Break Rules, Odds & Fairness

1. The formats we run

• Sealed wax breaks. Factory-sealed boxes or cases (for example 2025-26 Topps Pristine Basketball) opened live. You buy a team spot and receive every card pulled for that team. Sold as Random Team, Pick Your Team, or Hit Draft (section 6).
• Certified slab repack breaks.Graded cards (PSA, BGS, SGC, CGC or similar) that we own, packed and sealed into tamper-evident packs by a manufacturer on Whatnot’s Identified Product List, with that manufacturer’s public checklist, and opened live with exactly one spot per card (section 7). We do not seal repacks ourselves and we do not sell or open repacks that are not on that list.
• Singles shows. Individual, identified cards sold by auction or at a fixed price. Not a break: there is no spot and no element of chance (section 8).

We do not run any format in which more spots are sold than there are cards, in which a spot can receive nothing, or in which a prize, bonus or bounty depends on what is pulled or which team you draw.

2. Buying a spot

Spots are sold only on Whatnot, normally by auction with a $1 start, sometimes at a fixed price; the listing says which. We never sell or hold spots off Whatnot, in advance, or in another show. Whatnot handles payment and sales tax at checkout, and buyers pay shipping at Whatnot checkout. A spot purchase is governed by Whatnot’s terms and is final once the product is opened or the assignment has begun, except as Whatnot’s own policies provide.

You must be 18 or older to buy a spot and you must comply with Whatnot’s rules. One person may buy more than one spot in the same break. People connected to us may not buy spots at all (section 9).

3. Every spot receives a card; every break fills first

Every spot receives at least one card. In a wax break you receive every card pulled for your team, base cards included. If no card of your team is pulled, you receive a card of that team from our own inventory, stated in the listing before the first spot sells. That card is a fixed, disclosed part of what every spot buys; it is not a prize and it does not depend on anything else that happens in the break. In a slab repack break there are exactly as many spots as cards, so every spot receives exactly one graded card.

No break opens until every spot has sold.If spots remain after the auction we keep selling them live, and may lower the starting price, until they fill. If a break cannot be filled in the show, we do not open it: every purchase for that break is cancelled and refunded through Whatnot, and the sealed product may be offered again in a later show. No card can ever go to a “house team” or back to us.

4. How teams and cards are assigned

Randomizer.In a Random Team break, teams are assigned after the last spot sells using Whatnot’s in-app randomizer, on camera, with the result recorded in Whatnot’s break tool before anything is opened. Where we use a physical team deck instead, each team card is shown to the camera, the deck is shuffled on camera, and cards are dealt face-down to the spot list in order and turned over one at a time. Every spot has an equal chance of every team. We never use weighted wheels, machines, games, or anything that gives one spot better odds than another, and we never draw off camera or redraw once a draw has started.

Which team a card belongs to.A card goes to the team shown on the card. A multi-player card goes to the team with the majority of players on it, otherwise to the team of the first-listed player. A card with no team logo (college, national team, retired or free-agent players) goes to the player’s current team, or, for retired players, to the team on the product checklist; we announce that rule before the first pack is opened. Redemption cards go to the team on the checklist. A card that fits no team under these rules goes to a spot chosen by the randomizer among all spots, on camera.

No trades through us.Once teams or cards are assigned they cannot be traded, swapped or refunded through us. Whatnot’s own policies govern any refund.

5. What every listing discloses, and what we never say

Before the first spot sells, the Whatnot listing and the show notes state:

• the format (wax or certified slab repack; Random Team, Pick Your Team or Hit Draft);
• the product: for wax, the exact product and the number of boxes or cases; for a slab repack, the manufacturer, the product name and a link to its public checklist;
• the number of spots, and for a slab repack the number of cards (always equal);
• for wax, the manufacturer’s box configuration and printed odds (cards per pack, packs per box, guaranteed hits per box, and the pack odds for each autograph, relic and parallel tier), linked or shown on the box;
• what counts as a hit for that product, and that every spot receives at least one card;
• any special assignment rule for that product.

What we never say.We do not state or imply a floor, ceiling, average or expected value for a spot, a team, a box or a repack, and we do not quote comparison or “last sale” values during the sale of spots. We never describe a card as being in a product unless the manufacturer’s checklist or the sealed product says so, and we never show a card on stream as a “possible hit” that is not actually in the product being opened. Nothing about a break is a guarantee of value, a return or a profit. Our break stats page records how past breaks played out; those numbers are history, not a prediction. Trading cards are collectibles, not investments. Only spend what you can afford to lose.

6. Sealed wax breaks

We open factory-sealed hobby product. The product stays sealed and on camera from the first spot sold until the last pack is opened, and our hands, the packs and the cards stay in view throughout. Formats:

• Random Team. One spot per team in the league the product covers (30 for the NBA, 32 for the NFL, 30 for MLB; the listing states the count). Spots are auctioned; teams are assigned by randomizer after the last spot sells (section 4).
• Pick Your Team. You choose your team at purchase, by auction or at a fixed price.
• Hit Draft. We sell exactly as many spots as there are guaranteed hits in the product. The draft order is set by randomizer on camera and each buyer picks a hit in turn; base cards are distributed as stated in the listing.

Odds.The odds in a wax break are the manufacturer’s. We publish the box configuration and the printed pack odds for every tier and the number of boxes in the break, so you can see the guaranteed hits per break against the number of spots. Which team those hits belong to is decided by the manufacturer’s collation, which we cannot see or influence. Example: a 2025-26 Topps Pristine Basketball hobby box holds 6 packs of 7 cards plus 3 encased packs of 1 card, 45 cards in all, with 3 autographs guaranteed per box; Topps prints the pack odds for each autograph and parallel tier, which we link in the listing. A one-box, 30-spot break of that product therefore carries 3 guaranteed autographs across 30 teams, and no team is guaranteed one.

7. Certified slab repack breaks

What the product is.Graded cards that we own are sent to a repack manufacturer on Whatnot’s Identified Product List, which packs and seals them in its own audited facility into tamper-evident packs carrying its branding, and publishes the checklist for the product on its website. The listing names the manufacturer and links that checklist. We do not seal repacks ourselves, and we do not sell, open or give away a sealed repack that is not on that list.

What a spot receives.A slab repack break sells exactly one spot per card in the packs being opened: a 10-card product is opened for 10 spots, never more. The packs are opened on camera and each card is assigned to a spot by Whatnot’s randomizer, or buyers pick in a randomizer-set draft order, as the listing states. Every spot receives exactly one graded card. Where a product is built one card per team, the listing says so, the number of spots equals the number of teams, and each team spot receives its team’s card.

Odds.Each spot has the same chance of each card in the packs being opened. The manufacturer’s checklist shows the pool of cards for the product. We do not state the value of any card, a floor, a ceiling or an average, and we do not pick, swap or re-sort cards after sealing. Grades are the grading company’s opinion, not ours; what you see on camera when a slab is revealed is what ships to you, in the holder and with the grade shown, and every certificate can be checked on the grader’s website.

A single sealed repack pack may also be sold whole to one buyer and opened live for them (“rip and ship”). That is a sale of the whole product, not a break; the visibility rules above still apply.

8. Singles shows

In a singles show we sell identified individual cards, raw or graded, by auction or at a fixed price. Each card is shown on camera and described in its listing, and you receive exactly the card you bought. There is no spot, no assignment and no element of chance, so none of the break rules above apply beyond our general conduct and shipping rules.

9. Staff do not buy spots

Trusted Rips LLC owners, employees, contractors, moderators, their family and their household members do not buy spots in any Trusted Rips break, under any account. We do not hold spots for ourselves, fill unsold spots with our own accounts, or take back cards after assignment. If a spot is ever mistakenly bought by someone connected to us, it is voided and refunded and, if teams or cards have already been assigned, the assignment is redone on camera before anything further is opened.

10. If the stream fails

• Before anything is opened or assigned: we resume in a new stream, announced on Whatnot, and continue there. Your spot purchase carries over.
• During the team assignment:assignments already made and recorded in Whatnot’s break tool stand. When we are back we show the recorded list and continue from the next unassigned spot. If we cannot show the completed assignments, we restart the assignment from the beginning.
• During the opening:cards already revealed and assigned stand. When we are back we show the remaining sealed packs or boxes on camera and continue. All product from a break is opened in the same show; if we cannot resume within a reasonable time, we follow Whatnot’s policy for an interrupted break and notify every buyer on Whatnot and on this site.

Recordings of every break are kept and any buyer can ask to review one. We do not cancel a break because of who received a card, and we do not redraw teams because a stream dropped after the assignment was complete.

11. After the break: shipping and buybacks

Cards are cataloged and, in most cases, ship the next business day using the label Whatnot generates for your order. Graded cards ship in a sleeve inside a bubble mailer; raw cards in a penny sleeve and top loader or team bag. If you win several cards in the same show they ship together where Whatnot allows. See the Shipping & Refund Policy for the details and for what to do if something arrives damaged or wrong.

For some graded cards we may make a buyback offer in your account before the card ships: cash, Whatnot coupons, or shipment. You have 24 hours to decide and the card ships automatically if you do nothing. Those offers are governed by the Buyback Terms. Whatnot handles every spot and card purchase; the buyback payout is the only step that uses our payment processor, Coinflow.

Your account’s My Rips page records every spot you bought, the team you drew, and each card you received, so you can see your history over time.

12. Conduct on stream

Our chat follows Whatnot’s community guidelines. We remove and may block anyone who harasses other buyers or our staff, attempts to sell or trade spots outside Whatnot, or accuses an assignment of being rigged without asking us to show the recording first. If you ever think something was done wrong, message us on Whatnot or email info@trustedrips.com with the break date and the time in the stream, and we will review the recording with you.

13. Questions

We may refine these rules for future breaks; the rules in force when you buy a spot are the ones that apply to that break, and the current version is always at trustedrips.com/break-rules. Questions: info@trustedrips.com.