As trading card games have exploded in popularity recently with the likes of Jake Paul with Pokemon or appearances in Pawn Stars with the first edition Charizard, I have stayed on the sidelines and watched as others proudly display their most valuable and most rare cards or their extensive collection. As I watched these individuals talk with a sense of reverence about their cards or collections, I couldn’t help notice that each time that they did talk, it was almost always accompanied by a uncontrollable smile to the face of the individual…. And I wanted it to share in that same joy. Right before COVID and the explosion of the trading card games from the likes of Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, and Yugioh, I was already watching some people break packs with the big hits such as the video where someone had pulled the Alpha Black Lotus. Admittadly, I was more into watching sports cards openings and enjoying watching someone pull a numbered rookie, autographed rookie, or some parallel card, however, the enjoyment endorphins were essentially the same. We all know that trading cards have a little bit of gambling to them but at the same time, most people can accept collecting cards to gambling because you do get something of value, even if it is less than what you paid for. As Pokemon Youtuber Danny Phantom states in essence that there is a fun cost associated with opening packs which makes the value better. Yes, there is a fun cost in gambling but if you lose, you are left with nothing, whereas, with Pokemon, you are left with a pack of cards that you can still collect, trade with others, play in your deck, or with some cards even, over time, will gain in value and may equal or surpass your original cost.
So for me I haven’t opened any trading cards in general and honestly believed it was more gambling than investing. However, watching the trading card market over the past five years, I started to see the investing aspect of trading cards and saw the value in investing. So before I continues, I just wanted to state that prior to buying or “investing” into any trading cards, I was a casual stock investor. No I will not talk stocks with you or strategies or anything, but I just wanted to inform you that I was more into sticking to boring stocks for my investing purposes. However, one thing that I noticed is that no one wants to talk or listen to you talk about stocks or about your porfolio. Most people, I find, are not that into stocks, if they are into stocks, they are into their own thing and not really open to to discussing anything else, or if you start talking stocks or your successes, it starts to get stale and people get bored. I think people are more interested in hearing you fail in the stock market. So that brings me to the trading card market…here it is much different when you talk cards. If you find the right community, they are mostly supportive, ecstatic when you do get a big hit, and enjoy in watching or sharing your collection, if they request it. I do find that if some people share their collection without the right context or requested, than it could be looked at like bragging… so fine line.
Anyway that finally brings me to my First box opening with One Piece Paramount War OP-02. Prior to the release of this trading card game, I was a big fan of One Piece. No I did not watch the series from the beginning but I fell in love once I did discover it. So big in fact, that I bought a bunch of the One Piece 25th Anniversary Trading Card Game English Edition when it came out on Premium Bandai. In fact I was able to order a couple on the last day of the pre-release window. For fans of the trading card game, you would know that this feels like a long time ago since nowadays, for the past two Premium Bandai releases, their products sold out within hours for the One Piece 1 Year Premium Collection and within 1 hour for the Uta Colleciton and Premium Card Games Fest Collection.
By the time I started to actually buy and collect One Piece Booster Boxes, Kingdoms of Intrigue had just come out and Pillars of Strength had dropped so far in price that it was down to $80. I wanted to get some Paramount War but the only place to find reasonably priced Booster boxes were Amazon.com through one of their third party vendors. Additionally, the reviews were not kind as some were alleging resealed boxes. However, on these boxes, Amazon had guaranteed the boxes and also offered refunds. So I figured, I had nothing to lose. However, when I received these boxes, the wrapping was very suspect as they were very loose and very beat up looking. Some if not most, came from overseas.
Now prior to this, I had bought one Romance Dawn OP-01 Booster Box from StockX. However, this box was not what it appeared and could have dampened my interest in Trading Cards or One Piece TCG specifically but I couldn’t help notice how much interest this game was gaining. Therefore, my interest only continued, thankfully, and that is what led me to open this One Piece Paramount War Booster Box.
I wanted to document my Trading card experience with you and also my booster box openings. In the beginning I was cautious with my emotions hoping that the cards inside were at least Paramount War Packs and that they were not tampred with. Upon receiving the boxes, albeit with some skepticism due to their loose and beat-up appearance, I eagerly embarked on the opening process. Despite my novice status, I was relieved to find no evidence of tampering on the packs. Now take that statement with a grain of salt as I am a novice and have no idea how to tell if a box was tampered with or if a pack is resealed unless the glue job was really bad. The anticipation of uncovering the contents within each pack was palpable, especially considering the potential for significant value within the Paramount War series. Upon opening the box, I will admit that the anticipation of the sense of unknown or what you are going to get still excited me. I mean with Paramount War, you can over $1,000 card in a $5-$10 pack.
But to my surprise and to my satisfaction, the packs were not tampered with. Although the packs were hard to open and may need to get used to, I loved opening every pack. I did receive 3 hits in this box. From what I read and hear, most boxes will have only 2. So I did get fortunate to get 3, even though one of them, the Secret Rare Uta, is not the most valuable card in the set.
Here is a summary of hits Spoilers ahead:
My hits were:
Super Rare Alt Art – Magellan
Secret Rare Alt Art – Uta
Secret Rare – Uta
