How pack breaking works and how you can get involved

Rochester, N.Y. (WROC) — Opening packs of sports cards or other types of cards has become, for many, an online community event.

At WeTheHobby on Arlington Street in Rochester there are studios in which people record themselves opening packs of cards before a live online audience.

While many tune in just for the fun of watching people open, or “break” or “rip”, packs, others watch because they have money on the line.

Through apps like Whatnot and Fanatics Live, people buy into whatever is being opened and as Autumn Maid, who has her how breaking show through WeTheHobby, tells, there are many ways to buy in.

“You can buy the whole box that’s being opening. We call those personals, or personal purchases, so if you wanted to just buy the whole box yourself and get all the cards, you can do that of course, but then we do different kinds of breaks. We’ll do pick your team, if you just want to decide the team that you want, if you’re chasing a certain player or a certain insert from the set, you can do that and then we also do team randoms so if you just want to buy in at a price point and get a random team and see where you land, we do that too, which is super fun. Then we also do divisionals which is where you build your own kind of and you pick four teams, which is fun too, so that’s a snake draft style, which we’ve doing more recently at the end of our shows, but there are a lot different ways to do it,” Maid said.

WeTheHobby will then mail you your cards.

Some of the boxes and cards Maid and others handle can get pricey.

“I think the most expensive one that I’ve seen pulled raw would be probably 50k or more, but they go up very high,” Maid said. “I get nervous sometiems just because it’s someone’s property and it’s so valuable, but we’re very gentle obviously it’s super excited.”

Minutes before Maid’s interview with News 8, she pulled a 1 of 1 of C.J. Stroud that she says is worth around $30,000.

To be clear, this is a game of probability and there’s always a chance you buy in and end up with nothing or next to nothing of value.

To figure out the value of a card, Maid says you can use websites like Card Ladder, 130 Point or eBay.

On eBay, it’s recommended you look at what has already sold instead of what’s for sale.

Maid says you can also learn by joining the live chat that runs concurrently with the breaks where you can get a feel for how it works and ask questions of those running the breaks.

Several places around the world run these live pack break shows and the audiences span the globe as well.

WeTheHobby plans to hold a break party for kids Saturday from 6-8 pm where they have a fun BINGO game planned.

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