10 Tips From a Former Sports Card Breaker
Sports card values are at an all-time high. Base rookie card costs are rising even on players that have one good game in a season. Big retailer shelves are being wiped out from people waiting in line for hours before the stocking rep even shows up. We are in an unprecedented time in our world and this is just another small part of a large wheel that is spinning.
Along with everything I just mentioned, there has been a massive spike in sports card group break hosts. A group break, for anyone unaware, is when a person has sealed product and sells the teams or players from that product, prior to ripping the box(es). An example would be ripping an NFL product and pre-selling the rights to each team within the NFL. 32 spots at varied pricing depending on the team. You could also run what is called a Random Team break, which people would pay for a spot (all spots are equal price) and before the break, the host would randomize the list of participants to award them a team within the break. From that point, whatever team you paid for or were randomly assigned, you would receive all the cards for that team within that specific product. Sounds fun, right? With the inflated prices of sealed product on the secondary market, this has given a lot of people a way to enjoy being a part of ripping boxes without buying, what originally was a $20 retail box, $50 or more.
Back when I was running/hosting group breaks, things were really beginning to start to take off in terms of popularity. People still fought the idea of this since they saw the total markup and thought it was a scam, but there is a lot that goes into being a break host. Supplies, time cost, fees, shipping, etc…It adds up and the break hosts that don’t do their books correct, do not last long.
Today, there are roughly 50x as many break hosts out there on social media as there were in 2017. I can’t scroll through my timeline without coming across a post on any platform where someone is selling spots for a break of some sort. Then comes the tweets regarding a potential scam. Whether a card was swapped off camera or someone didn’t get their cards, it never ends. I wanted to give my advice to anyone that is relatively new to hosting group breaks as this is 10 things I found had the best feedback from customers:
1. Even before you run your first break, have a good setup for hosting a live stream.
a. Have a CLEAR space with an actual backdrop. Not your messy room.
b. Have an actual video or web camera. Not your phone camera.
c. Have a platform to stream on and run tests before your first break (internet that can handle uploading is crucial).
d. Have a large amount of supplies (sleeves, top loaders, one-touches & 2pc cases).
2. Price your break appropriately. Don’t go out and price your break where a large volume breaker does. They make more because they have proven themselves as trustworthy and entertaining.
3. KNOW YOUR FINANCES. Do not run a break to get rich. Write down your costs and know where your break-even point is. Bad book-keeping equals bad business.
4. Know your product and sport. If you can’t pronounce most of the names or don’t know what team each player is on, it’s a bad idea to break that sport. Also, do some research on the checklists and parallels of the product so you know what you are looking at. This should all be done before you price the product for breaking since you need to know what the teams contain in order to know if the team is a $5 or $100 team.
5. When you go live, don’t shout. Be personable and entertaining. Answer questions. Engage with your viewers.
6. Never cut a seal or the wrapping off camera. Show your viewers the product is legit. Show them the box is sealed EVERY TIME. Then break the seal ON CAMERA.
7. Have your camera panned back wide enough so that you NEVER have to pull cards off the video screen. Any time a single card is removed from the viewers ability to see, it likens them to think a card has been swapped out. DO NOT REMOVE CARDS FROM THE SCREEN until you have shown them.
8. I’m going to say this again because its important: DO NOT REMOVE A CARD FROM THE SCREEN until you have revealed it to the viewers.
9. Package things properly. Don’t use atypical things to package cards (i.e. shrink wrap, sandwich bags, newspaper, etc…). Be professional with your shipping. Also, don’t reuse bubble mailers. Buy them in bulk online for under $0.20 per mailer.
10. Get cards shipped! Now that the break is over, the real work begins. Get the cards sorted, packaged and SHIPPED and give your customers the tracking. Get this done in under a week or don’t expect new customers to return for a second purchase.
Now you are ready to host group breaks! I’m kidding. Its not an easy thing to get into doing as it takes forever to build up a customer base and to earn people’s trust. It also can take a long time for you to get your finances into the black. If you don’t understand what that means, then its not a good time for you try to run a business. Running group breaks isn’t something everyone can do successfully. Hopefully this sheds some light on it for you.
- by Ryan Samuelson
