Who wants to go a box break … on eBay?
While looking at Topps Five Stars Football auctions on eBay, I ran across this auction for a team box break. The seller is running the auction through eBay and then posts the videos of the breaks on YouTube.
For Five Stars, it was $26/team to get in on the break. With 32 teams in the NFL that would come out to $832 for one box of Five Star. On eBay, while there are many hobby boxes listed, seems the boxes go between $450-$500.
The seller does state that first several spots are taken, he will take offers on the remaining teams. This really seems like a rip off to me. I feel like most – just about all because there are only five cards in a box – are taking their money and putting a torch to it. This seems like the ultimate gamble, especially when the price is higher then what you would normally pay for a group break.
Doing a search for group breaks on eBay, apparently this is a very popular pastime. I didn’t realize this was going on auction style on eBay.
Would get in on one of these auctions?
There are some very nice card to come out of Five Star so far, but is it worth the gamble?
– LaDanian Tomlinson Inscription Auto 10
– Sam Bradford/Jahvid Best dual auto patch booklet /5
– Ndamukong Suh Triple Patch auto /20
Sign up for the Card Chat newsletter here!
Just wait until on of the auction winners in a break like that files a charge back because they didn't get a hit.
I know someone that does group breaks on ebay. The reason the price for teams is so high is that they normally don't all get bought before the auction ends. Surely you have seen how hard it is to get some teams claimed while doing your own breaks. He lists that some teams are taken from the start because he collects certain guys so he takes those teams (depending on sport) and he has a friend that buys into every break as well. The guy I know does it to grow his player collections cheaper than busting boxes himself or by buying the hits.
He is NOT the guy doing the Five Star break you mentioned. I'm not posative what his ebay username is but I know it isn't the one you are talking about.
Josh – If he has had a paypal claim cause of no hits I haven't heard about it.
Adam,
I'm not saying anyone has had charge backs. But I can see it happening. eBay is not the place to offer up a group break. All it take is someone to say item not describe or an item not received and there's your charge back and ebay will side with the bidder. There are a ton of card sites that offer up breaks at reasonable prices. Plus it offers up a level of security. IE: the breaks are check out from the site owners and there are rules to prevent people from cutting and running.
Caveat emptor. There is enough with that listing to keep me away.
Too bad we can't email those bidders and tell them to come over here and play with all of us.
The whole having teams not ending up being claimed thing we know very well about. Sooz ate teams on the Bowman Chrome and I ate them on the Series 1 Topps.
But, I did offer the people who buy the remaining teams from Gypsy Queen first choice on the next break (excluding the Yankees and Cardinals) to try and give those who are willing to gamble on a "lesser" team a fair chance to pull a big hit in the next one.
So…… buy a Gypsy Queen team is what I am really saying 😉
I have seen those offers for group breaks on eBay and I thought that was insane. You have no way to verify the break happens as claimed even if you see a video because you have no way of knowing if it was the break you bought in to.
With buying in to box breaks on the varous blogs you usually are a reader of that blog and have comfort in trusting the blogger.
Ebay has banned box breaks.
Paypal will not side with the bidder because basically it is a gamble and not a certain "shippable item of a tangible good". The transaction is not covered by buyer or seller protection. Initially they will hold the funds from the seller, however once they know that it is not a shippable tangible item, they will side with the seller and release the hold on funds.
The fact that it is a gamble, and these kinds of claims is why Ebay has banned box breaks.
All that said, if you want to do box break auctions, you should have your own auction site where you set the rules and manage your own users. It should be like a community or club setting where people generally know or are used to dealing with each other.
It can work out quite well.
If interested in software visit http://webzstar.com
Software in use as a box break auction site at:
http://643boxbreaks.com
domain name "boxbreakauction" AND "boxbreakauctions.com" are available from me. If interested contact me from the webzstar.com home page..