Card Breaks Policy

At Whatnot, we craft our policies to ensure our community can feel confident in their purchases. In order to maintain a trustworthy buying experience, we’ve created guidelines for sellers to demonstrate that they are acting fairly and transparently when running Card Breaks. 

A Card Break is a sale format where the contents of sealed product(s) are split among multiple buyers. Each buyer purchases cards from the sealed products based on defined criteria. Once all sales are complete (meaning each card or pack to be opened in the break is accounted for), the product is opened and cards are distributed accordingly. Every buyer receives cards, but the specific cards are unknown until opening.

The sale of an entire sealed card product (i.e., one pack, box, or case) that is opened live on stream to a single individual must comply with the visibility requirements described below under “Card Breaks must be fully visible” but is not otherwise subject to the remainder of this policy.  

Item descriptions and presentation

• Card Breaks must be fully visible: The full display of any Card Break must be kept onscreen from the sale of an item to the end of the Break. This can be done over multiple cameras. This includes sealed and unsealed product, tools, or other essential elements of a Card Break, such as hands while dealing with cards, or opening of product. Removing sealed or opened packs, boxes, or cards from the full visibility of the stream prior to the product reveal is a violation of our rules. Here are examples of policy-compliant Card Break camera setups. These visibility requirements also apply to the opening of sealed card product to a single individual (commonly referred to as “personals” or “rip-and-ship”).
• No prize: Sellers cannot include a prize in their Breaks. This includes adding non-sealed product as a prize item within a Break that one or more buyers will receive by any form of random distribution, sometimes known as “Prize Picks.”
• Rules must be shared: The rules for any Card Break run must be in Show Notes or in the item listings for the Card Break. This includes, if relevant, what is considered “base” or “bulk” cards, and how those cards will be distributed. 
  • For example, sharing the rules in your listing: “Full case team break; participants purchase a team, hits and inserts that match the team are sent to the purchasers. Bulk cards are not sent.”
• Breaks are Cards-only: Items such as jerseys, helmets, bats, and other non-card memorabilia cannot be included as part of any Break. Any opening of non-card product must comply with our Surprise Products policy.

Rules and conduct 

• Every buyer must receive a card: Each buyer must receive, at a minimum, one card for each Card Break purchase. 
  • For breaks where sellers can guarantee that each buyer receives a card directly from the break (e.g., hit drafts), sellers may only auction as many break spots as there are cards in the break, such that each buyer is guaranteed a card directly from the break for each purchase.
  • For break formats where a seller cannot guarantee that each entrant receives a card (e.g., team breaks, where there is a chance a buyer’s selected team does not actually appear in the break), every person must be shipped, at a minimum, one card for each purchase. 
  • Breaks may not include paid bounties, guarantees, or bonus items tied to specific outcomes or assignments. See our Purchase Based Prize Policy for more detail.
• No card breaks that span multiple shows, and no off-platform pre-sales: All product from a Card Break must be opened in the same live show. You cannot open product from a Card Break over the course of multiple streams. Positions in Card Breaks on Whatnot cannot be sold off the Whatnot platform, including as pre-sales or in advance. In the event that spots in a Card Break don't sell, sellers should honor any buyer refund requests but can continue to sell spots in future breaks (while respecting Whatnot's shipping requirements) so long as the sealed product has not yet been opened. If desired, sellers can contact Support to ensure that purchases from Card Breaks that do not fill are canceled and refunded. 
• No participants can be related to the seller: Individuals who are members of the same household, family members, or seller's employees may not enter a seller’s Card Break. This prohibition extends to individuals related through other relationships or account use.

Note:  If sealed card products from a Surprise Set purchase will be opened for a buyer (“rip-and-ship”), the seller must open and show the contents during the livestream, in full visibility.

Additional Policies

• For restrictions on which Professionally Sealed products may be sold, including sealed trading cards and blind boxes, please review our Professionally Sealed Surprise Product Policy.
• For guidance on policies prohibiting Gambling and Purchase-based Prizes, please review our Gambling and Purchase-Based Prize Policy.
• For more information on Surprise Sets, where a buyer is randomly assigned product from a set and receives the full contents of that product, please review our Surprise Sets Policy.