How long does it take to get approved by Panini as a case breaker?
 

(not sure if right forum, but I figured all the big BB breakers were here)


Is anyone here an approved Panini Case Breaker? If so, how long did it take to complete the paperwork? I sent my stuff in via email a couple of weeks ago but havent heard anything yet.

Talk to Alex. He is a Panini case breaker. He will be in here shortly helping you out. Great guy with tons of knowledge.

do they really have to approve anybody??

Basically they do an IQ test. If you test under 50 your in. Anyone above 50 wouldnt dare break their cases. Alex is a good guy though, want to make that clear.

[QUOTE=cruiserdaddy7;3696713]Basically they do an IQ test. If you test under 50 your in. Anyone above 50 wouldnt dare break their cases. Alex is a good guy though, want to make that clear.[/QUOTE]

I agree with you 100%. You have to be a moron to put out any money to break their cases. You get like 5-10% back on anything you open. Only an idiot would buy a case of their products.

You get the same design year after year with the same stock photos. Yahoo!

Approved case breaker?

Anyone can buy and open a case, what is this for?

But, but, but, but they make it all better with Black Friday Packs don't they?

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3696754]I agree with you 100%. You have to be a moron to put out any money to break their cases. You get like 5-10% back on anything you open. Only an idiot would buy a case of their products.

You get the same design year after year with the same stock photos. Yahoo![/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=37Jetson;3696789]But, but, but, but they make it all better with Black Friday Packs don't they?[/QUOTE]

LOL. Yea. I want one of those postcard 1/1's that look like garbage. Makes me want to vomit seeing that crap.

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3696754]I agree with you 100%. You have to be a moron to put out any money to break their cases. You get like 5-10% back on anything you open. Only an idiot would buy a case of their products.

You get the same design year after year with the same stock photos. Yahoo![/QUOTE]

Yeah... ok! You would have to be a moron to buy multiple cases, then pre sell base/insert sets and turn a profit of around 10-20%+ every time a new release come out??

[QUOTE=drob50;3696893]Yeah... ok! You would have to be a moron to buy multiple cases, then pre sell base/insert sets and turn a profit of around 10-20%+ every time a new release come out??[/QUOTE]

OK,Show me some proof...because I haven't seen anything close to that from any product they release.

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3696901]OK,Show me some proof...because I haven't seen anything close to that from any product they release.[/QUOTE]

Think about it?

Why does the OP need to be approved to be a case breaker?

Because he is buying for himself at wholesale level! Then, he gets them on the release day and lists the first cards from the release on eBay which will always go for above average because everyone wants the first ones!

While you are pretty close to correct if you or I just bought a case from a retailer and busted it, I don't think that is the case for OP!

[QUOTE=drob50;3696917]Think about it? Why does the OP need to be approved to be a case breaker? Because he is buying for himself at wholesale level! Then, he gets them on the release day and lists the first cards from the release on eBay which will always go for above average because everyone wants the first ones! While you are pretty close to correct if you or I just bought a case from a retailer and busted it, I don't think that is the case for OP![/QUOTE]


I get what you are saying but the most a base set goes for is $50-$60 and that takes 2-3 boxes to complete. I still dont see a profit for buying, busting and selling a Panini product. They do a great job of putting no real Chase Cards into their boxes lately. It's all just a bunch of junk.

Does being a approved Panini case breaker get you access to the drool gallery?

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3696925]I get what you are saying but the most a base set goes for is $50-$60 and that takes 2-3 boxes to complete. I still dont see a profit for buying, busting and selling a Panini product. They do a great job of putting no real Chase Cards into their boxes lately. It's all just a bunch of junk.[/QUOTE]

I busted a Case of Prestige just after it first came out. When I checked the 'current' values on eBay, I would have made back around $800, but, by the time the hype slowed, the overall value went down to around $400.

Yeah, i got abused! But could have turned a profit if I had it early enough like some people that get theirs from Panini direct!

[QUOTE=drob50;3696936]I busted a Case of Prestige just after it first came out. When I checked the 'current' values on eBay, I would have made back around $800, but, by the time the hype slowed, the overall value went down to around $400.

Yeah, i got abused! But could have turned a profit if I had it early enough like some people that get theirs from Panini direct![/QUOTE]

wow! That much lost? maybe you could file a lost in your income tax! Right!
But I think it always a gamble if you would just flip it. But if your in for the cards it self i think it a Good collection!
Just like the stock market! you always get to choose which stocks you want your money in!

[QUOTE=drob50;3696893]Yeah... ok! You would have to be a moron to buy multiple cases, then pre sell base/insert sets and turn a profit of around 10-20%+ every time a new release come out??[/QUOTE]

I buy my products from a true wholesaler at around 5% above cost. I spent THOUSANDS on Panini basketball and hockey products when they first began. I got the products on release and got absolutely DESTROYED. Not once but literally EVERY time. Contenders hockey I recall putting out $3900 for 3 cases.
Release was a Thursday and my auctions ended that Sunday. My entire return... $515 BEFORE fees. Contenders basketball a similar beating. Their Hockey products were a disgrace to Hockey and they still continue to hold ZERO value. Basketball in 12/13 still stinks. Leave it to Panini to fail even with a double rookie class. Have you seen how many D-league autos are in Totally Certified? A monopoly is not a good thing and Panini has been proof.

[QUOTE=cruiserdaddy7;3697415]I buy my products from a true wholesaler at around 5% above cost. I spent THOUSANDS on Panini basketball and hockey products when they first began. I got the products on release and got absolutely DESTROYED. Not once but literally EVERY time. Contenders hockey I recall putting out $3900 for 3 cases.
Release was a Thursday and my auctions ended that Sunday. My entire return... $515 BEFORE fees. Contenders basketball a similar beating. Their Hockey products were a disgrace to Hockey and they still continue to hold ZERO value. Basketball in 12/13 still stinks. Leave it to Panini to fail even with a double rookie class. [B]Have you seen how many D-league autos are in Totally Certified[/B]? A monopoly is not a good thing and Panini has been proof.[/QUOTE]

This is the reason I'm staying away from Totally Certified this year. Not only a ton of crap autos but the autos look like crap, too, IMO. They seem to be making their basketball stuff too basic right now with little variety. It started with Past and Present with only a couple auto sets and only one jersey set in the product.

panini products are definately not a rip & flip situation......... they are more a collect and hope for the future type of product.

[QUOTE=anusinha;3696004]Is anyone here an approved Panini Case Breaker? If so, how long did it take to complete the paperwork? I sent my stuff in via email a couple of weeks ago but havent heard anything yet.[/QUOTE]

I am a "panini case breaker", there are others, even on this forum. I'd be happy to share my experience with you. In my experience, it took 3 steps to getting case breaker status with Panini:

1) I first established an online presence (eBay, COMC, etc.) as being primarily a seller of individual sports cards. I was not, nor am I now, a collector. I am in this as a business. This is an important distinction, for Painini and distributors.

2) I established my business either as an LLC or a sole proprietorship, and got a state tax ID for your business. I registered as a sole proprietorship as an internet retailer in the state of Illinois with a state of Illinois tax ID. This is not just my social security number, this is a tax ID number for my business, "cardboardaddict".

3) Once I had steps #1 and #2 done, then I could purchase cases from a distributor. At this point I was busting and selling mostly Topps products. But the distributor knew me well and knew I meant business. I was buying 4-20 cases of different baseball/football products. With the 12-13 Panini NBA season looming, I knew I wanted to buy Panini products from my distributor, but I could not do so unless I had case breaker status. I asked my distributor about it, and with their help, I applied for case breaker status from Panini and got it within 2-3 days. The key is having the distributor submit the case breaker application to Panini, they have the inside track, and Panini will listen to distributors much more than individuals.

That is the way I did it. I know of one other case breaker on this forum who did it a very similar way. I'm not sure if you can skip steps #1 and #2 and get case breaker status.

I bust 4-10 cases of most Panini NBA products, and I've made money (net profit) on every break except one. My first break as a Panini case breaker was 2011-12 Panini Past & Present, and that was a very successful break. I track every single sale in a spreadsheet for each product, I can track my average sale price of auto's, memorabilia, inserts, base, parallels, I use this information to decide if I'm going to break future Panini NBA products. And most often the answer is yes, I will. The only Panini product I didn't make money on was 11-12 Limited, but I only lost a couple hundred.

Now that Panini is releasing products week to week, I can't break every product. (I had to pass on Totally Certified) I do cardboardaddict as a side business to my full time job, and it's very easy to get swept up and miss my real job. But there is no way I can make a living being a case breaker, so I have to focus on my real job. This means I have limits to how much I break, and how often.

My next break is 9 cases of Prizm, and based on my analysis and sales data from past breaks I already know I'm going to make 1-2K net profit on this break unless something is disastrously wrong with the product.

To anyone reading this thinking, oh great, I'm going to do this and make money! Heh, just remember, I lost thousands learning all the above information before I started making a profit. It is tons of work opening, sorting, scanning, listing, packaging, dealing with customer service requests. It is a business, and if you go in thinking it's a hobby, you will get destroyed and lose tons of money.

And by the way, I hardly open Topps anymore, I just can't make a profit on their products. Too much competition in the baseball world, and Topps distributor prices are very close to retail prices.

hey alex, as being a panini case breaker, do you get product cheaper then what us normal collectors pay? im excited to see how you do on prizm, and thanks for letting people on here know you can make money from panini products and panini isnt as bad value wise as alot of people on here say.

[QUOTE=pingbling23;3697477]hey alex, as being a panini case breaker, do you get product cheaper then what us normal collectors pay? im excited to see how you do on prizm, and thanks for letting people on here know you can make money from panini products and panini isnt as bad value wise as alot of people on here say.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I pay distributor prices. That is less than MAPP prices. But remember I've established myself as a business, not a collector. I sell everything from a case break and there is a ton of work that goes into what I do. As a Panini case breaker, it is also forbidden for me to sell cases/boxes. Panini watches my eBay account, if I'm caught selling cases/boxes, they will cut me off and possibly cut off my distributor.

I'm NOT saying that a normal collector can buy a case at MAPP price and make a profit. In fact, that is almost never going to happen because collectors keep some of the better cards. You have to sell everything and you have to sell everything fast to make a profit.

In many ways cruiserdaddy7 is absolutely correct. For normal collectors, paying MAPP prices, opening Panini products is tough. MAPP prices are pretty high. The only low end priced product was Hoops, everything else is near $100 box minimum with MAPP pricing. Prestige was $100 box with MAPP pricing. That's nuts. If I were a collector, I'd definitely wait to buy Panini NBA until after MAPP, which is what, 90 days after release? I think? Then prices go down because Panini's rules are no longer in effect, and wholesellers like Blowout can charge "real" prices, and every single time that will mean prices less than MAPP. (one exception might be NT which almost always goes up)

EDIT: 12-13 Prestige was $1200/case in MAPP pricing. It's now at $864/case, right here on Blowout. That's typical for a product that is no longer in MAPP pricing, it'll come down to true market level prices, based on true supply and demand.

[QUOTE=alexlazarevich;3697469]I am a "panini case breaker", there are others, even on this forum. I'd be happy to share my experience with you. In my experience, it took 3 steps to getting case breaker status with Panini:

1) I first established an online presence (eBay, COMC, etc.) as being primarily a seller of individual sports cards. I was not, nor am I now, a collector. I am in this as a business. This is an important distinction, for Painini and distributors.

2) I established my business either as an LLC or a sole proprietorship, and got a state tax ID for your business. I registered as a sole proprietorship as an internet retailer in the state of Illinois with a state of Illinois tax ID. This is not just my social security number, this is a tax ID number for my business, "cardboardaddict".

3) Once I had steps #1 and #2 done, then I could purchase cases from a distributor. At this point I was busting and selling mostly Topps products. But the distributor knew me well and knew I meant business. I was buying 4-20 cases of different baseball/football products. With the 12-13 Panini NBA season looming, I knew I wanted to buy Panini products from my distributor, but I could not do so unless I had case breaker status. I asked my distributor about it, and with their help, I applied for case breaker status from Panini and got it within 2-3 days. The key is having the distributor submit the case breaker application to Panini, they have the inside track, and Panini will listen to distributors much more than individuals.

That is the way I did it. I know of one other case breaker on this forum who did it a very similar way. I'm not sure if you can skip steps #1 and #2 and get case breaker status.

I bust 4-10 cases of most Panini NBA products, and I've made money (net profit) on every break except one. My first break as a Panini case breaker was 2011-12 Panini Past & Present, and that was a very successful break. I track every single sale in a spreadsheet for each product, I can track my average sale price of auto's, memorabilia, inserts, base, parallels, I use this information to decide if I'm going to break future Panini NBA products. And most often the answer is yes, I will. The only Panini product I didn't make money on was 11-12 Limited, but I only lost a couple hundred.

Now that Panini is releasing products week to week, I can't break every product. (I had to pass on Totally Certified) I do cardboardaddict as a side business to my full time job, and it's very easy to get swept up and miss my real job. But there is no way I can make a living being a case breaker, so I have to focus on my real job. This means I have limits to how much I break, and how often.

My next break is 9 cases of Prizm, and based on my analysis and sales data from past breaks I already know I'm going to make 1-2K net profit on this break unless something is disastrously wrong with the product.

To anyone reading this thinking, oh great, I'm going to do this and make money! Heh, just remember, I lost thousands learning all the above information before I started making a profit. It is tons of work opening, sorting, scanning, listing, packaging, dealing with customer service requests. It is a business, and if you go in thinking it's a hobby, you will get destroyed and lose tons of money.

And by the way, I hardly open Topps anymore, I just can't make a profit on their products. Too much competition in the baseball world, and Topps distributor prices are very close to retail prices.[/QUOTE]


That must be the key, Ill have my distributor rep send in my info, thanks.

alex, if you factor in your time spent as a worker with salary/wage, do you feel you would still make a profit?

I've looked it over several times it just looks like to me it ends up being a ton of work with very little payoff? I mean if you don't collect and it's very little profit it doesn't really make sense in the long run right?

I currently do quite a bit of retail breaking and a hobby box/case here & there just for fun, but Im not sure I see a benefit of applying and doing the case situation? would you agree or disagree? do you feel like stepping up to case status would actually net a decent profit and cut down on loss?

keep in mind you can sell sets, insert sets, base, etc with smaller breaks also......mostly through trading. does that seem more logical?

[QUOTE=cruiserdaddy7]Basically they do an IQ test. If you test under 50 your in. Anyone above 50 wouldnt dare break their cases. Alex is a good guy though, want to make that clear.[/quote]

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3696754]I agree with you 100%. You have to be a moron to put out any money to break their cases. You get like 5-10% back on anything you open. Only an idiot would buy a case of their products.[/QUOTE]

You guys should try to be a little more insulting to other members next time. :rolleyes:

[QUOTE=Qwasian;3698094]alex, if you factor in your time spent as a worker with salary/wage, do you feel you would still make a profit?

I've looked it over several times it just looks like to me it ends up being a ton of work with very little payoff? I mean if you don't collect and it's very little profit it doesn't really make sense in the long run right?

I currently do quite a bit of retail breaking and a hobby box/case here & there just for fun, but Im not sure I see a benefit of applying and doing the case situation? would you agree or disagree? do you feel like stepping up to case status would actually net a decent profit and cut down on loss?

keep in mind you can sell sets, insert sets, base, etc with smaller breaks also......mostly through trading. does that seem more logical?[/QUOTE]

Great point. I don't factor my time into the cost at all. I haven't counted the number of hours needed to complete a break, but it's probably in the 30-50 range? In total? I do know that the most time is spent dealing with shipments. Sorting is probably next most time consuming, at least on those products that have lots of base cards.

[QUOTE=jj2;3699667]You guys should try to be a little more insulting to other members next time. :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]

You cant teach class!....:(

[QUOTE=jj2;3699667]You guys should try to be a little more insulting to other members next time. :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]

I did not insult any person. If you break cases of Panini and you made a profit then some sort of miracle had to occur because a profit and Panini go together as well as gas and water.

[QUOTE=alexlazarevich;3699768]Great point. I don't factor my time into the cost at all. I haven't counted the number of hours needed to complete a break, but it's probably in the 30-50 range? In total? I do know that the most time is spent dealing with shipments. Sorting is probably next most time consuming, at least on those products that have lots of base cards.[/QUOTE]

yeah I was thinking, 30-50 hours at even $10 an hour is $300-$500...... I currently make around $50-$100 an hour doing graphic design on average, I love cards, just not sure it would be worth it to go larger, I like to rip stuff, but I'm thinking if I got into the bigger stuff it would get time consuming and be a must that I recouped a bit. this years basketball stuff looks pretty cool though.... im going to do several boxes on prizm and probably a bunch of retail.

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3700196]I did not insult any person.[/QUOTE]

Actually, you did.

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3700196]If you break cases of Panini and you made a profit then some sort of miracle had to occur because a profit and Panini go together as well as gas and water.[/QUOTE]

Based on what Alex has said you are flat-out wrong (and I'm guessing he's busted more cases than most of us here).

[QUOTE=jj2;3700710]Actually, you did.



Based on what Alex has said you are flat-out wrong (and I'm guessing he's busted more cases than most of us here).[/QUOTE]

Again, I did not insult any person. Also based on what Alex said is not Proof of anything. He actually said he didn't base any time into his equation and he said it takes 30-50 hours to do the work so that is just ridiculous.

If you want to go and quote one persons experience then at least have the deceny to get all the info correct. Even he said it was a losing proposition.

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3696754]I agree with you 100%. [B]You have to be a moron to put out any money to break their cases[/B]. You get like 5-10% back on anything you open. Only an idiot would buy a case of their products.

You get the same design year after year with the same stock photos. Yahoo![/QUOTE]

Insulting comment is right there mate!

Not everyone is in the hobby for profit! Some of us just enjoy breaking, trading and collecting!:)!

Again, I did not insult any person I made a comment. If you or anyone else took that as an insult then you are way too sensitive. I merely stated a fact that You can't make any money opening their products by the case. There is a very small return. Most case breakers bust to keep some cards and sell whatever else they don't want so they can recoup money back to open more product but Panini offers very little return especially if you keep the best 2-3 cards from the case.

I am sorry you feel that comment was directed at you but I will say it one last time, I did not insult anyone. I made a general comment about the product based on what I have seen over the last few years, and its only getting worse with Panini.

I don't want to hurt anyone feelings, sorry if I hurt yours.

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3701315]Again, I did not insult any person I made a comment. If you or anyone else took that as an insult then you are way too sensitive. I merely stated a fact that You can't make any money opening their products by the case. There is a very small return. Most case breakers bust to keep some cards and sell whatever else they don't want so they can recoup money back to open more product but Panini offers very little return especially if you keep the best 2-3 cards from the case.

I am sorry you feel that comment was directed at you but I will say it one last time, I did not insult anyone. I made a general comment about the product based on what I have seen over the last few years, and its only getting worse with Panini.

I don't want to hurt anyone feelings, sorry if I hurt yours.[/QUOTE]

It doesn't bother me mate! I have thick skin! And frankly.... I too believe I am a moron for buying those case! :D

But there are plenty around here that do get taken back by comments like that! Hence the references to your insults! ;)

saying "You have to be a moron to put out any money to break their cases" and "Only an idiot would buy a case of their products" are insulting comments to anyone that buys panini cases. thats fine to have an opinion, but dont insult people and then claim youre not insulting anyone. i dont break cases and my feelings are not hurt. if your going to say something at least own up to it. if you were not trying to insult anyone, maybe edit your post.

[QUOTE=pingbling23;3702446]saying "You have to be a moron to put out any money to break their cases" and "Only an idiot would buy a case of their products" are insulting comments to anyone that buys panini cases. thats fine to have an opinion, but dont insult people and then claim youre not insulting anyone. i dont break cases and my feelings are not hurt. if your going to say something at least own up to it. if you were not trying to insult anyone, maybe edit your post.[/QUOTE]

+1

You have to be a moron to call someone a moron and then not own up to it.

haha jk :D

I did not insult any one. You obviously opened a bunch of this garbage and want to blame someone other than Panini. Feel free to take my comments personally but I never directed anything at any individual. I spoke generically and all my comments are backed by EBay sales prices and YouTube breaks.

Only a moron would buy a case of any Panini product and think they can make money on it. I stand by that statement but don't direct it at any individual. It is my opinion and basically a matter of fact.

By the way the Ping Bling clubs are also terrible. They basically fall apart.

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3702534]I did not insult any one. You obviously opened a bunch of this garbage and want to blame someone other than Panini. Feel free to take my comments personally but I never directed anything at any individual. I spoke generically and all my comments are backed by EBay sales prices and YouTube breaks.

Only a moron would buy a case of any Panini product and think they can make money on it. I stand by that statement but don't direct it at any individual. It is my opinion and basically a matter of fact.

By the way the Ping Bling clubs are also terrible.[/QUOTE]

lol.............

seriously go eat some chocolate. cheer up

[QUOTE=realreodeal;3702534]

By the way the Ping Bling clubs are also terrible. They basically fall apart.[/QUOTE]

wow, not sure why you are wanting to be a douche bag???? fyi to anyone thinking about getting ping golf clubs, ive been playing with pings for 15 years and havent had a problem lol. im not going to take this thread off track no more then i have already contributed to since you are obvisouly immature and are wanting to have a back and forth. have fun....

[QUOTE=alexlazarevich;3697469]I am a "panini case breaker", there are others, even on this forum. I'd be happy to share my experience with you. In my experience, it took 3 steps to getting case breaker status with Panini:

1) I first established an online presence (eBay, COMC, etc.) as being primarily a seller of individual sports cards. I was not, nor am I now, a collector. I am in this as a business. This is an important distinction, for Painini and distributors.

2) I established my business either as an LLC or a sole proprietorship, and got a state tax ID for your business. I registered as a sole proprietorship as an internet retailer in the state of Illinois with a state of Illinois tax ID. This is not just my social security number, this is a tax ID number for my business, "cardboardaddict".

3) Once I had steps #1 and #2 done, then I could purchase cases from a distributor. At this point I was busting and selling mostly Topps products. But the distributor knew me well and knew I meant business. I was buying 4-20 cases of different baseball/football products. With the 12-13 Panini NBA season looming, I knew I wanted to buy Panini products from my distributor, but I could not do so unless I had case breaker status. I asked my distributor about it, and with their help, I applied for case breaker status from Panini and got it within 2-3 days. The key is having the distributor submit the case breaker application to Panini, they have the inside track, and Panini will listen to distributors much more than individuals.

That is the way I did it. I know of one other case breaker on this forum who did it a very similar way. I'm not sure if you can skip steps #1 and #2 and get case breaker status.

I bust 4-10 cases of most Panini NBA products, and I've made money (net profit) on every break except one. My first break as a Panini case breaker was 2011-12 Panini Past & Present, and that was a very successful break. I track every single sale in a spreadsheet for each product, I can track my average sale price of auto's, memorabilia, inserts, base, parallels, I use this information to decide if I'm going to break future Panini NBA products. And most often the answer is yes, I will. The only Panini product I didn't make money on was 11-12 Limited, but I only lost a couple hundred.

Now that Panini is releasing products week to week, I can't break every product. (I had to pass on Totally Certified) I do cardboardaddict as a side business to my full time job, and it's very easy to get swept up and miss my real job. But there is no way I can make a living being a case breaker, so I have to focus on my real job. This means I have limits to how much I break, and how often.

My next break is 9 cases of Prizm, and based on my analysis and sales data from past breaks I already know I'm going to make 1-2K net profit on this break unless something is disastrously wrong with the product.

To anyone reading this thinking, oh great, I'm going to do this and make money! Heh, just remember, I lost thousands learning all the above information before I started making a profit. It is tons of work opening, sorting, scanning, listing, packaging, dealing with customer service requests. It is a business, and if you go in thinking it's a hobby, you will get destroyed and lose tons of money.

And by the way, I hardly open Topps anymore, I just can't make a profit on their products. Too much competition in the baseball world, and Topps distributor prices are very close to retail prices.[/QUOTE]

AWESOME read there Alex. Really gives an insight into your world.

For me I just can't understand why people complain about not making money off a product. Its not designed for that. The collector is too far down the supply chain to do that. The only ones that are going to make money of these are Panini and distributors (unless your a 'case breaker')

The product is designed to be collected and kept as a hobby. The day they start designing products so that its all about dollar and resale value is the day Ill step out of the hobby. That's when we know the hobby has truely lost its heart and soul :)!

[QUOTE=pingbling23;3702623]wow, not sure why you are wanting to be a douche bag???? fyi to anyone thinking about getting ping golf clubs, ive been playing with pings for 15 years and havent had a problem lol. im not going to take this thread off track no more then i have already contributed to since you are obvisouly immature and are wanting to have a back and forth. have fun....[/QUOTE]

No, I was looking to buy some new clubs for my son and many of the reviews stated the clubs were poorly made and fell apart quickly.

I currently hit use Cleveland and usually buy Callaway but with with the Nike Sasquash for my son.

Good luck with your golf game. But you cant convince me Panini is worth more than 10%-20% of the case price.

[QUOTE=Heafy83;3702668]AWESOME read there Alex. Really gives an insight into your world.

For me I just can't understand why people complain about not making money off a product. Its not designed for that. The collector is too far down the supply chain to do that. The only ones that are going to make money of these are Panini and distributors (unless your a 'case breaker')

The product is designed to be collected and kept as a hobby. The day they start designing products so that its all about dollar and resale value is the day Ill step out of the hobby. That's when we know the hobby has truely lost its heart and soul :)![/QUOTE]

I couldn't agree more.

[QUOTE=Heafy83;3702668]AWESOME read there Alex. Really gives an insight into your world.

For me I just can't understand why people complain about not making money off a product. Its not designed for that. The collector is too far down the supply chain to do that. The only ones that are going to make money of these are Panini and distributors (unless your a 'case breaker')

The product is designed to be collected and kept as a hobby. The day they start designing products so that its all about dollar and resale value is the day Ill step out of the hobby. That's when we know the hobby has truely lost its heart and soul :)![/QUOTE]

Excellent post. Unfortunately it's not enough anymore to buy some packs or a box and get some nice cards of some players you like (or to put a set together). Now for many people it's all about how much money you think you can make back.

[QUOTE=Heafy83;3702668]AWESOME read there Alex. Really gives an insight into your world.

For me I just can't understand why people complain about not making money off a product. Its not designed for that. The collector is too far down the supply chain to do that. The only ones that are going to make money of these are Panini and distributors (unless your a 'case breaker')

The product is designed to be collected and kept as a hobby. The day they start designing products so that its all about dollar and resale value is the day Ill step out of the hobby. That's when we know the hobby has truely lost its heart and soul :)![/QUOTE]

+1 to this post. Unfortunately, the true spirit of the hobby has been buried by either making tons of easy money from boxes, or trying to look elite-status with exquisite bling bling cards.

Sorry if anyone was offended by my comments above. I used to be a moron who purchased HUGE volumes of Panini products. After continuously losing money once my time was equated in(especially with Hockey) I stopped completely. Years since I see Panini continue to screw their customers and make horrible products. Its sad to see quite honestly.

[QUOTE=cruiserdaddy7;3712561]Sorry if anyone was offended by my comments above. I used to be a moron who purchased HUGE volumes of Panini products. After continuously losing money once my time was equated in(especially with Hockey) I stopped completely. Years since I see Panini continue to screw their customers and make horrible products. Its sad to see quite honestly.[/QUOTE]

I don't think you need to apologize.

Panini is a huge company, selling stickers and all kinds of nutty soccer crap in Europe for decades, right? They only recently got into the NBA/American market. When it comes down to it they are concerned with the bottom line. That is above their concern for collectors. Same is true with Topps. Any company.

I've found a nitch, as a case breaker I can make small profits on large breaks if I sell fast and sell everything. I don't factor my time into the equation, and I spend dozens of hard working hours busing, sorting, scanning, listing, shipping. It is a ton of work.

But collectors don't do what I do. They get products later, and they keep cool cards they like. That cuts into the sales of the cards they do try to sell. And after a few weeks prices do fall, sometimes dramatically.

For collectors, when they buy cases/boxes, they are going to lose some money opening product. That is just the way it is. I have no idea what is going to change that. If Panini charges less, then the meat-heats in suits who actually run that company behind the scenes will make less money and have to stop buying Porches and sending their dogs to groomers who charge $100/hour. They don't want to change what they got so they are going to fight to keep the high prices.

I would only suggest that criticism is kept to objective complaints about what it is that is causing value to drop after release. I'm sure Panini is reading and watching, to try their best to keep collectors in the game. If enough objective complaints are made, and other collectors really listen, and change their buying habits, then Panini as a company will be forced to change or die out. But it's a long shot.

Still, it's the collectors that keep this hobby alive. Not the manufacturers, not the resellers, not even the players really. The collectors are the life blood of this hobby.

I agree with Alex. I'm also a Panini case breaker. Another benefit, and I may have missed it, is being allocated product that some shops may not get (or don't get that much), based on what Panini product you have purchased. It's nice not paying retail on some of the higher end product I would have bought anyway.

I don't know the ins and outs about being approved....I tried it on my own and got nowhere with Panini....I gave the app to my distributor and was approved in less than a week lol

You must apply to open their product in volume?

Serious question. I've never even seen a pack of panini, much less opened one.

[QUOTE=fullmetal;4024683]You must apply to open their product in volume?

Serious question. I've never even seen a pack of panini, much less opened one.[/QUOTE]

You technically don't have too but if you want to open their products in volume while paying less then MAPP pricing you have too. It's really not that difficult to do. All you have to have is a tax id number and a distributor to buy from and you are good to go. The application is like half a page.

You have to be approved to order Panini product at all through a distributor the first 30 days.

Is there still such a thing as a case breaker form with Panini? Do they still have rules about selling their products online within a certain time period, and does MAPP still exist? Just curious. I haven't been following there long list of rules lately.

There is a newer case breaker form from Panini, you should be able to get one from your distributor. If you are applying to be a case breaker, the selling aspect doesn't really apply, since you are not allowed to sell boxes or cases anyway. To do that, you need to be an online retailer or show dealer. MAPP exists again, they just reworked it for the first 30 days. The new case breaker form goes more into how often you do breaks, what service you use, how much you buy, etc.