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

[anusinha]

(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.

[BeingJustin]

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

[boombaby_rm31]

do they really have to approve anybody??

[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.

[realreodeal]

Originally Posted by 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.

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!

[zonacats8]

Approved case breaker?

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

[37Jetson]

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

Originally Posted by realreodeal

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!

[realreodeal]

Originally Posted by 37Jetson

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

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

[drob50]

Originally Posted by realreodeal

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!

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??

[realreodeal]

Originally Posted by drob50

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??

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

[drob50]

Originally Posted by realreodeal

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

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!

[realreodeal]

Originally Posted by drob50

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!

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.

[lemur01]

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

[drob50]

Originally Posted by realreodeal

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.

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!

[thepinoymamba]

Originally Posted by drob50

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!

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!

[cruiserdaddy7]

Originally Posted by drob50

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??

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.

[oldgoldy97]

Originally Posted by cruiserdaddy7

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.

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.

[Qwasian]

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

[alexlazarevich]

Originally Posted by anusinha

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.

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.

[pingbling23]

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.

[alexlazarevich]

Originally Posted by pingbling23

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.

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.

[anusinha]

Originally Posted by alexlazarevich

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.

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

[Qwasian]

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?

[jj2]

Originally Posted by 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.

Originally Posted by realreodeal

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

[alexlazarevich]

Originally Posted by Qwasian

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?

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.