Show #132 Bustin’ The Box Breakers + Topps Is For Sale

PLEASE STILL DO NOT BUY FROM ANY BREAKERS IMPLICATED LAST WEEK

Last remaining thoughts on razz sports card raffles.

Box Breakers at the industry summit wanted to setup a “blacklist” of CUSTOMERS who LEGALLY got a refund for a payment into a box break.

I’d bet my own money that most of these sellers were running legitimate raffles and sent the prize(s) to the winners. I’d also bet my own money the buyers were fully aware these were raffles.

Doesn’t make it legal. Doesn’t make it right. Doesn’t mean you weren’t going to get caught one day soon.

Most scams start small, and grow in sophistication as copy-cats work the system. It was only a matter of time someone got caught – and pointed the finger at everyone else – then bringing down the entire industry.

Kinda like how all the people on twitter started adding shady box breakers to my list for me.

Feel lucky a podcaster warned you, an indictment from an attorney or a blindsided shutdown because you got ratted out by a competitor who got caught.

Why I did this:
Buyers trust these “box breakers” and they pool large amounts of collectors money in their  PayPal account before busting the boxes – and often before paying the distributor for the product. If their PayPal account got frozen for doing something stupid like running paid raffles – ALL OF THE FUNDS IN THEIR ACCOUNT WOULD BE FROZEN.  The box breaker would then owe the distributor money, He’d owe PayPal money, and his customers money … And if its several thousand dollars – trust me – these box breakers aren’t as rich as they claim.

Not to mention the guy shut down would point the finger at everyone else, creating a cascade of box breakers who’d get shut down who owed people money.

But the bottom line – this was blatantly illegal, and when you’re trying to attract new affluent collectors to this hobby – they aren’t going to want to be involved in illegal activity. You’ll never become a “big rich box breaker” running illegal raffles anyway.

Clarify the 2013 Bowman Joe Flacco cards from show #130

Topps is for sale

According to an ex-Topps employee – the For Sale sign is up on Topps …. Problem is no one is buying. Shows you how crappy of a business sports cards is. Sports trading cards is a SMALL BUSINESS…even for the current owners of Topps. Panini is a small business, if they were so flush with cash, why wouldn’t they just snap buy Topps? Why not Upper Deck? Why doesn’t one of these “big rich box breakers” buy Topps (lol). There are websites and apps that don’t sell anything that make more money than Topps and Panini do combined, let alone other businesses you could buy.

Keep cards as a hobby – collecting wise & business wise. If you want to make real money, pick products that everyone uses, like the Internet, shoes, cars, cell phones, food, water, insurance, housing, clothing … Ect. If you’re making money in cards – YOU COULD MAKE EVEN MORE IF YOU FOCUSED YOUR EFFORTS ELSEWHERE.

It’s called opportunity costs. Sorting through cards and filling breaks makes your opportunity to find an even more profitable business unlikely until its too late.

And if you’re not investing a portion of your profits each month in stocks, or other opportunities – hire someone that can manage a stock portfolio for you. It’s what every rich person I know does.

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