Breaker Culture: 3 Tips on how to protect and ship cards

Jesse Haynes

As a sports card breaker, there are two cardinal sins—two ways to quickly lose all your customers: damaging the cards or doing shady business. 

In this post, we’re going to look at the first of these rules, damaging the cards, and answer a big question, “What is best-practice for keeping cards safe during and after a sports card break?”

There are three easy steps to take: wear gloves, package and ship with care, and identify any visible flaws during the break.

BUT FIRST, WHY DOES CARD CONDITION MATTER?

To be fair, if you don’t understand why the condition of a card matters, you should not be breaking sports trading cards. That said, as a breaker, this matters in more ways than simply boosting the value of the card by securing a high third-party grade. 

For card breakers, the condition of the cards you deliver to your customers is directly tied to your reputation. 

We tell children to treat the toys of others better than they treat their own toys. The same thing applies here. 

And a damaged card can really sting, even if it’s not your fault.

If you’ve opened cards enough, chances are you’ve been opening a box for yourself, hit a big card, and… then saw that the corner was dinged. Or, perhaps, it had a divot or thumbnail indention on the surface.  

Nothing will take the wind out of your sails faster than noticing a flaw on your nice pull that will immediately drop it down to a PSA 8 or so. That equates to a high percentage of its value gone down the drain because of a tiny mistake—quite possibly not even one for which you’re responsible.

That said, in order to mitigate the risks of damaging cards and facing the consequences, here are our 3 simple tips.

Tip 1: Wear Gloves to protect card surfaces

This is easy and inexpensive, but customers will greatly appreciate it. 

Especially with holofoil cards, it is common to get fingerprints on the face of the card. If you’re wearing gloves, that won’t happen. Of course, a fingerprint does not condemn the value of the card, but it does call for the surface to be cleaned, and that process can be damaging if not done properly.

On top of that, wearing gloves helps prevent fingernails from damaging the cards (side note: always keep your nails cut short if you’re breaking). While a smudge or fingerprint is annoying, a divot is condemning to a third-party grade. 

Wearing gloves also offers one more benefit—one that is less tangible but equally valuable. If you’re wearing gloves, you’re showing your customers that you care. It’s a “the thought that counts” sort of thing.  If you take the time to put on gloves, you’re building a positive relationship and trust with your customer, which might be the most valuable benefit of all. 

If you are looking to break in your free time, a box of disposable rubber gloves like these should do just fine. If you’re going to be breaking lots of cards on the daily, consider investing in a reusable pair.

Tip 2: Package your card breaks and Ship with Care

If you’ve gotten through the break without any mishaps that accidentally damaged the cards, congrats! That’s great.

But it’s also only half the battle.

Getting the cards unwrapped and unscathed is of course important, but your work isn’t done until the cards are packaged and delivered to customers in pristine condition. 

For this, you’ll need supplies: penny sleeves, team bags, top loaders, bubble mailers, and optionally (but highly encouraged) cardboard, too.  We go through a series of what the most important supplies a sports card box breaker needs, so check it out.

In a future post, we’ll get more in-depth on how to decide which cards to sleeve, which cards to top load, and which cards to ship in team bags, but for now, remember this: if in doubt, it’s always best to error on the side of caution. Protect cards more than you think you should if there’s any doubt. 

With that in mind, let’s talk packaging. 

Typically, most the base cards can be put together in a team bag, which will keep them secure. For rookies—any rookie—you need a penny sleeve at least. 

The high-profile rookies, inserts, hits, parallels, and other high-value card should always be put in top loaders, and then put a piece of painter’s tape across the top to keep the card from slipping out in transit. With these cards, use common sense. If you think it might need to be put in a top loader, do it! This will use more supplies, but it also is a relationship-building tool and should be priced into the sports card break as overhead. 

After the cards are assembled by team, it’s never a bad idea to put cardboard around the outside of the bundle—especially those that are the most valuable, to give it an extra layer of protection. 

Of course, you’ll occasionally pull a BIG card. Hundreds or thousands of dollars. If this is the case, please contact the buyer and discuss shipping and insurance options. Your buyer will NOT mind spending $15 on insurance to get a $1,000 card. 

Tip 3: Identify any visible flaws during the break.

This one is short and sweet, but also part of doing good, transparent business. 

Occasionally—and particularly with thick cards—you’ll open a pack to find a corner dinged, the card bent, or some other flaw in the card. 

Be on the lookout for these things as you break. If you discover a card that is damaged as you open it, be sure to document the damage in front of the camera and give the buyer a good look at it.

This will do two things. 

For one, the buyer will know it is not your fault. Additionally, you have video evidence recorded, so you can provide the video to the buyer, who can contact Panini or Topps and (usually) get the mistake resolved.

It’s better to address any potential issue on-camera than to ship it away, only for the buyer to later discover the flaw and sound the alarm. 

Additionally, if you notice a flaw on a (higher-end) card during the packaging that you missed during the video break, it’s a good idea to reach out to the buyer and make them aware. Communication is key. 

(UN)WRAPPING IT UP: CONCLUSION WITH BEST PRACTICES FOR SPORTS CARD BREAKERS

Following these three, simple best-practices for breakers will dramatically reduce the chance of any issues coming up with unhappy buyers from the break.

The cards are your business, so they need to be protected at all cost.

If you consistently deliver your sports cards in great condition, that will result to happy buyers, and in the long run, more customers and sells.