The Hobby Boards

I don't get the appeal and the money spent to push video sales platforms like Whatnot, Facebook live, and eBay live.
I like being able to buy things on my own time via auctions and buy it now on several platforms.
Not bashing anyone who sells or participates in these activities, it just doesn't appeal to me.

It’s more about gambling than collecting IMO. I actually used to participate in breaks from 2014 through 2017 or so. Mostly I’d get into team breaks for the Nuggets as they were super cheap at the time and I’d use the base cards I got to put together teams sets if I didn’t hit a bigger card.

No proud to say it, but that did turn into a bit of an addiction in the later years as I was joining random breaks and was racking up cc debt for awhile with not much to show for it. Were talking like 1-2k, so likely nothing like what people getting into nowadays with case/box prices, but still made me feel stupid. I decided it wasn’t worth it so I gave it up completely and haven’t joined a break since.

That said, I do get the addiction side of it searching for that next “hit”. It’s totally something Fanatics is going to try and capitalize on and really doesn’t make me feel all that great for future generations of “collectors”.

There is the social aspect of being with others with a common interest, in this case, cards. Add the fear of missing out on a big hit with the gambling aspect and a couple of other psychological manipulations and you create what these streaming sites are doing. The main aspect is to extract money from the common buyer to their pockets. I don't care for it, but I can see why it can get popular. I have my reservations on this medium and I'm not sure if it's healthy for the hobby. We'll see how this plays out.