Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Wax Breaker

Yesterday, I sat down at my computer and started to watch a series of youtube videos that made me cheer and want to scream all at once. These videos consisted of 3 guys from the Philippines, sitting around a table, busting around 50 cases of Exquisite Basketball. The funny thing is that this is not the first time this has been done! They had busted more cases before the video and will bust more cases after. In fact, the guy said that once they are all done, they probably will have busted close to 150 cases.

Lets take a look at this, as I don’t believe this happens ALL that often. Lets say they get this stuff at a deal, around 1000 bucks a case just to make things easy. That’s over 3 hundred dollars off the retail price, and still, its more money than some people spend on a house. Obviously, these guys have a ton of money, and it harkens back to my post on what I would do if I was a rich ass bitch with boats of money.

Here is the problem, after they are done with each installment of their hugemungous case break, they plug their eBay name. Yes, they sell a TON of cards on eBay, and from what they pulled, it makes them a lot of money. The question I asked myself was, "they have enough money to bust all this high end of high end, yet they still sell everything?" For me, I kind of thought that this was a microcosm of the hobby these days, mainly because there are very few people - especially people like these guys - who bust for the collecting aspect of it. They keep a few cards im sure, but the main goal of the break was to make more money to break more stuff.

Now, don’t go leaving comments that say that you bust to keep the cards, as I know what kind of collectors roam the blogosphere. However, once you see what they pull, selling some of the stuff is probably necessary for space's sake. On the other hand, I saw two or three of the dual and triple logomen they had on eBay, so I guess pulling something like that doesn’t mean much to them.



Here are some of the highlights of their cases:

- At least two auto boxes (Durant, Horford)
- At least 4 Durant Limited Logo Autos (beautiful patches)
- At least 4 Durant RC Patches
- Durant Gold RC Patch 35/35
- Michael Jordan 1/1 plate auto (I hate plates, but this was autoed at least)
- Dual Logoman Auto of Durant and Garnett
- Dual Logoman Auto of Melo and Garnett
- Michael Jordan/Kobe Bryant dual scripted swatches /5
- Triple Logoman of Dwight Howard and two guys that made no difference
- One other Triple logoman
- At least one complete set of RC Auto Patches
- At least one complete set of Limited Logos
- Likely close to 20-30 MJ and LBJ autos.

Is this kind of thing the most fun thing you could ever do as a collector? Oh fuck yes.

Is this kind of thing a testament to the state of the hobby? You bet your ass.

Is it better to spend $150,000 on a Ferrari? In a second.

6 comments:

  1. being filippino and growing up around them most do love there basketball. lol But on the other hand don't praise these guys to much. Gambling to a filippino is like a national past time. More then likely to them this is another form of gambling and they probally make alittle money on the side over playing cards and majhong.

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  2. Oh forgot to meantion in my last post but this is the philippines...a third world country. They probally bought this stuff from some guy in town who has shady connections and these guys probally only spent 500 bucks a case if not seriously less. Last time i visit there to see my grandmother a small shop near her house was selling 06 Topps Triple Thread boxes.(man I wish i had brought more money) only brought enough money to see how her and some of the family was doin. But a hobby box not pack of the threads was only 15 USD. (roughly 675 peso's) That is serious cash in that country.

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  3. I thought it was ridiculous seeing a 5 case break from a place in NC on youtube last night (it was a group break) but this tops it for sure.

    Although I wonder how much a team would have cost in a 5 case break of Exquisite? over $100 i am guessing.

    Oh to have loads and loads of money.

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  4. wow, that is a really good explantion. thanks!

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  5. wow, that is a really good explantion. thanks!

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  6. I would like to believe he is looking for certain cards he want. "He" is the one busting all the cases. I believe he bought all the cases. Other friends just helped him and enjoyed watching him busting these high-end products. He might just got a lot of money by inheritance. I do not know.

    Did you see his crazy binder collection? Only some great great cards would be able to fit into those binders. Not some stupid auto printing plate even though it is MJ.

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