Is it profitable? I mean, I'm sure it's just like every other release in the history of baseball cards. I don't think it's ever been consistently profitable to open boxes and sell what's inside. If it were, the market would push the price of the boxes up.
The lottery aspect has been mentioned but there's also the adrenaline aspect. We definitely didn't have the opportunity to pull a $2,000 card out of a $20 box when we were kids.
Setting aside the hobby for a moment, the sport of baseball has seen an unprecedented amount of young players enter MLB in the last decade and immediately succeed. It's been written about and pondered and I'm not sure there's been an explanation for it. Kids are debuting at 19 & 20 years old and becoming All-Stars. It's unheard of. Just look at 2018: Ohtani, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, Gleyber Torres, and Miles Mikolas. Studs. All with their rookie cards in 2018 product.
This makes your safety net pretty wide; more chances to hit a card that covers your expenses.
As far as the PSA 10s -- the quality control is extremely high with the modern products. I'd say at least 50% of the cards come out of the pack in PSA 10 condition. The manufacturers have vastly improved their methods, which makes sense considering the amount of money they're charging for their product.
It's funny this got brought up as I find myself getting pulled deeper and deeper into the 2018 baseball line of products. There's a handful that I really like and who doesn't enjoy opening a box of packs every now and then?
Arthur
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"A lot of those guys don't seem to be having as much fun as they should be."
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