The Problem with Breakers (and How I Do it Ethically)

An arbitration complaint has been filed against Whatnot for their card breaking practices. It specifically challenges the legality of randomized breaks and repackaged products as gambling. It further alleges that Whatnot does not have the proper safeguards in place to protect consumers, similar to what casinos are required to have. 

I’ve been breaking on Whatnot for two years now and I am deeply concerned over the practices of many breaking operations both on and off the platform. The best way to clean this up would be for the hobby to self-regulate and “vote with their dollars,” and I believe in a free market this would happen. However, with Whatnot, Fanatics, and others putting their finger on the scale in favor of breaking experiences that favor their bottom line and potentially put consumers at risk, I welcome this legal action. 

While I’ve not read the complaints in full, I wanted to lay out a few of my concerns with the current state of breaking and offer ethical alternatives, including practices that I’ve been following for my business.

The Bad

• Random Teams: I maintain that the smartest way to buy into breaks is for your PC team (Why buy a $200 hobby box, when you can get the cards you really want for $15?). This same thing applies if you're chasing a specific player or hit. The chance to get a great team at a low price is appealing for many: however, with random teams, you are hoping for one of the best teams in the product to hit and more times than not, you will be disappointed. Simply put, with a random team break, you have to win twice. And all this is not to mention the current legal challenges with this format. Don't get my wrong, I know good people who run random team breaks, but it's more risky, leans more toward gambling, and just not the way I choose to run my business. 

• Trading 2 teams for 1: I am seeing this more and more, and it’s like random teams on steroids. This is darn near predatory. Breakers do this so that their customers can overpay for bad teams more than once. This should absolutely not be allowed. 

• Random Player Breaks: The ugly cousin of random team breaks is the random player break. This time buyers are not hoping for a handful of the best teams of 30-32, but with random players they are hoping for the best handful of players of 300-400. To make matters worse, there have been more and more random player breaks that have been mixing products and product years, resulting in the ability to sell 600 or more spots. 

 

• Repacks: I have never bought into a repack break on whatnot or otherwise. I’ve watched them and have seen some people do very well. The issue is that the breaker knows what’s in the packs (to varying degrees by breaker, to be fair). There have been many instances, which I won’t name here, of people intentionally rigging repack breaks for their family and friends. 

 

• Shill Bidding: This is probably the hardest to prove, but if you watch the bidding activity for some of the big breakers, it’d be hard not to come to the conclusion that this is happening. 

• Screaming at “Chat”: Why people subject themselves to be constantly yelled at to bid higher is beyond me. These are usually the bigger rooms, and it usually works. If you’re starting teams at $1, you WILL have some auctions that do not sell for as much as you need to break even. If you don’t like it, don’t start teams at $1. 

• Lying About Value: There are big issues with this for singles auctions, but it’s also an issue for breakers. I recently was watching a break, where it was stated that “anything under $40 is amazing value” and “we need to be over $40.” The box he was running was a $350 box. $40 per spot is $1,200 total, and I know he’s got fees and some overhead, but claiming he needs over$1,200 on that break is deceiving and manipulative.

• Maximizing Profit at the Expense of the Uninformed: I want to be careful here because I believe in the free market, but I also believe in charging a fair price, even if a buyer is willing to pay more. For example, I recently saw the Dodgers sell for $320 in a case break of 2026 Topps Heritage. The case cost the breaker $1,320. Charging one person 25% of the total case cost for a single team is taking advantage of a buyer who likely doesn't know the product. It’s simply not right.

The list of things not to do got longer than I anticipated, but let’s turn the page and let me explain a few principles I use to run breaks as ethically as possible. Breaking is inherently risky - there’s no way to fully mitigate this risk, but I believe the following principles make for the best breaking experience possible.

My Ethical Breaking Principles:

1. PYT Only: Teams are priced according to the strength of their checklist. More expensive teams are more risky, because you still can do poorly in the break. You choose the level of risk you want to take. If you want a high quantity, lower ceiling team, we have a team for you. If you want to take more risk and buy a high-ceiling, but low quantity, we have some of those as well. 
2. It’s All About Community: To me, this means a couple of things, 1) No high pressure sales - if you want a team, great! If you want to hang out and talk ball and see some cards, all good! 2) Be nice to people and treat people with respect, and 3) Family-friendly shows - shows you wouldn’t be ashamed to let your kid watch - there is so much filth in many breakers’ rooms, not just from themselves, but their music as well.
3. Transparency: If someone wants to know what the box costs, or what’s already been hit in the case, I tell them. Also, I stream all my breaks simultaneously on YouTube. I never agreed with Whatnot’s decision last year to make replays only available to buyers - a decision which seemingly was in reaction to some pretty terrible things being said by a large breaker on camera.
4. Fair Prices: Not only do I try to have the best prices on the platform, I also try to be fair. This means that just because someone might be willing to pay $320 for the Dodgers in a single case of 2026 Topps heritage, doesn’t mean I will charge nearly that much. That is not a fair price for this product. Some may say that the market dictates what a spot is worth and I see that perspective, but I do NOT want someone paying more for a spot than I think it’s worth. This also makes it more likely they are satisfied with their purchase post-break. Another thing I will not do is dollar starts on a product pre-release (for those without a direct contract relationship with Topps, I don’t care if it gets broken early). I do care, however, about people running dollar starts just because they know pre-release hype will drive up prices far higher than they’re worth. As a business I’m leaving some money on the table, but I can sleep better at night. Lastly, I also don’t believe in jacking up the prices and negotiating them back down. With my breaks the prices are what they are - I offer a small multi-team discount and I’ll occasionally run some discounts on the last 3-5 teams to fill. You can have confidence in pre-buying with me because I don’t play those games.
5. Not Selling More Breaks Spots Than Cards: I will not sell 30 spots in a break that only have 5 cards - like a Topps Gilded box, for example. Yes, people can still completely skunk in some of the smaller breaks I run, but I thinks it's important not to design a break that way from the start. If it does happen, I still send cards from my collection. 

We have an amazing opportunity right now to move past the "wild west" era of breaking and get back to what really matters: the cards, the players, and the people we share this experience with. Breaking is at its best when it's a transparent, fair, and fun way to build a collection without feeling like you're being taken for a ride. I’m proud to run my business by these principles, and I’m even more excited to keep ripping packs with a community that values the hobby as much as I do.

-Eric B.