It seems that there are a lot of people out there who always try to think of new ways to make money selling cards on eBay. These ways usually take some ridiculous scheme into play that has questionable ethics and questionable authenticity, and yet, there are usually a lot of people who still think everything is peachy keen. Because the major hobby news sources refuse to “SCARE” people – (insert ghostly wail here) – away from collecting cards, no one ever gets the education they need to avoid these scams.

Yes, I get that there are some people out there who probably do everything right, and that a few bad apples can spoil the bunch, but that still doesn’t mean that YOU should take the chance and waste YOUR money. Stick to normal and you will be fine.

The eBay Hosted Group Break

This is a relatively new thing on eBay, where one seller auctions off the slots in a group break, or slots for the teams that are available, rather than hosting it on a blog or a message board. Because they don’t offer random slots in most cases, the better the team, the higher the auction goes for that slot. For those unfamiliar with group breaks, when you buy or are assigned a team in the break of boxes, you get ALL the cards that are pulled regardless of how valuable they may/may not be.

In most cases, group breaks can be fun and a cheap way to have a shot at nice cards from an expensive product you can afford, but why do it on eBay? On ebay, it’s a lot tougher to verify that the guy is legit, in addition to the fact that they are actually out make money for themselves. This is unlike when its hosted elsewhere, and there is no guarantee you will even get what they are advertising. Trust is a big part of group breaks, and I wouldn’t ever trust some of the douchebags that populate eBay at all.

The Hot Pack

If you don’t know what a hot pack is, they are everywhere. Don’t buy into them, not because they don’t deliver what they are advertising, but because they don’t deliver the more valuable parts of what they are advertising. If someone is advertising a guaranteed hit in the pack they are selling on eBay, it’s a searched pack. Aside from the obvious ethical dilemma of searching packs, almost all hot packs for sale are of RETAIL, not HOBBY products. That means that amazing auto or 1/1 you are hoping to pull is about 1,000 to 2,000 times more difficult to pull. Most of the hot packs promise a jersey/auto/patch/jersey auto, but they are almost always a crap 2 dollar jersey card. If you pay two bucks, that’s one thing, but don’t go buying them for a ton of money because I have rarely ever heard of someone buying a hot pack and coming away with something great.

The odds are very much against you, and that’s only if the guy doesn’t open the pack and reseal the cards when the good hits are switched out. Yeah, that superfractor hot pack? Its probably opened, and then resealed with a junk one inside. Cmon people, they arent that dumb to let a top card go in a pack they havent opened yet. STAY AWAY.

The Card Raffle / Grab Bag Giveaway

These come in all sorts of forms, but basically, the seller is promising a card that has been sealed into any number of grab bags. They say someone is going to get that card, but you have to buy these packs for a CHANCE at getting it. The draw is that one of the cheaper packs will have this ultra valuable card.

In reality, there is no guarantee that the card is ever inserted into those packs, and you will probably just end up with junk hits in a bag. Again, there may be one guy who may do it the ethical way, but why even take the chance? The odds are it’s a sham, or that you wont pull anything even worth what you pay, and you are putting all of your TRUST in some guy who is most likely a douche trying to make money the easy way.

Ill keep updating these types of things as I see them, shoot me an email if you know some that I don’t.