Should you have a 1, 2 or 3-camera card break setup?
Whether you’re a noob or an advanced card breaker with an audience of 100k+, you often times wonder if the quality of your card breaking equipment setup is good enough. In a previous post, we covered what equipment you need to run a card break at home and we also covered what the best cameras for your card break but in this article we’ll dive deeper and focus in on the cameras and how to set them up.
As camera enthusiasts (we love Nikon), the staff at SLabstat often gets asked about what cameras to buy for your card break. But surprisingly the question that is coming up the most as of late is, “how many cameras should I have in my card breaking setup?”
What makes a good card breaker?
When you peel back the onion, a card breaker is simply a service provided that can procure wax boxes or cases of trading cards and rip open the packs for you on an on-demand basis. Since that process of card breaking has a low barrier to entry, your competitive advantage in card breaking is
Price
Entertainment
Speed to ship the cards
Overall customer service and satisfaction
But those are still easy to replicate. What really makes a good card breaker?
Attention to detail
Make sure you give that extra T.L.C. with your customers. Don’t cut corners on packaging to save a few pennies on your postage.
Use the correct top loader size.
Know which player’s card to sleeve
Responsibility
Ethics
We really think’s the what it comes down to to become an awesome card breaker, but you have to have an overwhelming desire to have that attention to detail
1-Camera Card Breaking Setup
This is the setup that most people start off with, and it’s a really powerful setup. It trains your customers to focus in on one thing. What do you need for a 1-camera setup?
Camera 1 is pointed at the cards. You’ll need a smaller camera like a GoPro HERO10 Black and attach that to a small tripod like the Manfrotto PIXI Mini. This tripod is small and lightweight enough to manuever around your desktop and not consume too much valuable desk real estate.
Use duct tape as necessary to reduce the risk of your camera being bumped.
Position a light that overlooks your shoulders or head so that the cards are lit up and bright for your customers to see. We like the Godox LR120 12” LED Ring Light. This light can light up the cards, your room and you - the card breaker!
Don’t complicate this setup too much. Position the camera between you and the unopened trading card products from Topps or Panini and rip away!
2-Camera Card Breaking Setup
So what do you need for a 2-camera setup. Look above and you’ll see what your primary 1-camera will be used for - the cards duh!. So what about Camera 2?
We like using Camera 2 overhead. This helps to show your customers what cards are being ripped open and what already has been pulled.
For most cameras, an overhead tripod like this one from LenTok, will be perfect and give your customers the trust that they deserve. Additionally, if they joined late, they could see what has been pulled.
Many of SLabstat’s card breakers, use Camera-2 to show their face. This is totally fine and allows for the card breaker to build a relationship with their buyers.
3-Camera Card Breaking Setup
We’re not going to lie. Having a 3-camera setup for both you the card breaker and the buyers is the most ideal. So what do you need for a 3-camera setup?
Camera 3 is pointed to you - the card breaker. This camera is important because card breaking is a professional service, your customers need to know who you are and know they can trust you.
Whether you have a 1, 2 or 3-camera setup, an affordable out-of-the-box option that you may have laying around your home is a bunch of older Apple iPhones. You don’t have to have the latest version, but don’t get anything too old like the iPhone 7 or iPhone 8 or iPhone X. But it’s okay if you have these older devices. They’ll continue to work as a webcam for a long time. Ideally, an iPhone 11 or iPhone SE 2 will have a camera with a large enough internal sensor to capture all the cards.
So how do I set all of these cameras up on my computer?
So this is where it can get complicated depending on the camera that you use and your current computer or laptop. While it’s not overly complicated, you should get familiar and install Open Broadcaster Software aka OBS. According to their website, “OBS is a free and open source software for video recording and live streaming”. It allows you to setup your card break with a 1, 2 or a 3-camera setup.
So now you have your multi-camera setup and it’s plugged into OBS, so what’s next? It’s time to stream live on platform of choice such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram.
With OBS, you can always quickly go back-and-forth to view SLabstat’s Free Card Breaking software so that you can refer back to which customer purchased what team or random slot. Create a free card break listing and landing page for your customers today and use it on your next card break. SLabstat will make managing your card break so much easier.
What else do you need to know about your card breaking camera setup?
Your camera setup for your live card break will continue to evolve over time. You may replace your cameras, or upgrade your laptop. Just know that you probably have all the tools at home already. Our suggestion is to wait until you hit the limits of your current equipment to invest more. You don’t necessarily need Nikon’s most powerful camera today.
At the end of the day, it’s not about the equipment that makes a card breaker, so don’t stress out or dwell on your live streaming gear.
So don’t ‘wait to join the millions of live sellers and thousands of card breakers and setup your live selling cameras today!
