TCG Box Breakers (New Idea)
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Posted on July 1, 2016, 9:08 a.m. by Notepad
I'd like to introduce everyone to our site, TCG Box Breakers. We are very excited about this idea and hope you'll have a look at it. I find that the best way to explain our site is to give some background.
We adapted the sports card practice of box breaking to Magic. In a typical sports box break, if you aren't familiar, you buy a spot in the break, get randomized a team, and get all the cards from that team that are pulled when the box is opened. So in an NFL box break, you'll randomize in to a team, say the Dallas Cowboys, then when the box is opened, you'll get every Dallas card in the box. In Magic, however, all colors are not created equal when it comes to value. It would be immensely unfair and unrealistic to randomize which color you get out of a Shadows Over Innistrad box, for example. There is no reason that the person that gets the Red cards should pay the same as the person getting the White or Multicolored. With that in mind, we decided we didn't want to artificially determine the value of any given color ourselves. Everyone's perception of value is different, plus foil cards throw things askew. We want everyone to pay what they feel comfortable with for a color, not tell them what it should be. So we finally settled on an auction system, much like eBay, for our colors. We auction the ownership rights of each color set individually then open the boxes live. White, Blue, Black, Red, Green, Multicolored, and Colorless. Each person can decide what color(s) they are interested in and further decide what that color is worth to them. White, for example, has a solid chance of not only Avacyn but also Declaration in Stone, Thalia's Lieutenant, etc and that all should be taken into account when decided what the color is worth. Once you add foils the possible value range becomes quite high for a color, granting the possibility for a great return. After the auctions are over we open up the packs and mail out the cards and start the process over. It'll all become even more interesting when Eldritch Moon releases, as well, since it'll be an excellent way of collecting a particular color or trying for the best cards at a significantly lower cost.
We just officially launched our site this week, and our first auctions recently ended. Our first box opening will be this Saturday 7/2 at 3:00pm Central on Twitch. We already have auctions up for the following box opening, next Saturday. With growth, we'd love to do multiple boxes a week, or as many as demand can support. While certainly not everyone would enjoy this system, it does have a strong possibility of giving someone value well over their investment. We believe that it'll add to the experience of watching a box opening for an individual with a vested interest in the cards being pulled as well as anyone who wants to watch to see how everyone does.
With all that said, I'd like to invite everyone to check it out. http://www.tcgboxbreakers.com. We are still in the process of developing our site and making it look nice, so try to look at content and not design. We are also at http://www.facebook.com/tcgboxbreakers/ http://www.twitter.com/tcgboxbreakers/ and http://www.twitch.tv/tcgboxbreakers/.
Thanks for reading, I hope you'll come take look.
As for the idea, it just seems like a waste for certain sets and certain colors. I dont have specifics but for example Shadows over inistrad only really has value in green, white, and maybe black? So why would anyone bid on red and blue? Sure there are people that dont care about value they just want the cards but they they can just go order them for, potentially, significantly less. Lets say the only card above 10-15 dollars is a blue planeswalker why would people bid any higher than 10 or 15 when they know the rest of it will be bulk rares and they could probably go buy them cheaper on TCGplayer? I am not really trying to dump on the idea I just dont think it works as well and stretches to a big enough audience to get to be able to do it more than maybe once or twice a month. Also how does this benefit you? You dont have to tell me your whole business plan or anything but are you hoping to be self sustained? Do you think that the bids will continually be able to pay for another box? Because I dont considering the before mentioned with color balance as far as value is concerned but I could be wrong. Just curious is all.
July 1, 2016 10:26 a.m.
ducttapedeckbox says... #7
Do customers place bets as the box is being opened on Twitch, and whoever bets the most for each color gets them? Or are the bets finalized before the box is opened? (I'm hoping the first).
As for the model itself, as mentioned above, do you plan for this to be self sustained? Are there minimum bets per color? Shipping must be a fortune, and if the bets parallel TCG low, I would imagine you'd lose money per box.
July 1, 2016 10:33 a.m.
Ok I'll try to answer the best I can in order:
Comment 1 - I was the one that posted before, and I didn't see in the ToS where I couldn't do the advert, so I tried. I apologize for that, and when I figured it was not allowed, you'll note I removed it until we got permission to do so.
Comment 2 - This comment was helpful from start to finish.
Comment 3 - It is very much eBay style, where we just need basic name, address, etc for bidding, then all payment is handled through Paypal automatically.
Comment 4 - ?
Comment 5 - You actually make a great case for how it works. Two of the three colors you list are actually lower valued ones in SOI, where Multicolored and Colorless exceed Green and Black's value. I wouldn't ask nor expect anyone to pay greater than the minimum (currently $9.99 + $3.99 ship) for Blue or Red in SOI, and that's part of it. Let us say that the three colors you listed are the only ones you'd care about. If you bid on one or more of those, we'll find someone else who wants the Multicolored, the Red, etc and fill those slots that way. Try not to view the system from a standpoint of "who would want THOSE", cause it does take all kinds, and all we ask if that someone bid on the ones they DO want, and let someone else take the ones they want. Good comment, though.
Comment 6 - While the bets coinciding with the Twitch stream would be exciting, no doubt there, we'd need a large and established community before we could try that. It'd certainly be something to think about with a larger group, though! Because the box is being separated into 7 groups, the shipping isn't too bad for the individual groups, and we think 4 bucks is reasonable to ship off several dozen cards. As for self sustained, I riddle you this. If the system is NOT self-sustaining, that means that total bids are LESS than the cost of the box itself. Would that not mean that you should swoop in and bid minimum on every color and get a box for less than it costs everywhere else? Just a thought. Now, you're right that if bids fully paralleled TCG low, it'd be slimmer. But there are a couple factors that throw things off. First, SOI is an "old" established set now. That means prices have pretty well solidified outside of new deck emergence. A new set, like when Eldritch Moon launches, will have a much greater value at first and you probably won't have all the cards you want already. Second, this idea will probably NOT appeal to you if you don't have a little gambling streak in you. If you don't like gambling even a little, I can see how someone would be confused to the appeal. However, there are people who are more than happy to wage an extra buck or so for the shot of that foil Avacyn, if you get my drift. Another good comment.
Lastly - we realize that it seems odd at first, but we just ask people to give it a look and maybe a try. You don't have to understand why we're doing it or how it would work out for us, because it doesn't matter, really. All that matters is if I approached you and said "you can have every white card in this SOI box for $15", would you say yes?
July 1, 2016 11:51 a.m.
iceburnhex says... #10
Well, I definitely like the idea of, make a 15 dollar bid and have a chance to hit up some foils/rares I didn't have. And with the recent spikes in Black recently, that may not be a bad idea. Eldritch Moon is definitely going to cause of disturbances based off the spoilers I've seen so far. I'll definitely check it out the site at least. Does seem like a kinda fun idea, outside of trying to grab things on ebay or tcg.
July 1, 2016 12:40 p.m.
Do you bid on the color then see what gets pulled or do you get to see what's pulled then you bid on the cards? It seems like a cool concept but I don't think people will buy into it if you bid then see the cards. It'd be really easy for people to get burned. by say paying $30 for a color and only you only get $6 worth of cards for that color. and as other people said some colors just won't be worth buying into. Your going to have to charge at least $25 a color and for $25 people would rather go buy the singles they would get from the box
July 1, 2016 3:37 p.m.
I totally understand what you mean, shadow. There is indeed the risk that you could get less than what you bid. There is also an equal (or greater) chance that you far exceed what you paid. Our first batch of auctions finished up the other day. Most colors went for $11 - $12 with the exception being Multicolored which went for more. White finished at a paltry $11.50. Avacyn would double that value by herself.
Also, remember we aren't "charging" anything. The price paid is totally up to each individual as to how much they are willing to bid. And boy do we not expect the person getting Red to bid as much as White. We expect that there will not be enough demand for Red to push it much above the minimum bid, and that is totally ok. We just want everyone to evaluate the color(s) they are interested in and decide what they think it is worth. If you think Green is wroth $15, bid it. Hopefully there isn't someone who thinks it is worth $16.
July 1, 2016 3:52 p.m.
rebelbuttkicker says... #17
Can't wait to see what I get from 4 colours at minimum or just above. You win some you lose some
All is fair in love and war, but not MTG
July 1, 2016 5:44 p.m.
First box went of great! Check it out on the site new box is open for bids now!
Epochalyptik says... #4
As for the idea, it seems interesting.
How does the auction system work? Do we just submit contact info and you contact individual winners afterward for payment details? Is it an actual eBay-style auction where you sign up and your payment is automatically processed if you win?
July 1, 2016 10:04 a.m.