Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Druff, on radio you read this tweet and noted that you didn't know what "breaks" are. I recently learned about these things. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong (again, I'm no expert) but "breaks" are a form of gambling, typically done on Facebook. A bunch of my friends are addicted to them. Here's how they work - sports memorabilia dealers set up a "Jersey Breaks" group on Facebook. Typically, the items are signed jerseys. Each signed jersey would sell for $400-$1000 but most people don't want to shell out that kind of cash. So they can enter a draw (for a fee) with a small number of people to win the jersey. The dealer will post on the Facebook site that there will be a draw when a certain number of people enter by paying the fee. Then on live video, the dealer does the draw and the winner is sent the item.
It probably works a bit different depending on the dealer and the items but I'll give an example of what I observed for a "Hockey Breaks" site: The dealer has a bunch of unopened boxes containing various signed hockey jerseys. He doesn't know which jersey is in which box but he has a list of the jerseys he has on hand (which he uses to advertise on the facebook group - e.g., "The signed Crosby jersey is still available!"). Some of them are rare and desirable called "Headliners" (e.g., signed Connor McDavid) and some of them are "Fillers" (e.g., signed jersey from a middling player). The dealer posts on his facebook group that there will be a draw when 5 people send him $80 each. Once 5 people transfer him $80 (in Canada we use Interac e-transfer), the draw begins. Live on camera the dealer will first randomly draw one of the boxes containing a jersey. In the one I saw, he filmed his computer monitor with a simple randomizer wheel (e.g.,
https://wheelofnames.com/ ) to first draw a number which corresponds to one of the unopened boxes. Let's say it lands on #5 so he takes box #5 and opens it on camera. He shows the jersey on the live feed. Now he randomly selects the winner of the jersey by putting the 5 entrants' names in the randomizer and spins again. Whoever it lands on wins the jersey. It kind of sounds like a scam but it is legit - he mails the winner their jersey promptly. They will hold one or two of these draws each day until the collection of boxes have all been won. Then they get a new collection of boxes and start again. In a way it's kind of like Deal or No Deal because if there are a bunch of headliners left near the end, more people will want to enter the draw and the dealer can jack up the price of entry. However, if all the headliners are claimed early, then few people will want to enter and the dealer will have to lower the entry fee.
Now, who knows how he gets each jersey and how much he's paying for each one. I have to imagine that it's not a simple matter of "I could either sell this jersey outright for $400 or I could get 5 people to pay $80 and there's no difference to my bottom line." I have no doubt that the dealers can sell more items and get more profit by piecing out entry fees than selling each item for a high amount. Especially when you factor in the fillers which nobody is going to pay a high amount for. Meanwhile, the people winning these things often want to turn around and sell them as soon as they win them to turn their own "profit."
To make a long story short, "breaks" appear to be a degen form of negative EV gambling. So it's not surprising that Postle would get into that kind of thing.
Reply With Quote