General Forum

I have begun to notice a trend in the hobby leaning towards group breaks.  I have especially noticed this among local card shops.  What are people's thought on group breaking?  I personally don't care for it.  The thought of paying money to get a random team or division etc seems silly to me.  I want to be able to have a little bit of everything from a release.  

For example, the last NBA release of Prizm wasn't even sold in the shop.  It was only released as a group break.  

I don't understand the appeal to this at all.  Is it simply for the hope that your random team is where the expensive card is at?  Just seems more geared towards investing instead of actually collecting.  

I agree on some points about randomness and being one of the investing ploys in the hobby. I prefer the group breaks at the card forums and on blogs where you can pick your own team many of them you get a random team and the break is just 15 people (16 for football). None of this random team or by division thing I've never liked that and in sports like Hockey were the Caps are my only team (well I'm considering the Vegas Golden Nights since they are brand new and kicking butt) it is ridiculous for me to do a random break. I also go for the cheaper breaks around $20-$30 per team with several boxes to break not just one high-end that only has 10 cards. I don't like the higher priced breaks and I don't think I have entered any that were $40 or more. 

I am involved with the football team traders group* over at (can I say another card site? sure why not?) SportsCardForum so I have been tempted to join some random football breaks to get more trade fodder for that, but so far I haven't done that. I stick with some of the stuff I already have and by periodically purchasing boxes of newer products and busting those when my trade fodder is low. That reminds me I have a couple of Score jersey relic cards (I got when I bought the 2010 factory set) I should scan and upload here before shipping those out when I next trade with the members who have those teams.

*The team traders group is sort of like a group break except: the members each have their own team (or two as I do Rams and Redskins = RamSkins) never any random thing. Each month members send out cards to 3 or 4 of the other members using a group schedule the group leader/moderator developed. The group is divided into 6 subgroups for the trading schedule. It is much better organized than a group that says "OK each month trade with eveybody else". I have also been with trading groups that had no set schedule so the trades fade away and the group eventually also becuase of lack of any structure to the group.

All depends on the product.  If I want to build a set, obviously not going for a break.  But if its a product, or (better yet) products I'll never try to collect, a break is good to get my team, or my player.

However, I entered a break once with a blogger, and I never got my cards.  Never got a refund, nothing....

ive entered my groups breaks in various settings. it all depends how it done and what you're in it for. i have benefitted big time from a few and came out with nothing on a few too. Some i entered just to get something for my personal collection.. others i try get in on a good price and try to get the big name teams/players just to hopefully get a good price to resell. 

They don't appeal to me at all and I can't imagine that I would ever join one. I have seen some where you don't even receive all the cards for your assigned team, just the "hits"!

I've done three. One was really fantastic, and was actually hosted by our own CaptnKirk. It got me my Steph Curry autograph! I did two others- one with Dave & Adams, one in a Facebook group. The latter two got me 4 cards total combined, two from each, and cost me $50. (I think, not 100% sure) One of them was a random team (I got the Denver Nuggets, which worked out OK as I got a patch SN5) and the other I chose my team, the Nets. Both cards from the Nets break, which I think set me back $20, could be had on COMC for about a dollar each.

I don't plan to do any more like the latter two unless I get a really good deal. The kind like Kirk ran, with multiple boxes of actual sets? I'd do that again in a heartbeat but I can only find baseball ones, no NBA or NHL.

The card companies are definitely favoring the group breakers- to the detriment of actual hobbyists...but that's a rant I don't want to get into right now, and it's probably going to be pretty predictable anyway.

Seeing as I prefer set collecting I'd say I don't like it. I participated in one on an auction site, I had points built up so it was free. It was when Kris Bryant was super popular, so several teams went high. I won a couple of teams cheap, I went for teams with what I thought would give me a chance of several cards. One team had almost a dozen cards in the set.What'd I get? Nada. I watched the break on YouTube. Guy sent me a few older cards that weren't mint to compensate. Personally, I'd prefer to take a chance on a baseball card crate or baseball card shark box. You spend almost the same amount and from what I've seen you get more for your dollar!

I have joined a handful of breaks, but only ones where I could pick the team and ones in which I would likely have at least a decent return on the team I am collecting.  Like many others have suggested I'm not really interested in any old random team.  As more of collector than investor, I also see no point in joining ones which were only "Hit" breaks.  I want all the cards!  All breaks I particpated in were on eBay and I only bid very nominal amounts so I was more or less guaranteed I wasn't going to get stuck with a loss or much of one.  

Overall, I'd say I have had success on the breaks in at least getting most or all of the base cards for a particular set, some inserts here and there and an occasional "hit".  

I wouldn't do them all the time as I am not willing to just throw in and take a more uncalculated chance, but have enjoyed the few I have done.

A couple local card shops here do breaks, but I found the prices to be way to high for me and seem to get way less than what I could get on eBay.  Most of them were also random team breaks at the local shops (which I guess probably makes sense as a more limited pool and likley folks will like the nearby teams more than distant ones, but...)

Since I'm a team collector first and foremost, I am a fan of group breaks as long as you can choose your (primary) team. I won't touch any of the random breaks, although I don't mind the ones where you get a second team randomly assigned as I do trade with a lot of people.

To add I have participated in many group breaks over the years since I started trading online back circa 2007. And have seen many things. The first breaks I participated in were on trading card forums, then I noticed some of the bloggers hosting them. On the card forums they would usually limit the breaks to only members of that particular forum (no buddies of the host, no "walk-ins" from emails or wherever). The bloggers usually require you to be a follower of their blog. Peope have also done breaks in Facebook and Twitter. I don't do Twitter much and for Facebook I try to keep my friends and activities to people I actually know and don't want my hobby information broadcast over Facebook to my real-life friends and family they don't need to know that part of my crazyness. There are also tons of breaks via Youtube.

I have also hosted two via my blog a baseball break and a basketball break (the one that Billy participated in). Believe me hosting a break is very involved and a little stressful. That is if you want to do things right and fairly.

Oh I have NEVER participated in an Ebay group break. When they first started there I thought they were in violation of Ebay rules about the item you get not being the exact item listed. I'm not sure how they regulate them.Plus Ebay breaks tend to be expensive. I'm not even sure about "when" they take place.

So basically:

• Aviod breaks where everything is random
• Only join breaks where you get ALL cards pulled for your team(s), or at least have a say as to if you want the base cards and duplicates as well as the "hits" and inserts.
• Don't waste your money on breaks where they are breaking just one or two high-end products where there are only one pack per box or only a handful of cards per box.
• If the host is going to do a live video break check out some of their previous breaks to see how they handle the camera and show the cards being opened. If everything is off camera avoid them. 
• DO: Research the products being busted in the breaks. If your team only have one or two cards on the checklist it ain't worth it.
• Also research the host especially if you are not familiar with them. If you follow their blog try checking to see what they did in their previous breaks, ditto with hosts on card forums. See if there is any feedback about their breaks.