The Differences Between Hobby and Retail Products With Vinatage Breaks

15 March

The Differences Between Hobby and Retail Products With Vinatage Breaks

There’s an old saying that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. There is a third one, however – Vintage Breaks hits. Whether you’re in search of a 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan or a 2022 Topps Wander Franco auto, the big ones are out there. Someone will eventually pull them. The uncertainty lies in where to find them. To that end, let’s take a look at the landscape of products types available on the VB site. Learn the differences between each product like a Hobby Box and a Blaster Box or a Cello Pack and a Pack. Ready to see where you going to find that next big card to add to your personal collection?

HOBBY BOXES

Hobby boxes are sold directly to card shops or distributors, so they can’t be found at your local Target or Wal-Mart. The great thing about hobby boxes is that you know you can hit an autograph or relic card every time you buy even a single spot. That’s because these come with guaranteed premiums and autographs – often more than one to a box. Depending on the value of potential hits in a particular product, you’ll generally find Vintage Breaks selling hobby boxes by the pack or sometimes even by the card.

Hunting for a Joe Burrow auto or a rookie Ja Morant insert or parallel? We have the hobby box breaks for you! You can hop into those breaks here:

BLASTER BOXES

Blaster boxes, which are produced for general retail as opposed to sports card shop sale, contain a set number of individually wrapped packs. They have fewer cards than hobby boxes and as a result are less expensive. Blasters often include a bonus pack or two and may have special inserts and parallels unique to that product. If your local stores that are supposed to be carrying these are anything like mine, however, the sports cards shelves are always bare. Fear not – Vintage Breaks always has blasters in stock. Want a shot at that PSA 10 Patrick Mahomes rookie without breaking the bank? There’s a blaster for that.

HANGER BOXES

Like blasters, hanger boxes are produced for the shelves of your local big box store where they "hang" from a rack. Usually containing one to three packs, these too may include store-specific inserts. Alas, as with the blasters, hanger boxes are all too often nowhere to be found on those metal hooks at Target or Wal-Mart. The best thing about hangers? Buying a personal and watching the pulls live on Vintage Breaks. That LaMelo Ball Prizm you’ve been looking for may be in the next one we open.

FAT PACKS

Fat packs are another great option if you’re looking to see a personal pack ripped on Vintage Breaks. While Topps baseball fat packs of approximately 20-40 cards (making them "fatter " than a regular pack) are the best known in this product category, they can also be found in just about any other sport and with as few as twelve cards to a pack. These too can come with guaranteed special inserts, such as a Bryce Harper highlights card and an All-Star insert in the 2019 Topps Update Series fat packs. Not a bad deal when you can also go Vlad Jr. rookie hunting in the same product.

CELLO PACKS

Cellophane was invented by a Swiss engineer back in 1908, though it would take a few years for its influence to be felt in the hobby. Cello packs have been around since the 1950’s - you may have seen the video of Vintage Breaks’ Leighton Sheldon pulling a gorgeous Mickey Mantle from a 1955 Bowman cello at the 2018 National Sports Collectors Convention.

During the “junk wax” era, cello packs contained more cards than the venerable wax packs that were the hobby standard. For many years you could see right through the wrappers like our . These days, however, cellos generally contain 15 cards and are no longer transparent. This is probably for the best – just imagine the number of people who would be digging through cases of 2020 Donruss Optic Football cellos searching for a rookie Justin Herbert auto showing on the front or back…

WAX PACKS

Though the major card manufacturers are no longer producing them, wax packs were for many years the most common way to buy sports cards. Wrappers were actually a wax paper. Usually holding somewhere between 10-15 cards, many wax packs also contained a bonus insert that you won’t find in any of today’s new products: a stick of gum. Just about every card imaginable came in wax packs, as evidenced by the wide variety available on the Vintage Breaks site. Whether you’re shopping for a rookie Wayne Gretzky or rare Garbage Pail Kids you can’t go wrong with wax. Just don’t necessarily eat the gum if it’s in one of those older packs.

As the hobby continues to evolve, we’ll no doubt continue to see exciting innovations in the way cards are sold. No matter the manufacturer or sport, one thing is certain. Vintage Breaks will have the hits for you, regardless of the package.

WHY CHOOSE VINTAGE BREAKS?

Vintage Breaks offers THE BEST VALUE IN BREAKING.

When you check out for a spot on the site, the price you see is the price you pay. Taxes and shipping are included! Your cards always come protected in holders. The last time you mailed a package out had to have set you back more than three bucks, right? If you buy a $3.00 spot, you get your card holdered and shipped for that price.

Lack of product in stores has been a problem; we see the same empty shelves that you do. If you can't find cards, Vintage Breaks is your solution.

FUN! Cards are our passion! Isn't is just more fun to chat with other collectors? Come hang with us and other collectors just like you during our breaks!

A Vintage Breaks, we have our main breaking show in New Jersey (The North), to go with our night owls in the South (Georgia), and the West (Arizona). You can always check our CALENDAR to see when we're breaking.

VINTAGE BREAKS IS BUYING!

If you have sealed wax, vintage or modern, that you are considering selling, contact us today to discuss or get our industry-leading purchase offer. We're always interested in both sealed product of both sport and non-sport. Whether you have that packs of 1977 Star Wars, that rare 1955 Bowman cello pack, a wax box of 1984 Topps football, Pokémon, or 2019 Panini National Treasures basketball you'd like to sell, we'd love to hear from you!

If you have any questions about a product, break, shipping, or even if you're interested in SELLING a collection, reach out any time!