I ordered another Loot Locker in March. Just like in February, I ordered the Triple Play Locker, with a little extra stuff compared to the basic All-Star Locker. In addition to baseball lockers, they offer basketball, football, and hockey lockers. The draw with Loot Locker over a repack box is that all of the packs in Loot Lockers are from Hobby boxes. For people who don't have a local card shop, or people whose local card shop isn't all it could be, this is a decent alternative to a monthly card store trip to pick up a handful of packs and supplies.
The cards ship in a 400-count box, so even the packaging is useful to a card collector.
You get a couple pieces of candy, as well as some top loaders and penny sleeves.
This month's packs included 2 each of 2017 Panini Optic, 2018 Panini Donruss, and 2018 Topps Gypsy Queen. According to my calculations, my February Locker included $28.64 in packs. My method is just to take the box prices from a major card retailer's site, divide them by the number of packs in a box, and multiply by the number of packs in the Locker. Let's see what I counted up for this month's packs:
2017 Panini Optic: $89.95 / 20 = $4.50 x 2 = $9.00
2018 Panini Donruss: $87.95 / 24 = $3.66 x 2 = $7.32
2018 Topps Gypsy Queen: $119.95 / 24 = $5.00 x 2 = $10.00
$9.00 + $7.32 + $10.00 = $26.32
That really feels like it's a pack shy of what I'd expect from this box. The value on last month's box felt about right. This one has $2.32 less in calculated value, and it really felt like there was less there than last month's box did.
Another pack of Donruss would have been very welcome here, but an additional $3.66 might push this too high. Their model has been to include three products in each Locker, but I calculated about $1.50 for a Hobby pack of 2018 Topps Series 1 last month. That could close the gap without going over. Maybe last month just gave me an inflated sense of what I could expect to get in a Loot Locker.
I obviously don't know what Loot Locker's costs are on these things, so I can't really say what a true reasonable value band is for the included packs. They have to include the cost of the cards, supplies, shipping, candy, packing peanuts, ink and paper for shipping labels, payment processing fees, website hosting, labor, the cost of prize packs for the randomly-inserted extra packs, taxes, and maybe a little profit.
Not much came out of Gypsy Queen. I guess the J.P. Crawford Fortune Teller insert was the biggest hit. I also got a Lance McCullers Jr. base card for my only Astro of the entire break.
I got a couple of nickname variations, a Diamond King of Bryce Harper, and a shiny Stat Line parallel of Buster Posey numbered # 102 / 228.
The Optic packs didn't yield a whole lot of interest for me. The highlights were probably a Prizm Diamond Kings card of Dexter Fowler and a Prizm card of Ryne Sandberg.
That does it for this Loot Locker. It was kind of a disappointing month. It felt a little light on packs, and the packs I got didn't yield much of interest to me. The lack of exciting pulls probably accentuated the feeling of disappointment. I'll probably keep ordering Loot Lockers, but I may try dropping down to the All-Star Locker at some point. I like what Loot Locker does, and I think they provide a good service to collectors without card shops to visit. I feel like it's good to support them where I can.
I've been pleased with all of my Loot Locker purchases, but I always have stuck to the cheapest price tier and feel like I've actually been pretty lucky.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely interested in the Fowler if you don't have a home for it already.
I think they offer a good product at a reasonable price. I feel like I get about what I'd get for the same amount of money from my local card shop, and I don't have to deal with the inconvenience of making that extra trip.
DeleteAnd I can probably send you that Fowler. I just have to keep it from getting lost in my card pile/collection for long enough to get it shipped.
DeleteThanks for the analysis. These pique my interest occasionally but I have never pulled the trigger. I think they are a good idea, but in the end I'd probably rather have a blaster of something I picked. I could see these being a neat idea for a booth at a card show but you have to think shipping cuts into the profits, even with bulk discounts on the product.
ReplyDeleteThey aren't making a lot of money on this thing. Even if they sell a couple hundred lockers a month, they might not even be shipping a full case of some products, so I don't know how much of a bulk discount they are getting. After you figure up all the other costs, this operation isn't making money that someone could live off of. At best it is funding a few personal box breaks for the owner, or like a moderate car payment or something.
DeleteNice pull on the Sandberg. I also like seeing Donruss has nickname variations.
ReplyDeleteI guess they could have included a pack or two of Opening Day to get closer to the expected value.
The nickname variations are pretty cool. I don't really know what a reasonable expected value would be. I'd have to track it for longer than two months to get a good feel. This one just felt like less than last month. I imagine it all averages out if you subscribe for a whole year or more, especially if you wind up with a bonus pack during that time.
DeleteI enjoy reading these posts... as well as watching other collectors crack their Loot Lockers on YouTube. Not sure if I'll ever actually spend money with them, since I'd rather just buy a single I want for my collection. But who knows... maybe one day I'll go wild and use one of these to scratch that pack busting itch we all get from time to time.
ReplyDeleteIt probably makes more sense to just buy singles, but like you said, every so often you get the pack-busting itch, and this is a good way to scratch it.
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