What Is A Blaster Box?

Sports cards are sold in many different types of boxes. For newcomers to trading cards, knowing the difference between these different types of boxes can be difficult as they aren’t always clearly explained.

One popular type of box that trading cards are packaged in is a blaster box, but what is a blaster box? How many cards does it hold? Are they worth buying?

What Is A Blaster Box (2)

In this article, we will explain what blaster boxes are and take a closer look at them so you can understand what buying a blaster box will get you.

What Is A Blaster Box?

Blaster boxes are small boxes of cards that you will commonly find at large retail stores such as Walmart and Target.

Due to the places where they are sold, they are also sometimes called retail boxes. Blaster boxes contain a few packs of trading cards and you can buy them for many different sports, such as baseball, hockey, and football.

What Does A Blaster Box Contain?

The number of cards in a blaster box can vary greatly depending on the line of sports cards. They will always have several packs in them, but this can be as few as four or five packs, or as many as 12 to 15 packs.

Typically, buying a blaster box is cheaper than buying the same number of packs individually. So, a blaster box that has five packs of sports cards inside will be cheaper than buying five individual packs.

It’s also possible that blaster boxes can include special items. Some may guarantee special inserts or rare parallels or even non-card extras such as posters or figurines.

Any special extras will be clearly marked on the blaster box and are incentives to buy the blaster boxes instead of just buying a couple of packs.

Card manufacturers often release blaster boxes as a way to help buyers kickstart their collection of a new trading card line.

By offering a batch of cards at a lower price, they hope that buyers will continue buying packs to finish their collection.

Manufacturers sometimes issue blaster boxes if a collection of cards aren’t selling well too as they are usually pretty popular and can quickly shift backlogs of cards so that newer lines can be released.

How Many Cards Come In A Blaster Box?

As we said, this can differ greatly depending on the line of sports cards. It can be as few as 25 cards or as many as 200 cards.

If the blaster box has extras, such as posters or figurines, this will usually reduce the number of cards included. 

Blaster boxes will have the number of cards and packs clearly labeled on the box so make sure you check this first so you know what you will be getting for your money.

For example, the Panini 2022 UFC blaster boxes include 88 cards, but the Topps 2022 Heritage Baseball blaster boxes have 72 cards.

What’s The Difference Between A Hobby Box And A Blaster Box?

Another type of trading card box that you will often see for sale is a hobby box. In general, hobby boxes are more common than blaster boxes but what is the difference between the two?

What Is A Blaster Box (2) (1)

Place Of Sale

Although hobby boxes can be sold by major retailers like Target and Walmart, this is not their intended place of sale, unlike blaster boxes.

Hobby boxes are usually sold through specialized game and trading card stores or online retailers.

Hobby boxes are aimed at serious collectors as they usually cost more money than blaster boxes so you will need to search them out.

Number Of Cards

In general, hobby boxes have more cards than blaster boxes.

Hobby boxes can have as many as 40 packs included and it’s not unusual for hobby boxes to include a full set of base cards and guaranteed pulls of inserts or other special cards, such as signature cards or relic cards.

With many hobby cards, your odds of finding something special are far higher than with blaster boxes and this makes them very popular with serious collectors.

This isn’t always the case, however. Before you decide to buy a hobby box instead of a blaster box from a certain line of sportscards, you should always compare the two to see what the best option is.

Some manufacturers treat blaster boxes as akin to limited-edition releases and stack them with higher odds than you would get with hobby boxes.

Take note of the price, number of packs, and the chances of pulling special cards to see which is the better buy.

How Many Blaster Boxes Come In A Case?

If you really want to buy a large number of sports cards in one purchase, then cases are your best option.

Cases include several other boxes and although they usually contain several hobby boxes, it is possible to find cases of several blaster boxes. 

On average, cases of blaster boxes contain 20 boxes but this can vary depending on the manufacturer and sportscard line.

Cases give you the benefits of blaster boxes but allow you to easily buy several in one sale. Of course, cases can become very expensive very quickly so they’re only purchased by the most serious of collectors.

If you’re just looking to complete your collection of base cards, buying cases is excessive. They’re best for those looking for inserts and the rarest of cards.

Final Thoughts

Blaster boxes contain several packs of sports cards collected in one box. They are usually available at major retailers such as Target and Walmart and are a great way to start a collection.

The number of cards they contain differs greatly depending on manufacturer and sport and they include different extras or special cards. Some blaster boxes will also guarantee inserts.

In general, however, blaster boxes don’t have the same success rates for hits that hobby boxes do but they can be very cost-effective.

Nate Heath

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *