(07-23-2014, 11:20 AM)b-hawks Wrote: So how much would you recommend one spend in order to make buying a box a good idea?
Are you saying you'll never make your money back (or get comparable BV) if you buy a low to mid range box of cards?
For my PC, I collect Toews, Kane, Saad and Shaw mainly and have been buying cards off ebay but I also like to open packs once in a while.
It's sad to say, but with few exceptions, the more you spend on a box, the better it is... If you buy a box of Prime/Dominion/The Cup/Ultimate, there is a much better chance of the cards adding up to what you might want for the 'investment'. This is mainly because most of the base/rookies are more widely collected and the inserts are higher-end, lower-numbered, so more player collectors are looking for them.
I've seen very few boxes where you don't get BV back, but how many single are you buying at full BV? On the other hand, it's not that you'll never get your money back, it just shouldn't be your expectation... You'll also do much better by putting the odds in your favor and busting a case if you can swing it... Some boxes are better than others, some are much, much worse, and the more you do to 'even' the odds, the better the results...
Like I said, it depends on what your goal is... If you are targeting PC stuff or trying to build up some traders or just looking for 'fun'. If you want to target PC stuff, I'd say look for a group break of something and just buy the 'Blackhawks'. If you are looking for traders, pick a box from a set which is heavily collected (SP Authentic is usually good while Black Diamond is usually bad). If you're looking for 'fun', Panini seems to have released a couple which look good from the random breaks I've seen...
Personally, I stick to buying boxes only of what I collect. If 90% of a box is going into my PC and I'm not trying to get 50-60% of the value back in traders, I usually wind up feeling pretty good. For singles, I'm 100% happier just buying instead of trying to 'hit' something on my own... [I, of course, have only learned this by amassing far too many traders by busting a little of this, a lot of that, and even more of that...]