BUYING PACKS AND BOXES OF SPORTSCARDS - HOBBY VS. RETAIL - WHAT YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW!

Collecting sportscards is a great hobby. You may decide to persue collecting your favorite player, favorite team, try to build sets, or collect cards as an investment. No matter what reason you decided to collect cards for, you will, without a doubt, buy packs of cards. The thrill of opening a pack and finding your favorite player in a low #'d insert, autograph or rookie card is bait that I've yet to meet a collector who could resist taking. You may even up the ante by opening boxes or cases (but if you're opening cases, you probably aren't going to gain anything by reading this any further!).

Packs and boxes of cards come in several forms. I want to take the opportunity to add to share what I see as the two main options for packs and boxes!

RETAIL

Retail packs/boxes are found in larger department stores (e.g., Target). They may be in large glass cases, under lock and key, or they'll be slung all over the shelves, with basketball packs inside Pokemon boxes! The boxes themselves are usually NOT sealed, as most store policies require the sales associates to open the boxes before they put them on the shelf. Usually, the only sealed boxes you can get in retail stores are called "blaster boxes" - boxes that have been sent directly from the factory to the retailer and explicitly state "for full box sales only - do not open". This is good. These boxes have advantages, including "free packs" you won't get by buying the individual packs from the opened boxes. Generally, no one working in the store will know anything about sports cards and will not be able to help you make an informed decision on what to buy.

HOBBY

Hobby packs and boxes are found in hobby shops, at card shows and I've even found them at some smaller retail outlets. Usually, they will be well organized and someone there will be knowledgable enough about the products they carry to help you determine what you might want to buy.

There are several differences between hobby and retail packs/boxes, which you should keep in mind before you buy:

1. CARE OF PRODUCT: Without a doubt, the most important consideration! Retail cards are often damaged because the company doesn't have the manpower to monitor people who go rifle through packs. People will literally "feel up" the packs in retail stores trying to find the ones with insert cards in them, damaging the cards in the process. For this reason alone, you shouldn't even be buying retail packs, but, if you are, try to buy them for a store that keeps the packs, under lock and key. You might find them to be in better condition than at a store that just leaves the packs out for customers to scour through. Hobby shops take great care of their products and will NOT allow customers to scour packs. Furthermore, some card manufacturers place the insert cards in the same spot in all their boxes. Dealers who are aware of this may "shuffle" the packs before selling them. If the cards are damaged, most any dealer will help you get replacement cards from the company.

2. INSERT RATIO AND TYPES OF INSERTS: Pack/Box ratio's for inserts are usually different between hobby and retail. You might find that hobby packs have an insert seeded 1:24 packs, but the retail may be 1:48 (or greater). In addition, the inserts in hobby packs are not always the same as what you may get in the retail packs. You may read that Topps printed 1/1 cards in their Topps Chrome product and you are hoping you might get one in a pack, but try as you might, you'll never get one out of a retail Topps Chrome pack because they were a "hobby only" insert. Knowing the types of inserts available and what the odds are of getting it will help you determine what to buy.

3. CARD VALUE TO PACK/BOX PRICE: This is something that jumps all over the place and is very important to be aware of. Research the product and know the hobby vs. retail price for it before you buy. K-Mart doesn't pay attention to the fluctuations in the market and their pack prices are fixed, while a hobby dealer will adjust his price to the market. On hot products, retail packs/boxes may be the better option. When a 24 pack hobby box that was $50.00 when it first came out is selling for $90.00 a month later, you can still be buying the retail boxes for original MSRP, which will generally be far less money. Retail boxes are often sold in what are called "Box Blasters" at retail outlets. They don't contain as many packs as hobby boxes, but if you do your homework, you can easily calculate the savings with a retail box. For example, Topps Turkey Red Baseball Blaster boxes at Toys R Us are $19.99/box. You get 8 packs in the box. So, you are paying $2.50 per pack. The packs contain the EXACT same quantity of cards and the insert ratio is also EXACTLY the same as the hobby product, aside from 1/1 cards. This particular product is very hot (as of this guide writing 11/21/05). It is highly unlikely that you will find a hobby shop selling this product for $2.50 per pack. Retail boxes are definately the way to go here, since hobby boxes are approaching $80.00/box - roughly $3.33 per pack. Sure, when you do buy this particular product by the sealed hobby box, you will get a "box topper" card that you won't get in the retail, but even at that, these generally sell for $10.00-15.00 per card, still leaving you at the $2.70-$2.90 per pack price range.

4. NEGOTIATION: In conjunction with 3 above, you can negotiate a price with a shop/show dealer. Walmart, is not going to negotiate a price on cards with you. LOL. A hobby shop owner or show dealer wants your for cards because that's all he sells and needs you as a customer to stay in business. Walmart does not need your card business! The dealer will work with you on a price that is fair for both you and he, based on the market's supply and demand for any particular product. You'll find a dealer may also discount large purchases... maybe he's asking $50 for box A, but if you buy 4 boxes, he might sell them to you for $175, saving you some good money in the end!

5. NUMBER OF CARDS PER PACK: Hobby and Retail often have different # of cards per pack. While this isn't always true, it is usually the case. For example, Bowman Chrome retail contains three cards per pack while Bowman Chrome hobby packs contain 4 cards per pack. Compare the two first.

6. CARD STYLE: Basic cards may also be different in hobby versus retail. Donruss has (in recent years) produced two different versions of the base card in many of their products, depending on whether it was going to be hobby or retail distrubuted. Their "Absolute Memorabilia" packs can be found in retail stores for $2.99 while they are $40.00 per pack in many hobby outlets. This is because the cards in the packs are VERY different, as our their "secondary market" values (like what you might be able to sell them for on eBay!). 

I hope this was helpful! Happy shopping and enjoy collecting the cards no matter what you pay for them or how you get them!