[ELevin99]

To me box breaks seem more economical then anything. For $10 you can get in a pretty good box break (unless you are going after the Nationals). You also can select your team, so you will get the players that you collect. If there are not any hits of your team oh well you are out $10 but at least you didn't spend $100 for a $2 jersey card and a bunch of base as you would if you bought a box. And like CEO said, you can still get the rush of the unknown when the host busts those packs open and you watch via youtube or ustream...

Chances are that if a person is selling a hot pack they know what card is in the pack. If it is something they can sell as a single then they will open the pack and not list as a hot pack.

[pyweed]

With respect, the premise of the debate seems dubious. Has anyone ever made a rational case that buying hot packs make economic sense? It's like asking about the economic benefits of playing three card monte. No, there are no benefits. You are being hustled, and it's a game designed so that you can't win.

[dpatera]

I suspect the buyers are generally not extremely savvy about the hobby. That common game used selling for $4.65 is on ebay, but I bet that same card has a book value of $10 or more.

So, someone a little less informed may look at that and say "Hey, I can buy this pack for $7 and be guaranteed to pull at least a $10 card out of it. How can I lose!" I think there are a large number of people who don't realize that you're unlikely to receive book value for any cards that you try to sell, unless you put forth a lot of effort with it.

[bustin 5 knots]

I know you said no morality arguments allowed, but how is weighing packs more ethical than searching them?

---

With respect, the premise of the debate seems dubious. Has anyone ever made a rational case that buying hot packs make economic sense? It's like asking about the economic benefits of playing three card monte. No, there are no benefits. You are being hustled, and it's a game designed so that you can't win.

+1, it's like finding out which slot machines are the best, you can't do it

[ceocards]

I know you said no morality arguments allowed, but how is weighing packs more ethical than searching them?

I think the differentiation is

1. Buying the full box yourself - then selling the "hot pack" that you weighed (ie - no unsuspecting future buyer is left with 'hitless' packs in a box.)

vs.

2. Weighing/searching at the store and leaving the 'junk' packs behind for someone else to buy.

[bustin 5 knots]

The reason I don't get hot packs (leaving morality issues aside) is that I like to get all the #'d parallels, inserts, etc. When the seller says "why buy a box when you can get your hits in 1 pack?" that's why.

[jacobystealshome]

I think the differentiation is

1. Buying the full box yourself - then selling the "hot pack" that you weighed (ie - no unsuspecting future buyer is left with 'hitless' packs in a box.)

vs.

2. Weighing/searching at the store and leaving the 'junk' packs behind for someone else to buy.

+1

exactly

i know base set builders that do exactly this

[bazooka joe]

I have wondered about this as well. I agree with you that it doesnt make much sense financially to buy hot packs. Some argue that you could hit the "jackpot" and get a very valuable card, but if the seller is already sketchy enough to sell hot packs, what makes you think that anything in there is worth more than 10 dollars? If they have the indecency to find the hot packs and then sell them, I wouldnt put it past ANY of them to open the pack and reseal it to ensure no great hit is in there. Now im sure there are some truly honest hot pack sellers out there(taking the hot packs from their own hobby boxes because they dont want the hit), but those are few and far between and there is no way to really know how they search for the hot packs.


Id be willing to bet that if you bought 10 hot packs for lets say 10 dollars, you wouldnt get a single card valued at over 12$.

And all the feedback that says "PUJOLS AUTO!!!1!!! OMGZZZ WOWOW", id be willing to bet that the sellers have 2nd accounts, friends who post that feedback for them, or even give discounts to people who leave false/great feedback.

I just dont trust those type of people at all. Not for a second.