How to Buy Cards on Whatnot

A guide to Whatnot breaks and repacks.

Whatnot is an online marketplace where collectors can buy cards in a variety of ways. Whether you like breaks or repacks, you can buy cards on Whatnot from reputable sellers while engaging with the hobby community. Although it might be overwhelming at first, Whatnot offers a great way to buy sports and TCG cards at affordable prices.

Who is Whatnot For?

Much like eBay and other online marketplaces, there is something for everyone on Whatnot. Collectors mostly buy cards on Whatnot, but you can also find shoes, clothing, jewelry, comics, antiques, and much more. If there’s a community interested in collecting certain items, it’s probably on Whatnot.

Whatnot is also for people who want to stay connected to a community of like-minded people. For sports cards specifically, you don’t have to buy something to talk sports and engage with the streamers and those watching. The best sports card breakers are the ones that create an engaging experience for everyone, regardless of whether they’re spending money.

Why Should I Buy Cards on Whatnot?

Why not! If you like to buy cards on eBay or stop by your local hobby shop to pick up a few packs, Whatnot is just another way to find deals on sports and TCG cards you’re interested in.

Sealed wax is becoming more and more expensive, and many collectors are hesitant to spend hundreds of dollars on a single hobby box. When you buy into a sports card break, you’re purchasing specific teams or players for a small fraction of the cost of a sealed box. This gives buyers a chance to receive the cards or hits from a product they may otherwise not be able to afford. If you buy cards on Whatnot, you’ll usually find lower entry prices that let you focus on the players and teams you care about.

The 3 Main Ways to Buy Cards on Whatnot: Breaks, Repacks, and Singles

There are three main ways to buy cards on Whatnot: breaks, repacks, and singles. Whatnot streamers can sell these items as live auctions or fixed price listings, but auctions are the most popular selling method on Whatnot.

1. Whatnot Breaks

When you’re buying into a sports card break, you’re only buying a fraction of the product that is being opened. If you want to buy football cards on Whatnot, you’ll find breakers opening all kinds of football products. Let’s take one 2023 Panini Donruss Optic Football Hobby Box, for example. A breaker may take a hobby box with a retail price of $650 and offer slots for all 32 teams. That gives buyers an average price of $20 per slot. Once the box is opened on the live stream, you’ll receive all the cards from the team you bought.

If you’re only interested in specific players or teams, buying or bidding on a spot in a PYT (pick your team) break allows you to collect only the cards you want at a reasonable price. Other times, breakers auction off spots and randomly assign teams to everyone in the break.

You’ll also find breaks with a mix of product configurations (hobby and retail) or even a mix of sports. In a traditional hobby shop or online store, buying multiple boxes from different sports can get expensive. A multi-sport break is a great opportunity to get a variety of cards at an affordable price.

2. Whatnot Repacks

Repacks, or mystery boxes, are another way to buy cards on Whatnot. When you buy a hobby or blaster box from Topps or Panini, you know exactly what cards you’re able to pull depending on the product. In contrast, the sky’s the limit with repacks.

Depending on the repack, the cards in them can span multiple sports, years, and products. That means you can have a chance to pull a 2023 Panini Prizm Victor Wembanyama rookie, 2018 Topps Chrome Shohei Ohtani rookie, or a 2017 Panini Donruss Optic Patrick Mahomes rookie all from the same box.

Just like the box and case configuration that Topps and Panini uses for their products, repacks are often configured in the same way. A case of repacks will contain a set number of boxes. The difference, however, is that each repack box holds one card.

Each repack case will have a floor, ceiling, and a bunch of cards in between. The buy-in price per repack is usually somewhere in the middle. For example, a repack case with 12 boxes could have a $50 floor and $500 ceiling. Each repack box will be priced at $150.

When you buy a repack, you’re essentially buying one mystery card from the overall case of repacks. For the buy-in price of $150, you have a chance to pull the ceiling, floor, or a card valued in between. The more repacks you buy, the better chance you have to pull the ceiling.

3. Singles

The most straightforward way to buy cards on Whatnot is to find sellers who are auctioning off singles. Rather than buying a team spot or a randomized repack, you know exactly what card you’re buying. These usually run like any other live auctions — you’re bidding against everyone else in the room within an allotted timeframe.

You can buy both graded and ungraded sports and TCG cards on Whatnot. You might find some auctions with a straight 30 second timer. In others, the timer resets for 10 seconds every time someone bids. However the singles auction is being run, you know exactly what you’re paying for.

The Most Important Tip for Buying Cards on Whatnot

If you’re new to buying cards on Whatnot, your first time opening the app might be overwhelming. There are hundreds of sellers going live at any given time, so you’ll want to narrow it down to the ones worth your time and money.

The most important thing you can do as a buyer is to only buy from reputable sellers. Just like anything else, scammers will try to take advantage of new buyers and those that don’t know what to look for. Check a seller’s reviews before you buy to ensure that others have had good experiences. This will give you confidence that the breaks and repacks are being run fairly and you’ll receive the items you paid for.

Additionally, some of the biggest hobby shops in the country sell on Whatnot. They already have experience and trust within the hobby, and they’re more likely to host high-quality, trustworthy streams. You can follow these sellers, save the streams, and be notified when they go live.

Follow AA Mint Cards on Whatnot

AA Mint Cards is now breaking wax and hosting Mint City repacks, so follow us on Whatnot to get in on the action! If you’re looking to buy cards on Whatnot from a reputable seller, AA Mint Cards is the place to go.