Problems with collecting cards

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Breakers

A massive problem with sports cards nowadays are breakers. Breakers are people who sell sports card boxes online in teams or just sell the boxes themselves, and open them in front of a livestream camera. When breakers sell teams, they guarantee that they make money because if a box is $250, and is split into 32 teams for football, and if those team spots are sold at $20 each, they make $640 on the box. When they sell the boxes themselves, they get to experience the pack opening while still not losing any money themselves. This seems somewhat honest, right? Unfortunately, these breakers are notorious for scamming and stealing cards. Two of the most notable examples of this were the breakers Backyard Breaks giving away a pack of football cards that contained a 1/10 gold Trevor Lawrence card (which at the time was worth $20,000+) and stated that they "couldn't give away that one” and kept it, and Kryotics, a breaker that pulled the 1/1 Lamine Yamal rookie card valued at $50,000, and kept it, claiming it was “mis-shipped” online.

PSA

Aside from Breakers, one of the most famous frauds that still keeps getting away today is the leader of sports cards grading, PSA. For those who don’t know, grading basically rates a card on how clean it is from 1-10, putting it into a plastic case, and shipping it back to you. For one, grading at this company is like gambling. If someone has a bad day when grading your valuable card, you are out a lot of money. That's not even mentioning the high grading cost, and what is even worse, the “insurance” on your cards included in the grading cost. When shipping a valuable card, PSA will ask the value of the card, and if you have pulled a million dollar card, and put the card’s worth as a million dollars, they will charge you “$250,001 or higher” just to grade the card. Even if that card ends up being like one thousand dollars, they will still charge the high grading cost. At least at this level, they give notes on how they graded the card and what imperfections caused it to be worth less. You might ask, why even grade a card? PSA 9-10s usually double if not triple the value of cards.

Ebay

One of the most reliable and unreliable sports cards selling and buying companies is Ebay. Ebay has one of the best platforms for buying, selling, and bidding on sports cards, but Ebay is notorious for having bad sellers. One of the best examples of this is the fake graded cards. These budget grading companies like PTA offer graded cards at a fraction of the cost. In reality, PTA should really be BGA, for Backyard Grading Authentication. These “PTA graded cards” are just someone putting a plastic case over a card and giving them whatever grade they want, upping the value as they increase the grade. Also, check before you buy a graded card, because some people can take authentic, PSA graded cards and open them up, without a trace. Then, they up the grade, and it still looks authentic due to the PSA graded cover.

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Noah Lewis is a 10th grader at the white and blue school of Poudre high school. This is his first year in Poudre Press. He is also an avid wrestler, who wrestles year round. Other hobbies he enjoys include mountain biking, collecting sports memorabilia/cards, camping, and playing video games.

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Sources

“Collector Guides.” Professional Sports Authenticator, www.psacard.com/Resources/Guides

. Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.

“Sports Card Breakers: The State of Breaking.” Giant Sports Cards, giantsportscards.com/blogs/blog/sports-card-breakers. Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.

“Rookie Card PSA Graded.” eBay, www.ebay.com/itm/318049437614

. Accessed 31 Mar. 2026.