The latest issue of SCM (#121)came out a few weeks ago and I got mine not too long after that. Dave over at the Japanese Baseball Cards blog did a nice summary of the issue. One thing that has always been interesting for me in the magazine is the box break competition that they do in almost every issue. The basic premise is 4 Mint Card Shop owners (or a substitute from the card industry if one of the owners can't do it) open boxes of new BBM product and then compare their hits and declare a winner. Here is the spread from the issue:
My question is would any of my fellow bloggers or readers be interested in forming a similar group?
Obviously some details we'd need to work out if there is any interest, but I think it would be a great way to open some unique Japanese products and showcase the sets for others on our blogs.
To get started on gauging interest, here are some high level details that I was thinking:
1. Open between 4-6 products throughout the year. We'd have to agree generally what the products would be. As a suggestion here are some options (Pure Heart Wrestling, Sumo Wrestling, a ton of baseball products, Shining Venus, Soccer, P.League Bowling, Rugby)
2. We don't even have to open 2017 stuff, or even BBM...there is some older stuff we can still snap up for cheap.
3. Get commitments from between 4-6 people. There would be some cost to this as we'd all have to buy our own boxes and have them shipped. There could be some costs savings buying in bulk (one person buys), but those are details to work later. It could be anywhere between $60-$100 per break depending on how you get your box.
4. Determine a point system per break so a winner is declared each break. I was thinking highest % of base set completion, points for autographs, and inserts would earn points. We would have to decide a point system each box break since each product will have different content. I don't mind donating a $20 gift card or something like that to the winner of each break.
5. Overall winner at the end of the year (most points, or highest average points per box) would be the annual winner. Maybe all the "losers" could pitch in $15-$20 each at the end to buy the winner a box of something.
6. Each person would post break results on their blogs at a set time.
7. Each person could maybe "miss" one box break and still be eligible for the overall winner.
Anyway, something fun I thought we could try. If there is any interest, or questions, send a reply in this blog entry. If we get enough interest, and eventual commitments after the details are hammered out better, we can press ahead and I don't mind organizing it all. Thanks!
Seems pretty cool. But three things keep me from joining this club:
ReplyDelete#1 I'm cutting my hobby budget significantly this year. At my age, I need to focus more on my retirement than my card collection.
#2 The bulk of my hobby budget will be spent on specific autographs/vintage cards on my want list.
#3 If I end up buying boxes, it'll be cheap stuff from Black Friday and other holiday sales that will quench my box busting thirst.
With that being said... I really hope you can find others who will join you. It would be very entertaining blog content.
Hi Fuji, thanks for the reply and totally understand. This is definitely a "niche" idea so it might be hard to line up with other collector's goals.
DeleteTwo years ago... I would have been in. I've just gotten to the point where I'm totally running out of space. I've got cards everywhere. My garage. My office. My classroom. My parent's house. My buddy's garage. It's insane.
DeleteHoly cow! That is one insane collection!
DeleteIts a cool idea. Unfortuantely I don't think I can join, mainly because none of my current collecting goals involve boxes (Calbee cards are all I collect these days and they just come in chip bags). Would be interested in reading about it though!
ReplyDeleteNo problem, Sean. Thanks for considering it....as I was telling Fuji, it is somewhat of a niche idea so its difficult to line up collecting goals. I might be a one-man busting crew. Speaking of Calbee, I tried ordering a bunch of chips with the cards and they wouldn't ship them overseas. Ha, will have to revector my approach.
DeleteI was able to buy a box of chips for Calbee Series Two back in 2011 from a seller on Rakuten Global market. 24 bags of chips with two cards each ran $22 plus $40(!) for shipping which is why I never did it again.
DeleteYeah, the shipping will kill you if you have to buy them with the bags of chips still attached!
DeleteI like the idea and I'd enjoy reading about it but I don't think I'd participate. I pretty much collect complete base sets and attempting to put them together through unopened boxes in the past was both frustrating and very expensive.
ReplyDeleteNo worries, I appreciate the consideration!
DeleteSorry it took me a while to reply to this post. I bust some of these products on my own anyway, but I am reluctant to commit to a box-breaking group because I fear commitment, and because I am never sure exactly how my card collecting finances are going to look across the course of a year. And like others have mentioned, we all have our own hobby focuses. I would be resentful of the money I'd be spending on products that don't appeal to me.
ReplyDeleteUnless we buy in bulk, i.e. have a large enough group to justify buying many boxes at a time, shipping costs will eat us. That was probably the biggest shock to my system when I started buying stuff from Japan. I had to budget almost as much for shipping as I did for product.
I'll still be breaking many of these products on my own, but I think a multi-product box-breaking group faces too many obstacles. It might work better if you narrowed down the focus to one particular product each year that everyone enjoyed. Kind of like Gint-a-Cuffs or something. Probably a baseball product or Shining Venus would have the broadest appeal in this community. It may not be as exciting, but it's easier to commit to an annual event than a quarterly event, at least for me.
Raz, some great points as always. Based on everyone's comments, there probably are too many hurdles to overcome to make it a worthwhile venture. Too niche to make it work, but there are some great products out there from Japan so maybe some annual thing is the best approach. Thanks again for reading and considering it!
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