Alright so anyone who was in discord tonight knows I won a couple of boxes. I mostly did this because I was sick of seeing what I felt was pretty egregious markup on every break (50%+ over fair value + you’re monetizing the content) and wanted to just do a couple at near cost… but now here I am, having never done a public box break before . Pretty typical situation for me to put myself in if you know me at all.
So, what do I need to make this a success logistically, so that it’s fun for people to watch. Primarily:
Camera setup / angles / anything specific to know? I assume I should get a better camera setup than a phone
Shipping out packs – I’ve never shipped singles or bunches of singles before, what is best practice here for getting people their card for a break safely
anything else I should know?
Will try to do it pretty soon after the boxes arrive, should be fun
if you’re going to use a computer you’re probably gonna wanna download OBS and play around with that you can start setting up today. a laptop camera and a phone should be enough if you don’t plan on doing them over and over and over.
there are apps that can turn ur phone camera into an IP camera so OBS can find it easily. maybe even over USB too
I will say though after all the time spent,money spent, risk spent, shipping supplies, insurance , etc you may realize that alot of these breakers really aren’t TOO crazy with their prices for selling guaranteed unweighed packs. with that said I will enjoy the more fair prices if it happens
there was like 3 people I trust to actually sell unweighed packs. these live breaks have made that number much much bigger.
good luck please share more info I may be interested in a pack.
So I don’t want to be seen as advertising the sales of the packs as in general the forum is very anti-shilling (with good reason), but yea the store IG is where I will be doing all of this from (linked from my personal collecting IG). Will put everything up this week once camera situation is sorted out
Yea I mean… maybe. It’s still a bit much currently, like I have 0 setup equipment so will be needing to buy a camera and decent setup all around and still plan on offering for ~$125 cheaper per pack than the recent popular jungle breaks I’ve seen. It just seems like there is a better way. I don’t plan to do full time breaks or get into the content game long term (I did it full time for a while as a sponsored poker pro, doesn’t fit my life currently w/ a family), but I’m also sick of seeing people who can’t afford full boxes being potentially taken advantage of. There is a difference between making a decent margin and really gouging people, especially when you monetize the content itself as well. We’ll see how the first few go but felt like something fun to do and a way to give back as people have been super awesome and amazingly supportive with the store, way more than I ever expected.
It’ll be fun, we’ll see how it goes I’m certainly not going to make a ton from it so I’m going in with that mindset where I just don’t care even if I lose a negligible amount of money on it. Hopefully people enjoy and can actually get some safe packs at a reasonable price. Excited to get the boxes now, will be first vintage breaks I’ve done since childhood and even then it was just a pack at a time
Gary I promise you this is not about you (and a celebrity / charity event is completely different than a mundane for-profit box break, I donated $1k to your event w/o a pack and feel great. The break was great!).
It’s just a general trend I’ve seen, I sell sealed stuff for cheap, the cheapest I’ve seen anywhere by far and I’m completely happy with my margins and I sell out basically instantly always. I see the people I sell it to then turn around and break it and then sell it for like +80-100% margin at a minimum and it’s always blown my mind that there are buyers… I mean this is modern, who is paying 150% premium to buy a single pack when they could just buy a box. They are pricing the packs at like… 15 packs = the price of 1 box.
So anyways, high end vintage breaks are seemingly trending this way too. I have seen no less than 5 different recent breaks for different unlimited boxes priced at like +30% of the price of a first ed box, which just seems outrageous to me. Like people are charging $15-20k for an unlimited jungle or fossil box for what… the price of carrying it for a week and splitting it up + your beautiful face on a stream. I just think people deserve better so I figured I would have some fun and try to provide them better for a box or two. I’m trying to do it as near-cost as I can.
If it goes well I’ll buy a box every PWCC block and break them near cost for however long I can or it remains fun to do so. Pokemon is not my main income, the store is not even top5 in my income sources. I do it because it’s fun, I really enjoy the hobby, and I hope it can provide people a place to enjoy the hobby without being scalped to death
@primordialaa , (scroll to the bottom if you want to see the response to your actual question)
It seems we share a similar stance on the topic. I believe the reason why someone breaks a box the same as at your LGS is to liquidate it faster as the average consumer doesn’t purchase an entire box. I also hold the opinion sealed box should outvalue the loose packs, which seems to get resistance. When someone is doing box breaks as a source of income and I’ve seen people buying modern packs on… I’ll just throw the prices this creator has listed and sells for.
► MODERN Booster Packs
SnS Shiny Star JP…1 for $22 (Limited)
SnS Vivid Voltage…1 for $8 (Very Limited)
SnS Champion’s Path…1 for $11
SnS Darkness Ablaze…1 for $7
SnS Rebel Clash…2 for $8
SnS Base Set…1 for $5
S&M Burning Shadows…SOLD OUT
S&M Base Set…1 for $5
S&M Crimson Invastion…1 for $5
S&M Unified Minds…1 for $9
S&M Lost Thunder…Coming Soon [3]
S&M Cosmic Eclipse…1 for $10
S&M Unbroken Bonds…1 for $11
S&M Team Up…1 for $13
S&M Tag Team JP…1 for $15
S&M Shining Legends…Coming Soon [1]
S&M Hidden Fates …1 for $19
► VINTAGE Booster Packs
XY Ancient Origins…SOLD OUT
XY Steam Siege…SOLD OUT
XY Evolutions…1 for $19
XY Fates Collide…1 for $10
XY Breakpoint…Coming Soon
& I’ll refrain from making any statements on those prices because momma told me If I don’t have anything nice to say don’t say it at all. The biggest problem is that they have multiple revenue sources from this box break with bigger content creators being able to recover most of their cost with CPM alone. (Note most YouTubers fail to capitalize on CPM and upload content that doesn’t fair well with the algorithm) Then they have paid monthly subscribers, they stream the event then upload it as a video.
My opinion is greed, I’ll call it how I see it. They are a lottery advertised as an investment “better luck next time” that doesn’t fall in my morale and ethical code.
While there are box breaks that are not as described above this post and isn’t targeted at them. When “good seller” and “timmy” buy a box at the same price and both sell out with the “good seller” packs at $100 and “timmy” at $150, there becomes a point where “good seller” says to themselves why am I not selling it $150? & the slippery slope begins. As we all say 1 sale doesn’t define the market price but if 36 people buy 1 thing at an outrageous price we take it as market price. Just my 2 cents but I’ll also try to answer your actual question.
Depending on your phone if you have like an iPhone 11 or similar camera quality it’s pretty good quality. You definitely need a camera stand. Autofocus is a must in my opinion. If you want to take it to the next level of quality around the $500.00 range i’d recommend something from the Canon EOS series. Other brands work, my mom always had canons growing up so it’s what I eventually bought. Two cameras is always something to consider but not necessary and the secondary camera you could pick up something from the Logitech C900 series ~$100 how you shoot in terms of angles is based on your setup imo and the room you have to work with.
Shipping depending on the amount someone buys but I’d just buy a bunch of penny sleeves, top loaders, semi-rigid, team bags, bubble mailers & some smaller boxes. I’d recommend buying a zebra LP 2844 super cheap label printer I think around ~$70 kind of old school but works. There is probably a thread for shipping singles/small amount of cards but in general, it would just go based on the price of the card. From being able to throw them all in a team bag unsleeved to toploading/semi-rigid everything.
Have fun & bring something educational and fun to the stream that is different than what is out there, solve the problem you see best of luck!
Rough plan right now is $350 sealed pack, $325 if opened on stream. Think that’s lower than midpoint but it seems like a good price point to me. Will figure out neo pricing next. Welcome any feedback on pricing
@odds, appreciate it! I think I’m going to spring for the camera setup will look at the canons later today.
And yea, those are the type of prices I see everywhere now. I’ll sell Shiny V for $89.99 or $94.99 and then see the person immediately throw up a raffle for $6 a spot / 25 spots, or break it for something like above $15+/pack. I mean I’m fine with it I’m not going to change my pricing but I’m just shocked at how much the “little guy” is forced to absorb it seems in scenarios. It’s possible they don’t care and they are paying strictly for the creator premium but it just seems high to me. Seems like the creators could be more responsible with their pricing and try to create some sort of longer term ecosystem. Classic rounders quote “You can shear a sheep many times, but you can only skin him once” ;p
This is Carconomist. I’ll flat out call a POS a POS.
This guy was selling 1st ed Team Rocket packs for $360+ when Rev was selling his for $250.
I get that you can charge whatever you want, but he’s developed a cult-like following and
the people following believe they are going to make a killing by investing. It’s not just the
pack price either. He’s dong some raffle format for those packs as well which means he’s likely
getting more than the $360.
Secondly, he has his own grading service. I believe he was charging people $90 for Regular ($50 a card)
and also $125-160 for the $75 express level. This type of behavior smells like a scam waiting to
happen. There are several instances of youtubers and IG folks who were providing middleman grading services, only
to run away with all the cards.
Why not use Ludkins or graded gem instead of this service for this service. It’s cheaper and their
business is to grade cards so they will not gouge anyone like this nor risk having them run away with your cards.
. Pretty typical situation for me to put myself in if you know me at all.
