Sunday, October 24, 2010

Group break idea (for real this time...maybe)

The other day I put up a long-winded post about doing a possible group break of a jumbo case of 2010 Topps Update baseball.  I eventually took it down when I looked over a large number of breaks on the interwebs and realized that for the price, you pretty much get a bunch of crap.  Don't get me wrong--I'll probably get ahold of the base set at least at some point, but roughly $80 for a box when the base set seems to be going for $20 pretty consistently and the hits don't seem to have any value (woo manufactured bat barrels) just doesn't do it for me.

With that out of the way, another idea I've been kicking around for a bit is this three-box combo over at DACardWorld:  boxes of 2007, 2008 and 2009 Sage Autographed Football.  For about $240, you get three boxes each with 12 hits (hopefully more autographs than jerseys).  A quick look at some of the stuff in each set:

2007 autos and jerseys checklist
2008 autos and jerseys checklist
2009 full checklist

To give you an idea of some of the names that are available:  Calvin Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Jamaal Charles, Joe Flacco, Chad Henne, DeSean Jackson, Darren McFadden, Jonathan Stewart, Michael Crabtree, Jeremy Maclin, Rey Maualuga, Knowshon Moreno, Matthew Stafford, etc., etc.

SO, my thought is we could get a group break out of this.  I know I wouldn't be happy if I didn't get 100% of the Michigan cards, so I'd want people to pick teams based on colleges, not the pros.  However, I'd do my best to make things fair by implementing some sort of tiered system so someone that took Ohio State or USC would have to pay more than the one that took Purdue (if at all).  Some teams, like OSU and Florida, fall into the quantity category while others, like Georgia would be deemed "quality" (not many players represented, but you've got Stafford and Moreno).  I'm confident I could make something work that was fair for everyone.

My initial thought is to try to get something like 5-15 total people in this break, and what's nice is with so many teams represented (something like 75 by my count, I believe) there's a lot of flexibility in what teams can be had (other than Michigan, natch); by that I mean that we could work out some combinations of teams that only have a few autographs each to make those teams more attractive.  Hell, we can even go with parts of or entire conferences if we wanted.  Anyway, the more people I could get to participate (keeping in mind having to ship cards to everyone), the cheaper this would be.  I'm hoping to keep the price under $20/person while making sure everyone gets at least something decent, if not a hit (don't forget--36 hits!).

Along those lines I'd implement a couple rules I picked up from Georgia Mindset's last break:
-When a card features more than one player, each person that has a team represented gets one entry per team on the card, which then goes into a randomizer, which determines the winner
-If there are hits for teams that haven't been selected and one or more participants don't get a hit pulled for them, I'd set up a draft that would assure everyone could pick from what was pulled
-Related to that, depending on how many people participate, I could try to make sure that everyone gets as close to an even number of hits or inserts as possible (again, possibly with the draft system)

With all that in mind, please let me know of your interest in the comments below and maybe we can get a fun group break going.  I can promise to ship cards in a timely fashion, I can guarantee I'm not shady thanks to eBay and SCF feedback scores (plus I've traded with many of you), and I can do my best to provide live streaming and YouTube video for everyone.  So what do y'all think?  Lots of hits?  Boxes?  FOOTBAW?

Update 10/25:
Interest so far:
-Paul:  Louisville
-Jeremy:  Oklahoma, Big12, Packers draftees
-Spankee:  Virginia Tech, maybe West Virginia
-Georgia Mindset:  Georgia

8 comments:

  1. first time poster- I collect Louisville gu and autos, so I'd love to join a group break like that. I've got about 100 feedback on Blowout Forums if you need rep!

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  2. Also- have you thought about doing conferences? Big 10, Big 12, ACC, SEC, Big East, Pac 10, etc?

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  3. Thanks for the interest, Paul. I am considering that but wasn't sure if that would end up being fair to everyone. More importantly, I've got dibs on Michigan but they're the only Big10 team I'd really want. That's why I'm leaning towards combining smaller schools together. However, I'm not entirely opposed to conferences if it makes sense to put enough small teams together.

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  4. I'd be interested in the OU cards and possibly the rest of the big 12 or maybe guys that were drafted by Green Bay as a second choice or something. I don't know. It's too late and my brain is not working. It looks like a cool bunch of boxes to open.

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  5. I'd take Virginia Tech even though they don't have much in there. I'd also be interested in WVU possibly.

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  6. University of Georgia, but you guessed that already!

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  7. I'm shocked. How about Georgia Tech? Any of the other southern schools or SEC?

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  8. I'd be interested in doing the whole Big East (minus WVU if Spankee wants them). There are some good players from the other schools: McCoy from Pitt, Rice from Rutgers, Donald Brown from UConn, etc.

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