The world of sports collectibles and non-sports collectibles has undergone major changes in 2020 and 2021. The deep recession and the COVID-19 pandemic should have dealt a major blow to the prices of collectibles. Instead, the opposite was seen. Prices soared, but then they corrected big time. What will be the fate of the so-called “breakers” after 2021?

Collectors Dashboard evaluates collectibles as an alternative asset class that competes directly for the same investment dollars that would have gone into stocks, bonds, property and other traditional assets.. It is now undeniable that die-hard collectors have been competing with investors for the exact same assets.

Just like in stocks and bonds, collectors and investors should both know that there are no assurances that buying any collectible will generate a profit. In many cases, these investments may ultimately become worthless and could be destined to end up in landfills.

“Breaking” became incredibly popular while people were stuck at home — case breaks, box breaks and pack breaks. It didn’t even matter if it was baseball, basketball, football or even soccer or hockey. Ditto for Pokemon cards, Magic: The Gathering and other non-sports cards. In fact, many businesses have a dedicated focus or part of their teams solely to buying and selling cases and boxes cards with the intent of selling them in-whole or via partial ownership in shares.

The lesson of past bubbles has come to haunt many new card collectors in 2021 as many of the hot card prices have seen their values and realized auction prices tumble. Some of the great players’ rookie cards were selling for one-third or even half of their value in June 2021 versus the highs of February 2021 to March 2021.

The mega-auction site eBay has dedicated resources to box breaks and case breaks. These are attracting collectors who want to get access to the hottest cards on the cheap, even if it is a gamble. Investors in cases and boxes have actually been using the exact same strategy as old-fashioned wildcatters in the oil industry just looking to strike oil anywhere. And there are endless avenues to buy into these breaks online.

eBay even has boxes from the notorious junk wax era of cards from the late 1980s and early 1990s. These cards were so mass-produced and there were so many different brands of cards being printed that the entire sets and even the best rookie cards only have value if they are nearly in mint condition. Those cards generally need grades of 10 from PSA and SGC or 9.5 from BGS to command prices higher than the double-digits. Lower grades and ungraded cards from the junk wax era may not even be worth $1.00 to a buyer, and they certainly have no business being graded.

eBay most recently had a box of 2021 Topps Inception Hobby Baseball Factory for $24.99, and another best-seller was listed as the 1989 Topps Baseball Cards Box with 36 packs for $29.90. And to prove the worthlessness of the junk wax era, eBay had multiple listings of a 36-pack 1988 Donruss Baseball Trading Cards Hobby Wax Box (with many rookie greats) for under $20.00 plus shipping — basically less than they cost to buy at the time.

The website Mojobreak has been streaming live breaks for sports cards since 2010. They also have live auction services and services dedicated to upcoming breaks in a daily calendar that can be viewed and purchased into.

Chamax Cards also features live breaks on YouTube and Breakers.TV.

Dave & Adam’s Card World features live breaks on top of their many auctions and sales.

Ripping Wax has been doing online case breaks back to 2011, and it also home to aditional “Breaking Operation” websites.

The site CardboardConnection also features many top case break locations as well.

One issue which plays a role in the Summer of 2021 is that sports card conventions and other conventions are picking back up with live attendance. Another issue to consider is that turning your ungraded cards into liquid cash is harder to do now that getting cards graded is going to take much longer to accomplish, and the cost of grading has now risen to a level that the grading houses are effectively participating in the upside of card prices.

The rise of direct-to-consumer from Topps and others has come at a time when non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been trying to gain traction. So far, many collectors have yet to be impressed with NFTs and many collectors simply sigh or laugh at the sound of NFTs. It is true that a rise in the interest in one area can take away from the interest in another.

Every major auction house also offers certified packs, as well as boxes and cases of cards that can be bought by anyone. Just don’t forget when you are bidding there that you are also probably bidding against companies looking to secure additional boxes of inventory to stream live breaks online. That also means that if you won the auction that you were the person willing to pay the highest amount of money for that asset at that time and venue.

The metrics facing card collectors in mid-2021 may continue to weigh on the pack break and box break businesses. That said, some of these businesses are deeply entrenched and if they have been around for years before 2020 then they will probably be around for the years ahead.

Collectors Dashboard has not reached out to any of the major breakers for this article, but it will be releasing selective data ahead that comes directly from those breaker services.