I kind of feel obligated to talk about this, as a public service, despite Mario already covering it. A lot of people have been talking about the group break scams that have been run by some douche named MelbourneCowboys. Apparently, he busts some boxes of Exquisite, but only shows 5 of the 6 packed out cards from the break. There is a pretty heated video analysis thread going on over at FCB, and I think everyone is pretty sure that this guy has stolen quite a bit from the people in his break. Its one thing to rig the team drawings, as that is much harder to track, but to actually leave a card out of the break, that is crazy, and fucking obvious.
See, if you had a link to the videos - they all have been taken down - you would see that he clearly has six cards from one of the breaks, but ends up only mentioning 5 (see screen cap below). The other card is then either kept, or sold under his eBay name. If you look at his completed auctions, he has some pretty nice stuff. However, its not ridiculous enough to draw attention. According to some people who have questioned him about the breaks, the cards were obtained when he "went to a shop" and "busted them."
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Regardless of what is analysed by the people on his videos, this guy clearly has a lot of demons and youtubers to deal with. Im not sure which is worse. People may shit on ARPlatinum for participating in his own breaks, but at least he shows the cards in a clear camera with the pack IN FRONT of him. I think it bears repeating that you buy into the integrity of the breaker as well as the box itself, and I wouldnt have trusted this guy at all. Here's hoping the guys from the break can file claims and get their money back.
On another note, stay tuned for another SCU break coming up...
Its truly hard to believe that over the last 6 months, Youtube has gone from the premier place to find info on box breaks and recent products, to a bunch of 13 year olds having a pissing contest on their webcams. Rather than having actual box breakers and collectors go on youtube to get info on the latest product, or watch box breaks of something they could only dream of busting, youtube has become a haven for asshats who go on only to belittle people who show that they may have a bigger Tube-dick than they themselves have.
Ill tell you the truth, I dont watch much stuff on the Tube anymore. Its just not worth my time to wade through a sea of retarded fucking maildays and shoutout videos from the latest pube-less dick face. I think its become obvious that just because you have ability to use the medium, does not mean you should. I should know, as I have reduced my own participation to only SCU breaks and a few commentary videos here and there to spread the word. Lately, all that those videos have attracted is a bunch of cum dumpsters who feel empowered by the fifth grade fat jokes they leave. Its fine for me, as I am used to it, but I could see a lot of people feeling like I did, the first time it happened.
Yeah, yeah, I know, that is all YouTube is good for these days. I should not be surprised, right? Well, as recently as july of last year, there were still quite a few channels I enjoyed watching. Guess what? Almost all of them are gone. The reasoning? The service they were once happy to provide to the collecting world had become too costly due to the sheer number of awful people that burrowed their way deep into the throws of the video blogosphere.
If there really was a person who wanted to have the biggest dick of all the micro-penised youtubers, they would create a place where the correct people could post their services for all to enjoy. No more willy nilly videos posting the daily shit that comes through your mailboxes, but rather a community approval based system that showcases the last of videos that are actually worth my fucking time.
Want to spend five minutes on camera showcasing your 2 dollar jersey collection? Take it to youtube. Want to videotape yourself berating another well respected channel because he wouldnt stroke your small dick with a shoutout? Get the fuck back to youtube hell. Want to post a well documented break of a product that we all can appreciate? Post at will, please.
I long for the days of the Chri5784 and a handful of dedicated box breakers. Hopefully we can get back to the good ole days, and fast.
SCU Youtube Breaker of the Year, ARPlatinum, has started a blog to promote his upcoming breaks, and I think it is a good idea to check him out in between SCU Group Breaks, especially if you have a more expansive budget.
His blog is still new, so if you need to know a little more about him, check out his hugemoungus selection of case breaks on YouTube.
He has pretty much broken multiple cases of just about everything, its great to see what happens when a real person breaks boxes with real money. As it turns out, it happens pretty much the same way as when I break boxes.
Right now he has a break going for Ultimate Football, and I cant wait to see how this shit turns out. Color me excited.
If there is one thing I hate, its people who take the idiot 10 commandments to heart. If there is one thing I hate more than that, its people who do it regularly on YouTube. Thus, it got me to thinking, has YouTube box breaks and card collecting jumped the shark to the point where it is better to just avoid it completely? The nennth inning has a good post with his feelings, and I feel generally the same way.
As it seems for this moment in the YouTube space/time continuum, there are 2000:1 odds of people who are mind rapingly annoying versus people who arent annoying. I have found, much like the nennth inning says, that there are more middle and high schoolers than I ever remembered there being. These 13 year olds videotape everything from their collections to their maildays, and they very rarely post anything relevant to other users. When they are done with this annoying practice of idiocy, they go on everyone else's videos and leave nothing but comments like "FIRST!!!oneone" and "Nice MOJO!"
Now, if they dont like anything about the video or cant identify with it, they immediately leave some of the most evil and gross comments you will ever read. That is pretty fucking sad to see, especially if you are new to collecting, or god forbid, new to youtube. Personally, they exhibit everything I despise about the hobby, boiled down and separated until you have the raw makeup videotaped before your eyes. They are Joe Collectors before the age where they can actually be considered such. If you wonder where the idiot conglomerites come from, they come from these people.
The scary thing is, I can only think of two people I can watch on youtube on a regular basis. The first is Chri5784, only because he doesnt focus on anything other than the box. Its a minimalist approach, and I can handle that. The second is arplatinum, only because he breaks so much stuff, and does it by the case. His breaks are minimalist too, but the commentary is that much more annoying.
You are probably wondering what I am doing promoting box breaks on YouTube if I can barely stand it. Well, to tell you the truth, its the easiest and free-ist way to show people you arent scamming them on the group breaks we do here. You cant just post scans, that would be too easy to leave out a good card. So, I use it for help with SCU Breaks. I also use it as a way to reach a lot of people when I need to get out a message, but that will cease pretty soon.
All in all, I would say that YouTube has brought a new element to card collecting, but it has also made for a way to help fuck faces get their face on people's minds. On whether or not the shark has been jumped, right now, if you are a regular box breaker, consider it jumped. We have far entered the parody stage of the spectrum. For specialized usage, ill keep it for my selected viewers.
Youtube, the blogosphere where everyone is a critic and everyone's a star. Trust me, youtube is not a fun place to make enemies/be unattractive. You cant be a made for radio personality over there, because there are millions of thirteen year old assholes who wont hesitate to put "Go home faggot" on your video because they have nothing better to do.
Yet, that hasn’t stopped the card collecting community from making YouTube the home of the box break. I would say that right now, there are at least 1,000 different collectors posting daily videos of their breaks. Every product that is available (and not available for that matter) to the public has video breaks devoted to it, and that wont stop. Personally, I watch them every day. I have no money, so to live vicariously through other people's breaks is a great thing.
Of course and as expected, Beckett and the manufacturers have gotten in on the fun. Beckett breaks boxes of every product that UD, DLP and Topps send to them, but you know my feelings on that. Topps' "rip parties" could be the most annoying thing ever, but ill get to that later. UD sponsors Diamond Vision where collectors can post their breaks, ill get to that later too.
So, without further adieu, I thought I would highlight the different kind of YouTubers that the hobby has created. Ill try my best to provide examples, but mainly this is just for fun.
The Originator
Everyone on YouTube knows, or should know the Doc. Interestingly enough, he predates youtube with his breaks. He was the first one to think that it would be interesting for people to videotape people opening boxes, and most of the time, he doesn’t disappoint. His customers have become the stars of the break, mainly because of their weird tendencies and offbeat personalities. Doc has also documented some huge pulls, mainly the Oden Superfractor from Chrome basketball, the Adrian Peterson mirror black from LCM, and the 1/1 Ruth/Dimaggio cut from portraits that has been viewed over 10,000 times on the tube.
When it comes to his breaks, though, you have to be prepared for some stuff I want to mention. Now, I love the Doc, he is an incredibly nice guy and has emailed me numerous times on my stuff, but he gets the same treatment as the rest of the gang. The bad part about watching the Doc though, is that he tends to make a show out of the break. The breaks tend to be very, very long and he has become famous for making a huge deal out of minimal pulls. Personally, this isnt a bad thing for the guy doing the break as he does make them feel important for their time on camera, but it gets kind of annoying for the viewer.
Either way, he is the alpha, lets move on through to the omega.
The Straightfoward Breaker
This is the YouTuber that does exactly the opposite of what the Doc does. Its basically the pulls and nothing else. You see them open the box, you see what they get, but there is very little commentary and or excitement. I see this a lot from people who open a lot of stuff, especially high end stuff, because it is all very familiar to them. Its kind of like the hardened detective coming across a murder. Yeah, its sad and gruesome, but he has seen it millions of times before.
Chri5784 is the poster boy for the straightforward breakers on YouTube and I love watching his breaks more than any other person. He owns a shop just like the Doc and documents his customers opening their boxes. Just to show how straightforward he is, he doesn’t even show the faces of the people involved. We only know them from their voices and their style. Chris has been on a few times, mostly because he had no other choice, but for the most part its just the cards. His breaks are short and to the point and I cant stop watching.
The problem with the straighforward style is that it really isnt anything more than just the break itself. They pulled an Adrian Peterson 1/1 out of leaf limited and the guy didn’t say anything other than "That’s pretty cool." Again, it’s the style, but that can get pretty annoying. Cards, for most people, carry a lot of emotion and flare, while these guys sort of lose that. I know I would be pumped as hell to have the money to break a case of Exquisite, yet, they don’t really have any of the feelings I would expect from a collector.
The Kid Breaker
There are a lot of kids on YouTube, A LOT. They usually break low end stuff, and they try to act as old as possible, which usually means they try to be thugs. For the most part, I see them only get excited about the cards that are worth money, even discarding ones that I would expect them to like based on the teams they cheer for. That’s pretty bad when kids are doing this only to make money, as I thought that was more of an adult concern until I saw a few of the kid breakers on YouTube.
The Joke Breaker
I hate, hate, hate these videos. I mean, the guys poke fun at a lot of the right people, but its usually through some annoying gimmick. Whether it’s the guys who broke that pack of 88 topps, or the idiot who breaks high end boxes in the burger king mask, I cant stand them. Especially the Burger King guy.
Ill put this in italics because I don’t think its been discussed, and really should have its own post on here. Yet, because I am talking about him here, ill post it. Basically, this guy IS one of those thirteen year olds I talked about in the opening paragraphs. People have latched on to his breaks because of his gimmick, and his bad luck/commentary when he opens high end stuff. Its all basically "woe is me, I cant pull anything." Yeah, great, join the club fuckface. Sadly, a side of him that people don’t see, is all the horrible comments he leaves on other people's videos, including mine. In fact, I think he has even come on this blog and posted the same type of comments just to make sure I get the point. From what I have seen, he has left some of the most awful things I have ever seen on some people's videos that really didn’t deserve it, and when he decided to fuck with me, well, he gets a highlight on here. So, yeah, he is a douchebag.
Moving on...
The Mailday Guy
Hundreds upon hundreds, upon hundreds of videos are posted each day with people opening their mail. Why? I have no fucking clue. Its one thing if you are opening a package with some element of surprise, but its completely different when you use youtube to show off the cards you get off eBay. Funny enough, most of the cards arent worth the packaging they are put in. "Oh my god! My Craphonso Thorpe auto came! MOJO! YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!" (Video Posted). Give me a freaking break, people. Go post on Beckett and stop wasting my fucking time.
The Balanced Breaker
These are the guys that combine a little Doc and a little Chris. Most of the time, it works, some of the time it doesn’t. A lot of these people don’t show their faces because of people like the burger king assface, so the emotion doesn’t really fit when they try to spice it up. Its usually hands on a table with the box, and they open the box pretty fast, talking about the cards and a little about the hobby. I can tolerate these people, but again, it doesn’t always work.
The Recap Breaker
What? You have time to post the recap on camera but not the actual break? What the fuck. Another way for people just to showcase what they got like YouTube is their personal fucking photobucket. How about making a contribution to the society at large? Nope, just passing through.
The Overzealous Breaker
These guys are the worst of the breaker bunch, only because they feel the need to detail every single card they get, even the fucking base. SP Authentic breaks by these people are fucking brutal as there are 24 packs to sit through. Yup, 13 minute plus breaks. Its not uncommon for these people to look up the cards in the price guide as they break, which can be the most annoying, and joe collector like thing I have ever seen. You can be assured they have at least 75 videos per month, most of them being maildays.
The Far Away Breaker
These guys break boxes from 50 yards away. Seriously, the quality of the video is such crap that I can barely watch. There is one guy that owns a store and does it to showcase his huge fucking wall of overpriced boxes. Like I fucking care, I want to see the box you are opening. He rarely zooms in on the hit, so we are left with his barely there description.
The Foreign Breaker
"OOOO Matt Reinart!" Nuff Said.
The Manufacturer and Hobby Sponsored Breaker
Just refer to my other Beckett posts for my feelings on Beckett's breaks.
For the others, there are people that are sponsored by certain card companies, and those guy's only goals are to promote the company that sponsors them. What really sucks is that the one guy that is sponsored by DLP is a former pack searcher. Not to mention the fact that his breaks are so mind numbingly stupid that I want to punch him in the nuts so he cant make copies of himself.
As for Topps, we have had numerous posts about the rip party. The guy, Alan Nars is a loud and obnoxious host, and they cut angles so much that I get nautious. Its rarely about the cards and its more about the spectacle. Ill pass.
When it comes to UD diamond vision, they have the ability to use this medium as a promotional tool rather than sending boxes to Beckett. Because most collectors are all about being featured on or in beckett and love seeing themselves as many places as possible, this has been pretty successful. If only they would stop with Beckett.
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Well, that’s all I can think of for now, Ill continue to add videos to this list as proof. Its kind of tough from work, so it will probably be later. Regardless, YouTube is probably more of a good thing than I make it out to be. Lets just hope there are more smart people that start up than dumb ones. I know, I know, it’s a pipe dream.
Not only am I sick to my stomach from the awful camera work in this video (J'isthat Youma must have been fired), but also from the fact that this shit is still happening regularly. Again Beckett gets two boxes before the release date, and I still wonder why manufacturers give them the products despite knowing that collectors are extremely fucking angry that it happens. I posed a question to Scott Prusha during my interview, but he included it in the questions he couldnt answer. Scott, I must say, I am disappointed that this is still being allowed by you.
I am also disappointed by how much swag they accumulate around their offices. For a magazine that (wrongly) sets the price for cards in circulation, accepting gifts from manufacturers is a terrible conflict of interest. The fact that there arent any other people taking this issue head on, makes me a little concerned as to the type of people that collect these days. I mean, this hobby is full of scams, top to bottom, and the most public face in the industry is a walking contradiction to everything we love.
Funny enough, bad comments are starting to show up on the video and I encourage that to continue. Hopefully with a little work, the collecting base can make sure that this stops, for the love of what you hold dear. For those of who doubt that Beckett isnt a cancer on this industry, you are walking around with blinders on. If they were to go out of business tomorrow, the hobby would be a better place - no doubt about it.
Also, because I know for a fact that people from UD, DLP and Beckett all read this blog, feel free to drop me an email and explain to me what is being done to stop these beckett box breaking assclowns from carrying on with their pathetic existence.
Two things of interest about this video other than what it shows:
1. Play Where's Waldo on the Quinn 1/1 pulled by Beckett in their break of NT. Its kind of funny in a sad Special Olympics sort of way that it made it into the video.
2. These are the acutal cards depicted in the numbering. So when buying the NT 1/1s or even the other cards pictured here, consult the vid here. If it isnt the card pictured, well, its fake.
Upper Deck Diamond Vision opened May 1 so that collectors can FINALLY have that well needed spot to post their video box breaks. I guess the 19,000 box breaking members of YouTube werent enough to convince UD that maybe this was overkill. I do give them props for offering the boxes for the winners and the grand prizes for the eventual "box break of the year(?)".
Its a nice idea, but I have to savage them for doing it so freaking late in the box breaking genre. Most film scholars will agree that the stages of a genre are primitive (documenting breaks in the monthly mags), classical (The Doc and company), experimental (Most of the YouTube breaks), and eventually Parody(See the breaks posted in response to the Exquisite Fraud). This is basically just taking all the YouTube breaks that people have done and using them as an advertising module for their products with the promise of a "premium box" as a possible prize. What the sheep may not notice is that UD takes all rights to your break when you post, and you are giving them free reign to use it as they please.
I will not be posting any breaks on the Diamond Vision site regardless of the prize due to the ban as well as the reason mentioned above. I posted my breaks for the benefit of the collector, not the benefit of UD. Also, I wouldnt put it past them to post breaks from "collectors" who get amazing stuff in their boxes and then post it on the site. So far, as of 5/5/08 at 10:26 am, I know all the vids are legit because I have interacted with the breakers before the site was active.
If you want to be added to my blog listings, drop me an email through the link above. I have no requirements other than that you return the favor. Thanks!
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