[rybowski97]

I'm always hesitant to buy boxes/cases because I've heard many times that sellers are able to tell which boxes/cases contain the big hits. I used to buy supposed "hot packs" off of eBay, but not anymore. I'd like to try buying from Blowout or Dave and Adam when I get some money put aside.

i dont think there is a way to tell which box or case, I think sellers open up boxes, pull the case hit and then sell the remaining boxes. takes a slimeball to do that but it a good way to make money back.

[chrisa19978]

I have gotten some good deals but not many from the card shop near me he knows I collect Derek Jeter so he hooks me up like the Gold Rush cards. He received a stack from Topps and one of them was a Derek Jeter he held for me and sold it to me for $5.00 and I have only seen a few sell on ebay and they were $40.00 + for each one.

[Haze28]

Build up a relationship with your LCS and then they will most likely give you friend prices. Treat each other right and the LCS will want you to be a consistent customer. I got a $10 break on each box of Archives I bought.

I spent almost 2 grand in the month of Febuary at the shop three blocks from my house, spent many hours bs'ing with the owner, the buyer, and one of the guys that works the most there and when I finally started to see that they were way over priced and asked them for a little break they said no. They said those are rock bottom prices and if they lowered them at all they wouldn't make any money.

I had found a shop that had Lineage on sale for 43 a box and had bought 4 boxes from them before they ran out, the shop by my house still has Lineage priced at 99 a box and I told them about the sale prices and they said it was crazy. Needless to say I won't be buying boxes from them anymore. I still stop in and talk to them, buy toploaders and what not but they have gouged me enough.

The shops here in Chicago are ran strictly as a business to make as much money as possible, no breaks on price even to loyal customers.

[chrislucy72]

I Own a Hobby Store, Box sales make up the majority of instore sales, but the minority of the profit.

I grew up going to a hobby store here in michigan that the guy that owned it would only be 5-10 over cost on boxes, that was before the internet.

Now with Dave and Adams and the blowouts of the world its hard for stores to compete with them, I try to be 5-20 over cost depending on the box, and the majority of time we are within 5-10 of Dave and Adams and Blowout.

But on a side note its very very hard to compete with those guys when they decide to dump a product, I at the end of the day will sell for cost to dump, but will not go below cost to dump.

It is a very fine line. By the way we are a Hobby Store in Allen Park Michigan, I actually have a hard time keeping wax in the store because of the competitiveness of our pricing and the lack of hobby stores around us.

[Haze28]

I Own a Hobby Store, Box sales make up the majority of instore sales, but the minority of the profit.

I grew up going to a hobby store here in michigan that the guy that owned it would only be 5-10 over cost on boxes, that was before the internet.

Now with Dave and Adams and the blowouts of the world its hard for stores to compete with them, I try to be 5-20 over cost depending on the box, and the majority of time we are within 5-10 of Dave and Adams and Blowout.

But on a side note its very very hard to compete with those guys when they decide to dump a product, I at the end of the day will sell for cost to dump, but will not go below cost to dump.

It is a very fine line. By the way we are a Hobby Store in Allen Park Michigan, I actually have a hard time keeping wax in the store because of the competitiveness of our pricing and the lack of hobby stores around us.

It's great that you keep your prices within 5-10 bucks of the online guys. If the shops near me did that I would buy from them every time just because of convenience. I'd rather have it now than have to wait for it to be shipped to me plus giving business to the local guys. But the product its flying off the shelf at a mind boggling rate here even at the high prices they have so they have no reason to drop the prices a little. They can't keep products like Bowman, Museum Collection, Tribute, Tier 1, and all that stuff in stock. I wonder what would happen if these older local guys ever found out they are getting the high hard one from the LCS?

[HeyFitzy]

The one sole lcs near me hardly has anything anymore, I see them going out of business fairly quickly. They wanted $120 for gypsy queen. I got it for 85 off blowout.

I almost feel bad for lcs stores now bc of D&A, Blowout and Big T's etc. they are like the Walmart, Target, Amazon of card ships online. Always competing against each other for lowest price on a box.

While a lcs needs to sell boxes just to make money to pay rent on their space, electricity, etc.

If I had the bigger cash flow I could create my own site and compete with those guys.

I think I'll be buying boxes and cases from online, I'm done with shops, like Haze I've spent big money at my shop and hardly get deals anymore.

[krykslr]

There is no LCS where I live, but I will still chime in based on my other experiences in shops I've been to.

I only buy from Blowout or Dave & Adam's.....I've pulled some nice hits from their boxes ($100 Bubba Starling USA Auto, TTT Nolan Ryan Triple Patch /3) and they are usually the cheapest you can get. I just can't justify buying a box for $40-$50 more than I can get online (one place I was at last year wanted $135 for a box of Ginter). If they were $10-15 over I'd be alright with it...I know they have to cover their costs and pay employees, but I'm not going to drop an extra 5 hours of my college student wage just to pay more for the "LCS experience."

If I'm in a town with some nice LCSs, I may stop in and try to find some singles for my Braves collection or my '52 Bowman set, and I may grab a few packs just for the fun of busting them, but for big purchases, it's always online.

[acevanquish]

i dont think there is a way to tell which box or case, I think sellers open up boxes, pull the case hit and then sell the remaining boxes. takes a slimeball to do that but it a good way to make money back.

The biggest I have bought so far is a box. I'm not sure what you mean by case hit. I have seen oversized cards (8"x10") listed as 1 per case and other things I assumed were on top of the boxes and would only be gotten if you purchased an entire case, otherwise the shop would have rights to it and sell it.

Or do you mean 1 box in the case that is better than the other boxes? If that is true how would they know which box?

[newfiecomicguy1]

There isn't a shop near me so I do all my buying online. When I use to live in the city I always tried to support the LCS but now thats not an option anymore.

[rybowski97]

The biggest I have bought so far is a box. I'm not sure what you mean by case hit. I have seen oversized cards (8"x10") listed as 1 per case and other things I assumed were on top of the boxes and would only be gotten if you purchased an entire case, otherwise the shop would have rights to it and sell it.

Or do you mean 1 box in the case that is better than the other boxes? If that is true how would they know which box?

the case hit is like the high end insert/ chase card for the product. you can always find one big one per case. for instance people will buy a case of lets say 2012 Bowman. They might open 3-4 boxes and in the 4th box hit a Red Autograph Prospect refractor which would be the case hit. Then could then sell the remaining boxes on ebay, etc knowing they already got the big hit and the remaining boxes wont have anything to exciting in them. There was a guy on here who did alot of chrome breaks and said this is exactly what he did. I think it takes a real ***** to do that but it happens everyday.