Group Breaks: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[spuds1961]

I will start off by saying I have never bought into a group break but that doesn't mean I have no knowledge about them. I have watched and read up on them. I will try to shed some light about them for those on the fence about joining one.

1- The Good

I know everybody sees these high end cards and says there is no way I can afford a box of that product to possibly have a chance at those beautiful cards...With group breaks, that is now possible. I find this a good thing as it spreads the wealth of the hobby around, even low rollers such as myself can have a chance. I will say the best chance at getting something from a group break is through a snake draft as everybody comes away with something. I find the price point on most group breaks is within most collectors' price range. For the price of a couple of retail blasters you can now have a shot at some great cards for your collection. I personally don't like the pick a team type group breaks as you can put up your hard earned money and come away with nothing. I moderate for SCF and I rarely see the group breaks on our site being filled, here is a shameless plug for our site, if you haven't noticed SCF is under new ownership and we are in the process of making our site much better for the collecting community. I think most collectors will find that the people who will be running our group breaks are of the highest integrity and have price points that are competitive with all of the other group breakers online. So if looking to take part in a group break, why not give SCF a try.

2-The Bad

This is where it gets tricky, as a collector you best do your research on the product being broken as some teams have very little in the way of top line rookie autographs and game used items. I would hate to know that I put down my hard earned money to join a break picked my team and then find out I basically had no chance at getting a great hit. I have noticed that the teams that give you the best chance at a hit go for premium prices, there is something wrong with that picture, the group breaker is making extra money meanwhile the cards in the boxes are still the same. I feel it should be a first come first serve type of thing with every slot costing the same. I also have another problem with group breaks in that it is helping the card companies sell overpriced garbage, if not for group breaks skewing the sale figures of certain high end products, maybe the cost would be lower for the collector who doesn't want to partake in the gamble of a group break. I know the person doing the breaks has to make some money as the time and effort that go into separating the teams, mailing out the cards and doing the actual break online is very time consuming, but some breakers just charge figures that are unreasonable and yet they still get people to join their breaks, this also falls under the consumer doing their research.

3- The Ugly

This is the one that should be a big eye opener to collectors, it pains me to think this is happening in our hobby but dishonesty is found in most facets of life. I am talking about people being scammed in group breaks and sad to say I think it happens more often than realized. I won't give site names or the name of the scammer but suffice it to say this person stole thousands in cards by performing a switch and swap where he already opened the boxes pretended they were still sealed and kept the best cards for himself while giving the people in his breaks low priced cards. What bothered me about this person being allowed to do the breaks on this unmentioned site is his integrity was already in question for some other shady things he had been found to be doing. The community on that other nameless site turned a blind eye to the accusations and still let him do the group breaks. He went awhile without being caught so there is no telling how much money or cards he actually stole, and the only reason he got caught is because he screwed up and started selling cards from his breaks and a site member noticed and gave all the facts and that is what got him caught. I don't know if those people that were scammed will ever get their money back but I am sure that the scammer will probably try this same scheme under a different name. I always wondered when a breaker wasn't showing all the cards from a break what was really going on behind the scenes... I mean if someone who was breaking for one of the highest viewed collecting sites can get away with it what is there to stop someone who has no ties to a site from ripping people off? I feel the best way to find out if a group breaker is honest is to ask other collectors who have broken with them, find out if any big hits were coming out of their breaks and if they are priced honestly.

Also, a word of warning, while group breaks take place on many collecting sites, they are now also happening on trading groups on Facebook and even on eBay where you can buy in. While it doesn't necessarily means that something fishy is going on there, but those set ups are not as secure as say a break on SCF where there is a dispute process should something go wrong. Speaking from experience, when something goes wrong on eBay it can be quite a challenge to get resolution.

In closing I hope this article enlightens people on some of the ins and outs of group breaks, I hope for those who gamble into this part of the industry that it is a pleasurable experience. To all collectors out there have a great box breaking day and take care!

[cobiaobsessed]

Very well thought-out and well written article. I've only bought into one group break and it was through DA Card World. It was a pricey high-end break and I was extremely disappointed in the manner in which things played out. The break was postponed because it did not immediately sell out and even after asking to be notified when it would happen I was not. I spent a lot of money on it, and didn't even get to watch it live. I was so frustrated that I actually took the time to sent customer service two emails explaining why I felt the way I did and they didn't even have the common courtesy to respond. To me, that's inexcusable and tells me that they're making so much money off group breaks that they don't care about customer concerns. Needless to say, I will never spend a dime with them again.