Could be since last year or prior to covid or whenever. Just feels like to me there's less box breaks.
Could be a few factors I thought - terrible value for money, rather put into sets/singles and grading or even when it is broken what you get is embarassing to show/can't be bothered posting.
Breakers being able to pass on any purchase prices to the participants in their break has made it unviable to bust personal packs and breaks these days. It sucks. I used to bust up to 20 boxes a year for fun and havent even busted a pack in 3-4 years.
My son watches breaks and gets excited at some of the cards the hit (even Wemby sometimes) and then I tell him to look up the comp and the best hits is less than 5% of the product cost. Imagine buying a box, hitting a Wemby and it being worth less than the box price? that never happened 5+ years ago.
I really miss the feeling but it makes zero financial sense
I have not been a big sealed wax buyer for over a decade. I have bought exactly one blaster of 23-24 sealed product and since I was able to hit a Wembenyama RC that will be all I buy.
I have steered clear of sealed product for all the reasons mentioned above and also because I find the vast majority of what Panini release to be repetitive and uninspiring.
I'm a lot less. The price is unjustifiable. They need to get back to sane 2010ish price points.
90 - 130 for a UD or Panini hobby box of 20ish packs. Just your standard hoops style set.
Then 90 - 250 for your hit products. 1 - 4 packs like SPx SPGU Gold Standard Limited Crown Royale etc.
Then have our super premiums can go from there.
Have to have that entry level product to keep people interested. Crown Royale needs to come right back down i nprice, one of my favourite sets, now completely unaffordable.
I'm about the same but am steering toward buying older stuff I can afford as well as completing old sets over buying new product. This is mainly because I've only got two active PC players (patty mills and Jeff green) who are in the downside of their careers and it makes no sense in buying new boxes if they're not there.
For me my box breaking rate has been extremely consistent - basically started at zero, peaked at zero and currrently sits at zero. If I wanted to gamble I;d have better odds betting on the actual games!