Sports Cards: Your Questions Answered

I’ve been breaking sports cards, primarily baseball and football cards, for over 4 years, and have been collecting since I was 5 years old. I doubt this makes me an expert, but I’ve accumulated a few nuggets of wisdom along the way, so maybe I can answer some frequently asked questions.

Are hobby boxes worth it?

I’ve opened hobby boxes almost every day for the last 4+ years. I can tell you in my humble opinion that they are not. This may be a little subjective, but here’s my thinking: why pay $200-300, or likely more, for a hobby box with just a few hits (autos and patches) and a few inserts (numbered if your are lucky). Most collectors these days don’t care much for the base cards, so why not participate in live box breaks where you can purchase specific teams you collect? If you figure your team is on average $30 per break, you could buy into 10 cardbreaks before you spent the money on just 1 hobby box! Sure, you may not get anything you want in any one break, but you’re also spending a lot less.

Where do I get hobby boxes?

If you still want your own personal hobby boxes, look no further than my online shop where you’ll find a large assortment of football and baseball hobby boxes and some other goodies!

What is the difference between a hobby box and retail box football?

The short answer is, on average, you’ll get better hits out of a hobby box. Sure, you see anecdotal stories on Facebook where a guy bought a blaster box and hit a 1/1 Tom Brady, but for every one of those stories, there are 1000s of blasters that didn’t hit.

Do hobby boxes have better odds?

See above answer.

What is the best nfl trading card box?

New collectors to the hobby ask me this often. This again is quite subjective, and depends on a lot of variables. such as your budget and risk tolerance. How do you define “best?” If by “best” you are looking for the most expensive set produced each year, the answer is easy: for Football, Baseball and Basketball, Panini’s Flawless product is the most expensive. Flawless comes in a metal briefcase and contain only 1 pack of cards! Last year, Flawless NBA cases were fetching $20,000! For baseball, Topps offers their Diamond Icons and Transcendant product lines which also fetch a heft sum of money!

If the measure of “best” is not measured by price of hobby boxes, than I’d say most collector’s love Prizm, Select, Obsidian, Mosaic products, just to name a few.

What is the best NFL football box to buy?

Again, see above answer.

What is better than a hobby box?

Hobby boxes are the top of the range of offerings from the card companies (except for a case of hobby boxes LOL). I guess if I had to give any answer, it would be First Off The Line hobby boxes. The order from least expensive to most expensive looks like this: pack (sometimes called a cello), hangers, blasters, megas, cereral sized boxes, retail pack boxes, hybrid or H2 boxes, and finally, hobby boxes. I rarely see cereal boxes and megas seemed be getting phased out.

What are First Off The Line hobby boxes?

FOTL card boxes are almost the same as regular hobby boxes, but will have a special insert typically. This insert is usually a more rare color for example, or maybe all FOTL boxes will have an card inserted that is numbered /11 or better as an example. They are almost always more expensive than regular hobby boxes. From my experience, they’re usually about 20% more than a hobby box.

How do I buy sports card wholesale?

This typically isn’t an option for most people as there are certain criteria you need to meet before you can buy from a card distributor or wholesaler. First, you need to have a state and federal business license. Secondly, you need to get a resale license from your state so that you can collect sales tax. And if you meet those criteria, up to this point, and I’m only speaking from experience, most wholesalers aren’t accepting new accounts, as they don’t have enough product to go to their current clients. This is where allocation plays a big part in the hobby. If a hobby shop or card breaker doesn’t have a history (read: years) built up with their wholesaler, it will be tough to get any product allocation.

What card magazines are available in our sports card hobby?

I remember back in the 80s, there seemed to be many, including Beckett, Tuff Stuff, and others. My goto has always been Sports Collectors Digest. I loved reading their issues cover to cover as an early teen, and still enjoy reading their issues today when I get the chance.

How do hobby box breaks work?

I could go into a long explanation, but it’s easier to send you to my About page.

What is the best football trading card company?

Again, kind of a subjective question. Right now, in 2023, Panini still owns the NFL licensing, so only they’re cards will have team names and logos. If that’s important to you, then anything produced by Panini would be the answer, but that also comes with a premium price. If you’re a little more budget conscience, than you have a couple more options - Leaf Trading Co. and Sage. In my opinion, Leaf products offer a very affordable product, typically offer the same superstar autographs as Panini and Topps, but typically in their college uniforms. Sage is similar, but they have less star autographs, and also only show college uniforms. Topps/Bowman have started to produce a Bowman University product, which is a very high quality card with many superstar autographs, but again, only at the college level.

Keep the questions coming, and if I gather enough of them, I’ll put together another FAQ!