If you want the monster hits it's best to stay away from retail now days. Not to say you can't pull one but you'd likely get hit by lightening on a cloudless sunny day before you did. The odds are set up to draw people back into the hobby shops.
As far as a box or case doesn't really make a difference if you order from someone like Blowout or off Ebay. The price is going to pretty much be the same +/- a couple bucks. You might feel more comfortable ordering from a dealer but on the rare occasion you can find shipping discounts and on the very rare occasion free shipping on ebay.
Also the longer you can wait the better as prices are always sky high right at the release date up to a couple months after that until a lot of the big hits have been pulled. If you are hoping to pull a decent hit that will cover a portion or if you're lucky all of the cost of the box then yeah spending the extra money might be worth it. Just depends on how much of a gambler you are.
As far as a box or case doesn't really make a difference if you order from someone like Blowout or off Ebay. The price is going to pretty much be the same +/- a couple bucks. You might feel more comfortable ordering from a dealer but on the rare occasion you can find shipping discounts and on the very rare occasion free shipping on ebay.
Also the longer you can wait the better as prices are always sky high right at the release date up to a couple months after that until a lot of the big hits have been pulled. If you are hoping to pull a decent hit that will cover a portion or if you're lucky all of the cost of the box then yeah spending the extra money might be worth it. Just depends on how much of a gambler you are.