 AM #16
No. But, if the # on the video is the same as in the auction, and that the auction wasn't modified, you're sure that's the right box that is opened.
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