What is a Group Break?
Group breaks are a group of people pooling their money to buy a case, box or set of sports cards.
Some cases can be quite expensive, especially those guaranteeing a certain amount of memorabilia and autographs per case. A group break distributes the cost across a group of customers.
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Once the breakers open a case of cards, they distribute the cards among the group. Breakers determine the distribution through a pre-arranged stake held by each participant.
Sometimes team assignment is based on which team you purchased (“pick-your-team” breaks), while other times, breakers perform a random team draw (“random-team” breaks).
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In a “pick-your-team” group break, team prices vary based on several factors. Teams with top-tier rookies (think Joe Burrow or Zion Williamson) and teams with popular veterans (think Kansas City Chiefs or New York Yankees) will cost the most. Meanwhile, teams with lower-tier rookies or with a lower number of “hits” (autographs or jersey cards) will cost the least.
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In a “random-team” break, the participants divide the case’s cost by the total number of teams (30 in a case of MLB cards, 32 for a case of NFL cards, etc.), and everyone pays a flat rate. All participants are then randomly assigned a team in the break.