Quitting! Fun but also not fun while it lasted...
I started off ripping $50 and $100 packs, but quickly jumped to $500 packs once I realized I was constantly losing around 15% on buybacks since most of my pulls were cards I didn't want to keep. On my 4th Platinum pack, I pulled a PSA 5 Gold Star Pikachu (roughly $3K buyback value). With about $1,500 actually spent at that point, I was up around $1,500. I stopped for the day and told myself I was done with Power Packs and was going to quit while I was ahead.
The next day, I started ripping $100 Gold packs just for fun without worrying too much about the money, but after pulling countless cards worth around $50 in a row, I got frustrated and made the jump to $500 packs thinking I was due. After ripping more Platinum packs with nothing to show, I made the degenerate jump to $1,000 Diamond packs. I ripped about 13 Diamond packs in total and decided to keep two cards (two Destined Rivals Mewtwo SIR PSA 10s) because I felt I could get more from trade value at a show than taking the buyback offer.
At that point, I wasn't comfortable continuing to charge $1,000 per pack given the risk of having to ship the card back and lose more on buybacks, so I dropped back down to $500 packs. On the very first pack after dropping down, I pulled the Giratina V. Part of me wonders if I would have still hit a chase had I stuck to Diamond packs, but realistically, probably not.
After all of that, I had spent around $10.5K and could sell the cards in my inventory for roughly $9.6K, but I decided to get them shipped since I think I could get $11,000 to $11,500 of value at a show. I had recovered a bit and felt like that was a good point to stop.
Of course, I started ripping packs again over the next few days, mostly sticking to Platinum packs. As expected, my balance continued to slowly drain. I spent another $6K and had around $2K worth of cards in my vault. And then, as you can see in the main photo, I hit a 0.1% chase. That brings me back to net positive by roughly $1,500 or more overall, assuming I can get 90%+ value at a card show.
Overall: 122 packs ripped, $16,425 spent, roughly $16.6K in buyback value, and $18K+ of potential trade value in the cards I decided to keep.
Reflecting on this, I got extremely lucky and am barely coming out ahead given the amount of risk I took on. It was fun at the start when I was ahead, but the rest of the journey honestly felt like chasing losses and wasn't that enjoyable. This whole thing really does feel like slots in some ways, and I personally prefer games closer to 50/50 like baccarat or roulette.
After all of this, I think I'd honestly rather just go to a casino if I want to gamble. Even though I'm ahead on paper, I now have $18K+ of capital tied up until I can offload these cards, and I only plan on keeping a few of the ones I actually pulled.
TLDR: Got really lucky early, dug myself into a hole, hit a small jackpot, and came out slightly ahead. Total spend of $16,425. Estimated Profit of $200 - $1.5k+