I think anyone who plays a card game and says they haven't at some point in their lives at least humoured the idea of buying a lot of sealed packs in bulk, is lying. Aside from playing the actual game itself, the gamble of a booster pack is something that all of us have fallen for at least once in our lives. And how could the allure not be there? There is no better feeling in than paying a few pounds for a booster pack and pulling a card that triples your money back, or more (except maybe triple critical for game, but other cardies don't quite get that!). We've all pulled great from booster packs and we've all gone rare for rare. But I recently took this one step further. or actually. 479 steps further.
I am currently in-between jobs and will in a few weeks be starting my first full time care role, so i thought I would try something I've never tried before, because I am not going to be in a position to do it again for the foreseeable future. I dropped a chunk of money on a case. 16 booster boxes, 480 booster packs. I have a video up of my first box as well as a review of my pulls on my you tube channel, but I thought I could better put in words here my experience of a case and whether or not I recommend anyone else to do the same.
So first off as I'm sure you are wondering, the case cost me £720 (about $1000), it was posted to me by courier on the day of release by Chaos Cards. (www.chaoscards.co.uk). If you do plan on buying bulk, or even just a box or two for the release date of anything, then I recommend Chaos Cards, I can't flaw them.
The case was delivered, sealed from Bushiroad, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't pretty excited. I've been playing card games since I was in primary school ( about 7-8 years old) and I'd never even seen so many booster packs, let alone thought I'd be opening them. I'd only pre-sold a few parts so I was basically looking at a giant boost to my collection, as well as hopefully making some of my money back. So I got straight into it. I'd never opened more than one booster box before so for the first few boxes I was in a pretty good mood. But slowly. I got bored. I opened 8 boxes and the prospect of opening another 8 was daunting. You would think I would have rushed through them, but I actually had to take a break half-way through. All in all it took me well over two hours to open all of the boxes and probably another two or three to sort through them all. I had a friend who bought a case of GBT01 and he had told me it was hell, but I couldn't have believed that before I experienced it myself. The only word I can think to describe it is boredom. By the time I was half-way through I excruciatingly bored, I just wanted them all to be open so I could assess what I had pulled.
The thing with a case is that you buy so many packs that you are guaranteed a lot of good stuff. From GBT07 onwards the GR pull-rate is increased, you get two of the special SP clan packs in a case as well as one of each of the SGR. But these things are guaranteed. Even before I opened a single pack from the case I knew that I had all of those things guaranteed as well as a multiples of everything. There is a huge difference between buying a booster pack and pulling a money card, and pulling a money card from a case that you have already more than pre-paid for. To put it in non-card game terms, it is the difference between winning £200 on a £1 scratch-card and buying one million £1 scratchcards and winning £800,000. A good pull from a case isn't a good pull because you have already paid for it. The only difference between a good case and a bad case are the SP cards you get, and whether or not you got the cards that you wanted.
Originally I was going to buying a case of the Bermuda Triangle Clan pack, but about a month before the release of GBT07 I decided that a main booster set would be a better investment than one with only one clan, and I had a keen interest in Angel feather, Dark Irregulars and then later on Gold Paladins, so there was enough of a chunk of things I was after to be able to get what I wanted and make some money. But did I get everything I wanted for those 3 clans? Luckily yes, but the answer could just as easily have been no. Up until now the ratios within a case meant that a case was a purchase of at least four of every RR and above, excluding GR. With this set that has changed, and while the only RRR I didn't get 4 of was Chronofang Tiger and the Gold Paladin Grade 2, it seems it is impossible to guarantee play-sets, however I believe the GR and SGR have a much more fixed rate, I pulled 2 of each in GR and 1 of each in SGR. But all that being said. Is it worth it?
The answer to that is it really depends. I managed to pull an SP Gavrail stride as well as clan packs for clans which I use (GP and DI) as well as being able to finish my Blade Wing and Rescue deck (profiles for both coming soon!) so that has to be taken into account when looking at value of the case; what I am using and what I have been able to sell. If we look for now purely after the case has been bought, i.e. ignoring the planning step before hand, then with what I am using and what I have been able to sell I have gone negative, but not more than about £100. Which, in fairness, is a lot, but when you dropped £720 to begin with it is only a small amount. one could argue that cost is for the experience. But there are a number of other things that need to be taken into account, such as how some RRR cards have significantly less value than others, for example Black Seraph Gavrail is 4 or 5 times more than Wings of Recurrence, Blade Wing Reijy, because of popularity and how universal the card is to it's clan, as in any Angel Feather deck can play Black Seraph, whereas the new Reijy is exclusive to a new and under-whelmingly supported archetype. Every set has one or two RRR cards that you'd rather not pull (GBT06 had Clockfencer Dragon, for example which is now worth no more than an average RR). These need to be factored in when thinking about whether or not to buy a case.
Is it possible to break even or even plus on a case? Again, this question has a lot of factors that need to be taken into account. For example if I had not wanted to keep any of my SP cards, I could have made more money that way and been a lot closer to the bench-mark of breaking even, or if I didn't play one of the most popular clans in the set. But I chose not to, which drove down my chance at profit.
It's here that I want to talk about a company called Big Orbit Games, who trade also as Cardfight Vanguard Singles. These guys are both a blessing and a curse. Let me explain. For the most part the site has fair values, older cards that can be hard to find and they will even buy your cards for cash or credit in their store, which I highly recommend by the way, they don't buy all cards, but it's worth checking out what they are buying. I have two issues with them however. The first is to do with people using it as a platform to value cards (i'm going to do a big post about valuing cards, where I will go more into detail, so look out for that!). The second is that they are the secondary market for singles when a set is launched. You might be wondering, how is this in anyway bad? They have lots of stock and their prices are very fair, and the answer is that it isn't bad, it's actually great, many a time I have picked up full decks that have just been released on credit alone. As a buyer they are great. As a seller they are your biggest competitor. They buy bulk of new sets, in bulk, purchasing a number of cases, and the fact is when you are buying just the one, you cannot physically compete with them. The only way you will make sales out of your case is by undercutting the people who are undercutting everyone else. This may seem like an attack on B.O.G or slander, but it isn't. It is just me telling you, as someone who has experienced it, that competing with Cardfight Vanguard Singles is a total waste of your time, and if you have invested money.
So what is the point of getting a case then, I hear you crying out. Well. If you are one person looking to get all you want for a couple of decks and then break even, there isn't one. That is the situation I was in and the only plus is the experience of it. If you only want one deck out of a set and will sell the rest of everything else then you may break even or plus a little. But I will say this. If you are in that position and looking to make money off of it then do your research. B.O.G put up pre-order prices for play sets of everything in a clan in a set, so before you put down the money, see if it is possible for you to pre-sell everything you don't want and make money. It's important that you understand that Singles are able to sell at the prices they do and make profit, because they buy bulk in bulk. I can promise you they still make a lot of profit, otherwise they wouldn't crack cases, they are a business first. You, as an individual person will struggle to make profit using their prices or lower, which you have to otherwise you don't make sales.
So getting a case for yourself is a huge risk with very little actual reward. Is it ever worth buying a case if you are not a shop who can buy a lot of cases?
Well the answer to this question, is a lot more solid in my mind. Wait for a set with a clan in it you consider to be one of your favourites and say to people; "I want to experience a case. Who wants to go in for it with me?" Depending on the size of your locals, chances are you will be able to find 4 or 5 people who are interested. If you order from Chaos Cards, a case works out at £1.50 per booster pack. Decide if you want to just go in and all have some packs, or if you will wait to see values to decide who gets what. Like Vanguard as a whole, I think to fully enjoy a case you need to do experience it with a number of people, you will likely all be friends so you can make sure that everyone gets their money's worth. Take it from someone who has done it solo, as fun as it seems, it really is not. To end the article I'm just going to put a few number crunchers down as well as a few links to things i've spoke about in the post.
www.chaoscards.co.uk
Cost of case = £720
£720= 16 boxes = 480 booster packs. = £1.50 per pack = £45 per box.
4 people pay 180 each, each box costs £45, they save £20 on the retail value of 4 boxes i.e. £5 saving per box.
alternatively you can wait to see how the cards value up and have each person pay in what they are wanting from the case, this method isn't so reliable since the lack of solid ratios, but is still something to consider.
Another option is if you and a single friend have a bit of money to spend, you can pay half each (£360) and split everything down the middle. (works out to 24 RRR each, 2 of each GR and 1 of each SGR each.) This method works if there is a lot in the set you are after and you are likely to be spending that kind of money on the cards anyway, as you get SGR and SP cards out of it also.
http://cardfightvanguardsingles.co.uk/
Cardfight Singles are worth checking out, if for nothing else than to see if you can make some money off your old cards!
As also thanks for reading!
- Flogal
