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Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2024
While the sports card boom during the early 2020s was a major boost for the hobby, the price surge on many cards priced many out. That meant collectors on a budget were often hard-capped at the sorts of wax products or cards they could acquire.
But there was an alternative to paying gobs of money: sports card breaking. By paying for the rights to cards belonging to an individual team, collectors could, in theory, pay a bit less for a chance at a huge reward. It’s equal parts collecting and chance!
Breaking remains super popular today, with both online and brick-and-mortar shops getting into the game. In this post, we’ll break down five of the best breakers out there, emphasizing each sports card breakers’ specialty, most notable hits, some controversy, and how to participate.
Let’s get breaking!
Table of Contents
Overview of Sports Card Breaking
Before revealing our five-best list, let’s make sure we’re on the same page about sports card breaking.
What is Sports Card Breaking?
Sports card breaking goes something like this. A breaker advertises a box of sealed wax (for our purposes, let’s say the box is a 2021-22 Panini NBA Immaculate, which retails between $1,500 and $2,000).
Individuals can then either bid for, or purchase outright, the rights to individual teams that might be pulled from that box (again, for our purposes, let’s say we purchase the Detroit Pistons, hoping to land a card featuring then-rookie and top draft pick Cade Cunningham, who we featured in our preseason NBA Buyer’s Guide coming into the 2023-24 season).
As you might guess, teams with high-powered rookies from a box’s given year will go for higher than those without.
After every team has been purchased, the breaker will livestream the box break (hence why they’re called the “breaker”) on a platform like Twitch, YouTube, or Instagram. The cards are then shipped to their new respective owners.
Appeal of Sports Card Breaks
For buyers and breakers alike, the appeal is obvious. For starters, it’s cost-effective for all parties involved. Think back to that Immaculate box mentioned above. The box’s retail price is prohibitively high for many run-of-the-mill collectors.
Breaking addresses that concern by dividing the box into its component parts, allowing individuals to purchase the chance to hit a specific team. By lowering the price to a few hundred dollars for a bid, the market opens up to collectors who may otherwise not have the funds to shell out for the entire box itself.
As a result, breakers also benefit from this process. On one hand, a breaker could crack open a box and take stock of the contents, selling off the most valuable cards at a premium while the non-premium cards collect dust. On the other hand, they could preemptively sell each unknown card at a premium. After all, a breaker isn’t really selling a card; it’s selling the chance for a card.
Case in point: if each team in that 2021-22 Immaculate box sold for an average of $100, the breaker makes $3,000 (30 teams x $100), a net profit considering the box’s retail value.
It’s also worth noting that sports card breaking is plain old fun. It’s a blast to get the endorphins going just waiting to see if you hit your personal collection’s holy grail. It’s also a great way to meet and interact with others in the hobby, even if it’s almost exclusively conducted virtually these days.
Gambling Controversy
Sports card breaking has come under fire from those who argue it’s nothing more than gambling. There’s some merit to this argument – in fact, eBay cracked down on breaks in July 2023 by limiting the practice to only pre-approved sellers. That move followed TikTok’s even stricter outright ban in May of the same year.
It might not be surprising down the line to see sports card breaking reigned in by some form of regulation akin to current online gambling rules.
But is breaking really all that different than buying a box outright? Is there much of a difference between spending a few thousand dollars on a box versus a few hundred for a slice of the same? Both scenarios assume similar risks, yet there’s zero controversy surrounding the legitimacy of the former.
How to Choose a Sports Card Breaker
When searching for a sports card breaker, you should evaluate three categories. First, and perhaps most important, is reputation. Unless you go the eBay route, many sites won’t have “customer review” options readily available. But forums such as Reddit, Blowout Cards, and Collectors Universe are excellent gauges of a site’s reliability. As a rule of thumb, only go with breakers who have been vetted multiple times by independent users; in other words, if you can’t find any information about a breaker, it’s probably best to steer clear.
In a similar vein, buyers should investigate a site’s transparency. A significant portion of sports card breaking is conducted virtually, meaning a site’s transparency is everything. If breaks are not shown on a live feed, that’s a red flag. If a breaker doesn’t advertise the date and time a break takes place, that’s a red flag. If any aspects of the process are unclear from the start, that’s a red flag.
Third, consider what exactly you’re hoping to get out of the experience. For instance, if you want vintage cards, you should explore breakers that specialize in that area. Ditto for other specialties: high-end, Prizm/basketball, non-major sports like soccer and racing, etc.
The bottom line: a buyer needs to do their homework before selecting a specific breaker. In that vein, consider this post is a bit of a study guide!
Best Sports Card Breakers
Rather than view the following list as a sequential “Top Five” list, it’s best to consider them based on their respective strengths. To that end, we’ve included five breakers that are the best at their given specialty, somewhat like we did with our eBay Consignors rankings.
Blez Sports Cards
Website: The Blez
Established: 2016
Best For: All-Day Breaking, Breaking on a Budget
Founded by brothers Chad and Jared Bleznick, Blez Sports Cards is one of the biggest players in the sports card breaking industry. Blez currently offers breaks for three sports: baseball, football, and basketball, along with “Pop Breaks,” which include Disney, F1, and hockey cards. Further, Blez offers sealed retail boxes.
Blez was part of an event dubbed “The Biggest Flawless Break in History” in March 2022. In tandem with Layton Sports Cards (another breaker), Blez broke 27 boxes: 15 of 2020-21 Panini Basketball Flawless Hobby boxes, 10 of 2020-21 Panini Basketball First Off the Line, and two boxes of Panini Basketball One and One. The promotion was held amidst the heated search for the LeBron James Triple Logoman card (more on that in a moment).
The event wasn’t without controversy. In accordance with its Vegas theme, the event livestream included female models that were showcased in a gross and objectifying way. As one review put it, the inclusion was a stark reminder that “women have valid complaints and are often either inadvertently or maliciously disregarded in [card collecting] spaces.”
After an online backlash, Layton Sports Cards addressed the issue, noting that the event was essentially planned for the breakers by a third party.
Bizarre taste in promotions aside, Blez remains an extremely popular option for online breakers, with 4.9 stars and over 1,300 reviews on Whatnot.
But what we love most about Blez (in addition to its easy-to-navigate website) is the sheer quantity of their breaks. The site boasts 11-15 hours of breaks every day, meaning that if you happen to miss your shot at one, there’s always another right around the corner. Special props to their YouTube channel, which has nearly 15,000 followers and updates on a regular basis.
Another element in Blez’s favor: you can get in on their breaks for as little as $6. This goes back to the reason sports card breaking exists in the first place: to open up avenues for collectors of all budgets. And for those who like the finer things in life, there’s plenty for you as well, with breaks priced in the thousands.
Notable Hits
Blez has seen several big-time hits come through its doors. While it missed out on the LeBron Logoman it so desperately sought, the break yielded a few sweet hits, including a LaMelo Ball Flawless RPA 2/5 (jersey match), a Tyrese Haliburton Flawless Diamond 1/1 RC, and a Michael Porter Flawless Logoman 1/1.
How to Participate
One of the biggest factors in Blez’s favor is its ease to participate in its breaks. By hopping on their website, buyers can pick out a host of upcoming box breaks.
From there, buyers can go ahead and lock down a given team by purchasing them outright. One downside to Blez’s product is that all of the prices are set by the site itself. So rather than striking out on a low bid, Blez controls the pricing from the jump, meaning buyers are stuck with whatever the site sets as a team’s given figure.
From there, buyers can follow their individual break on the site’s YouTube channel, under the livestream portion.
Dave and Adam’s Card World
Website: DA Card World
Established: 1991
Best For: Reputation and Transparency
Next up is a name you might already be familiar with: Dave and Adam’s Card World. A hobby mainstay for 30+ years, Dave and Adam’s have done what few pawn shops and hobby stores have managed to do: go mainstream. What started as a brick-and-mortar shop in Buffalo, New York, has blossomed into an entire digital hub for cards and comics of all stripes.
Seriously, you can find almost anything on their site:
Dave and Adam’s is, simply put, one of the best sports card breakers out there. A quick scan of their site’s Google Reviews underscores their strong place in the hobby: 4.8 stars and over 6,700 reviews.
But the proof is in far more than just the litany of satisfied customers. This site goes above and beyond to maintain a high level of transparency with its customers.
For instance, one aspect we love is that you can meet your breaker before purchasing. Does knowing your breaker ultimately make a difference as to what’s in a box? Probably not, but who am I to stand in the way of someone’s superstition? On a serious note, including individual breakers is a sign of serious transparency, something we noted as a key indicator of a site’s reliability.
They also break with some serious frequency, with generally three daily breaks. Finally, the site offers very clear instructions as to shipping (they ship to you in at most one week) and contact information (and promise to get back to you in one business day). Again, these are all strong indications that Dave and Adam’s is legitimate, transparent, and reputable.
Notable Hits
Dave and Adam’s have pulled some true masterpieces over the years. The site keeps a running tally of its best recent pulls, including a 2020 Panini Absolute Football Tom Brady Kaboom! Insert, a 2021 Panini Impeccable Lamar Jackson 14k Gold One of One, and a 2020-21 Panini One and One Anthony Edwards Rookie Jersey Auto Red in the last two months alone.
How to Participate
Dave and Adam’s Card World operates similarly to Blez in that the site sets the price of entry for its breaks. With fewer breaks than Blez, the prices tend to be a bit on the higher end, starting around $35-$40.
Additionally, there’s a bit less control over team selection with Dave and Adam’s than Blez. By and large, teams (or in some cases, league divisions) are divided randomly. This might be less appealing for buyers looking to control as much of this process as they can or those on the hunt for team-specific stars.
After purchasing, a buyer can enter the live stream and watch their breaks happen in real time on the site’s Twitch (old breaks are stored on the site’s YouTube channel).
Steel City Collectibles
Website: Steel City Collectibles
Established: 2002
Best For: Brand-Name Recognition
Founded in 2002, Steel City Collectibles is one of the most widely recognized names in the hobby. Much like Dave and Adam’s, Steel City started operations as a brick-and-mortar shop in Pittsburgh before becoming an online behemoth.
With 4.4 stars out of five on Facebook (with nearly 500 reviews) and “nothing but good things to say” from folks who have broken with them, Steel City is a name you can trust. Currently, the site has two breakers which operate the virtual “Break Room,” Brett and Steve, and like Dave and Adam’s, one can “meet them” by watching a prepared video about each.
In addition to traditional sports cards, Steel City also breaks collectible boxes. For instance, a buyer can get in on a six-box Gold Rush Autographed Jersey break, with one signed jersey per box. It’s a unique twist on traditional sports card breaking.
Notable Hits
For those interested in seeing the type of product Steel City pulls from its packs, head on over to the site’s Hit Gallery, where hundreds of cards are housed in a virtual Hall of Fame.
Among the sweet finds in the Hit Gallery is a 2018 Cristiano Ronaldo Panini Black Box 1/1 and 2018 Roberto Clemente Panini Immaculate Baseball Bat Relic 7/10.
How to Participate
Steel City allows buyers to purchase breaks on their website. Rather than pay for a specific team, buyers purchase a given “slot,” which then corresponds to a team that is randomized later. Each slot is priced the same.
After purchasing your break slot, you can join the break livestream. With its break schedule, Steel City makes it easy to identify when your break livestream is set to take place. From there, your cards will be shipped directly to you 1-2 days after a break.
Backyard Breaks
Website: Backyard Breaks
Established: 2020
Best For: Historic Pulls
Founded in 2020 and exclusively an online breaker, Backyard Breaks rode the wave of the pandemic-era surge in breaking all the way to the top.
What they lack in the professional polish of a Dave and Adam’s or Steel City, they more than make up for in entertainment value. You’ll find their breakers dressed in everything from ’80s-era tank tops to leopard-print robes. They strive to ensure there is nary a dull moment during their breaks.
And while there’s a place for showboating, it’s certainly not for everyone. Some have likened the breaks to an unending fraternity party, with one going so far as to say “They’re a perfect caricature of what a 12 year old kid thinks is a cool 22 year old.”
That said, Backyard Breaks are, without a doubt, one of the most popular breakers on the internet. Their seller profile on Whatnot (the platform it hosts breaks) clocks in at 4.8 stars based on 28,000 reviews.
All is not perfect with Backyard Breaks, however. The group has recently been scrutinized for “withholding” high-end cards pulled during a break. After raising enough of a fuss on social media, one disgruntled buyer who was promised a Joe Burrow 2020 Contenders Auto (which turned out to be an expired redemption) was then promised a Giannis Antetokounmpo Timeless Treasures RPA as a replacement, which also didn’t come in the mail.
Ultimately, Backyard Breaks provided the user with $5,000 worth of cards (over twice the amount he paid to enter the original break) to make up for the poor customer service and shady practices, though it required significant shaking of the trees to get it done.
The incident mirrored a similar issue in January 2022, when the group offered up two bonus boxes for free during a livestream to those who bought into the break. But when one of the boxes returned a Trevor Lawrence Gold Kaboom! insert, the site reneged and kept the card themselves.
Notable Hits
By far, Backyard Breaks’ most notable hit came in 2022, when it won the LeBron James Triple Logoman sweepstakes on a livestream:
By this point, the LeBron Triple Logoman card had become the Holy Grail of collecting, attracting the likes of Drake, Ken Goldin of Goldin Auctions, and Blez Breakers (noted above). The card was so popular that it even made a guest appearance on season one of King of Collectibles.
But it was Backyard Breaks who stumbled upon the card (on behalf of a trio of buyers who bought into the break), which was sold for over $2 million the same year by Goldin Auctions.
The big-time breaks didn’t stop there: in 2022 alone, the site pulled a Flawless Golden State Warriors Triple Logoman, a National Treasures Cade Cunningham Logoman Auto, and a 2021 Panini Prizm Cade Cunningham Black 1/1 rookie card.
The exceptionally high number of case hits has led some to believe they are working with manufacturers like Panini, who sell loaded boxes to the group at a premium.
How to Participate
In order to participate, buyers can go to the group’s website and purchase places in upcoming breaks. That said, each box varies as to what a buyer actually purchases; in some cases, they’re buying a specific team (akin to Blez), in others, they’re paying for a slot in the break (akin to Steel City).
You can then join your livestream on the company’s Whatnot channel, where all of their livestreams are held and archived.
Sports Box Breaks
Website: Sports Box Breaks
Established: 2014
Best For: Rewards and Rebates
After a slight detour through the jungle Backyard, we round out our list with a crew of breakers that has a bit of a more traditional feel. Sports Box Breaks is the product of two friends, Jason (the sports collector) and Kevin (the tech wizard). The tandem started SBB “to create a business where both of them could not only utilize their expertise, but also be a part of something they both enjoyed.”
SBB specializes in four sports: baseball, hockey, basketball, and football. In addition to cards, they also host breaks for signed memorabilia such as baseballs. They also do a bit of Pokémon, as well.
And while it may not have quite the entertainment value of a Backyard Breaks or the high-end interface of Blez, SBB has the feel of the classic mom-and-pop card shop of yesteryear. It’s a no-frills alternative to some of the other flashy sites we’ve discussed thus far.
And just as those old mom-and-pop stores took care of their neighborhood clientele, so too does SBB with its unique loyalty program. SBB offers two sweet rebates to its buyers; first, if a buyer spends $100 or more on a break and does not receive a hit, SBB will reimburse them with 5% of their buy-in as a credit:
Second, if a buyer helps close out a team break by purchasing unpaid teams and does not receive a hit, SBB will reimburse them with 5% of the price they paid for each unpaid team, dubbed the “Last Spot Karma” rebate:
Clearly, SBB values its customers and wants to retain them with incentives like a rebate. This goes a long way toward bolstering the site’s reputation and credibility. It’s also the polar opposite of what we just read about with Backyard Breaks; it really feels like SBB wants to make breaking a superb experience for all of its clients.
The only downside is production value. The site feels a tad dated, almost like a virtual mom-and-pop card shop of yesteryear.
Notable Hits
SBB has pulled a number of cards over the course of its nine-year run. More recently, it’s had success on the baseball and football fronts, including nailing this Mickey Mantle National Treasures auto:
Additionally, SBB pulled a Bijan Robinson Gold Standard /24 RPA, a Will Anderson, Jr. Freshman Fabrics Nike Swoosh RPA, and a CJ Stroud Blue Reactive Mosaic RC.
How to Participate
To participate in an SBB Break, head over to the site and select which sport you’d like to buy into. Breaks are divided into “Random Team” and “Choose Your Team.” Generally speaking, the site hosts more baseball and football breaks than basketball, making it a slight outlier among other breakers who prefer basketball as a mainstay.
After purchasing your break, you can watch live on either Twitch or YouTube, with all completed streams being stored on the latter.
Conclusion
If we see a common complaint about breaking, it usually goes something like this: why let someone else open your packs for you? Doesn’t that take out all the fun?
Sure it does. For a collector, very few things come close to the excitement of opening a fresh pack. But this grievance also misses the point of breaking – some people don’t have the means to get their hands on the wax ripped in a break. By lowering the cost of admission, breaking opens up avenues to a much broader audience, albeit at the expense of opening a pack with your own two hands.
And hey, the future might not involve opening a pack with your hands at all. As we covered in our exploration of digital sports cards, many manufacturers are adding virtual items such as NFTs to their arsenals of product.
Sports card breaking is not a perfect practice by any means, as evidenced by the criticisms of some of the names on this list.
And it’s impossible to say exactly where this activity will go in the future. Fanatics, the memorabilia behemoth that appears to be closing in on a monopoly in the hobby, has already begun dabbling in the breaking space. In the same breath, gambling regulators could upend or alter breaking.
For now, though, sports card breaking remains a popular activity among collectors. Do you have a favorite breaking spot that didn’t make this list? Let us know in the comments below!