The Question of the Day is a way to facilitate community discussion to help members ponder the unanswered questions of the world that are somehow relating to the hobby. Questionsj are many times open ended and up to interpretation. Feel free to post your thoughts in as much or as little detail as you’d like.
Helpful Considerations may or may not help some people focus their answer, these are blurred to not bother those who have their own ideas.
Today’s Question: QotD: At what point is a mysterybox not a ripoff?
Helpful Considerations: You will never be convinced they arent? As long as they stick to their odds? If they improbably do consistently give out an equal or greater amount of value than you put in? If you dont use them for value but for entertainment then any mysteryboxes can be fair?
This is actually a pretty thoughtful QOTD. I actually dont mind mystery boxes so much as I can just avoid them because I have goals that dont align with them. I feel like they are meant for kids to be fun, however as of the past decade I feel like the hobby has been more driven by money, and specific people/companies are taking advantage of the hype, and doing their best to make the most of the “mystery” element with their own twist. I would personally say that mystery product crosses the line when the person packaging knows in their head that what they are doing isnt a mystery at all. I dont think its fair for me to tell someone what is and isnt a mystery product. When I think back to secret santa I didnt care what I got because I knew deep down that the people involved had motives to make someone happy, and thats enough to know that its worth it. The hollow, lifeless mj holdings things on the wall however makes me more sad than a cubone who just recently lost its mother.
As long as a seller wants to make profit or has similar interests (getting rid of slow-moving items for example), a mystery box must be a ripoff. He would at least add the costs for repackaging and the work he put into it. When a mystery box is meant to be a giveaway at an event, a price in a content or something, it’s a different game.
The entire point of a mystery box is to extract more profit from cards that when sold on their own would sell for less. Nobody is ever going to sell mystery boxes without this as their primary goal.
Mystery boxes, especially the way they’re sold on Whatnot, are a huge thorn in my side. There are countless sellers who put a 1€ item in 95% of the boxes, then include one actual “hit” and a few boxes that match the price paid.
It honestly baffles me how this kind of thing slips past gambling regulations in Germany. If I sell a box for 51€ and the buyer gets at least something worth 1€, it’s considered legal. But if I sold it for 50€ and the buyer got nothing, I’d need a gambling license and have to comply with all sorts of protective measures.
Meanwhile, losses on slot machines in Germany are limited (e.g. 60€ max per hour), yet on platforms like Whatnot, I can lose hundreds of euros in minutes. It’s absolutely absurd
While I don’t necessarily have a problem with the platform itself, it’s basically turned into a full-blown Pokémon casino — and honestly, I’d have way better odds at any state-regulated casino.
To me, mystery boxes are never okay. They exploit people and actively contribute to the downfall of the hobby
Mystery boxes are unregulated gambling and should not be allowed on any platform.
That being said, the prevailing wisdom so far has been that since that sellers make a profit on mystery boxes, they must be a ripoff. To me that logic is flawed because sellers (try to) make a profit on everything, that’s how the economy works. Instead, I see other things as indicating that a mystery box is a super ripoff:
Only disclosing the small number of high value cards you put in the box, if you put them in at all
Inflating the values of the cards to shift questionable inventory
Having a significant gap between the highest and lowest value cards in the box
Charging an exorbitant price for the mystery box
When a mystery box seller discloses every card they’re putting in the boxes, keeps the values relatively close together to minimize gambling, is honest about the market value of the cards, and charges a reasonable price (but still makes a profit) I think that’s about the most honest way to do it.
Well, theres two or three kinds of mystery boxes. Ive sold some in the past and i made it clear that i would buy back the box if the customer was unsatisfied. I would pay the full price. I would put lots off cool stuff that most people dont see every day, like fukuyama posters, vintage japanese promos, sealed art sets from modern, psa 10s, bgs 9.5s, and misc raw cards and items. I would aim for market value to be on par with the price paid, that kind of mystery box would sell by word of mouth and was successful. Definitely not replicable long term and wasnt designed as a way for me to profit. It was a way i could drum up 1k-5k when my credit card bill was due. Ive seen other sellers have good success with similar methods, like pokemonsteven selling psa mystery boxes and the entire 200 card pool was posted. Granted the averaged price of those cards exceeded the cost of a mystery box so it was bound to succeed. The other styles of boxes definitely sour the hobby, ones like graded power at walmart and random ebay sellers classic garbage mystery boxes. Anyway, not all mystery boxes are bad, but the overwhelming majority are bad i will have to say.
There was a facebook seller Nas who also had incredible mystery boxes. He put me onto things like players club promos, pop series, legend cards, lots of really cool and niche items. Done properly mystery boxes are a good way to find new things
When I went to Washington to visit some friends, we went to this one “antique store” that was PACKED wall to wall full of such an array of weird items. If you were wearing a backpack, you’d be knocking stuff over just turning around. It felt more like a packed crawlspace. Most of the items were at or above market price.
For shits and giggles, we pooled money to buy a random mystery bag at the counter. I think it was like $10. Unsurprisingly, it was just junk. I remember getting one of those parachute army men, a 7UP pencil, some weird single color troll figure, some random Baseball card in a 1-screw holder, and a $5 “gift card” on a sticky note.
It was worth it for the memory but I’ve never seen a mystery box that wasn’t designed to offload junk for cheap. I’d imagine it’s very similar in the TCG community.
I think it is possible to do ethical mystery boxes. The total value of cards put into the boxes need to at the minimum equal the same value said boxes are sold for. Ideally, all mystery boxes have at least the same value in cards as the price of said box with some being higher in value. And their needs to be transparency on whats inside. Are these graded cards, all ultra modern, sealed packs, vintage etc.
However, even if you did do an “ethical” mystery box, I still think it’s a bad idea as anyone that buys your boxes and are satisfied are possibly encouraged to try other mystery boxes that are likely not ethical. It’s better to avoid the whole practice as a whole both as a buyer and a seller.
The only mystery box that makes sense:
Low value vintage cards only with 1-2 holos and a bunch of C/UC cards, no doubles, all WOTC. Price of mystery pack equals general value of cards. Basically the Japanese cubes that were priced so low back in the day
