An introduction to football card rips online
NFL and MLB card rips online are digital mystery card rips that happen instantly on the screen after you purchase the pack. The “Mystery” element comes from the fact that you don’t know what card is inside until you have purchased and ripped the pack.
After your NFL trading card is revealed, you can securely vault it, instantly sell it back to the site, sell it on the marketplace, or have it shipped to your US residential address. While rips can be exciting for collectors, you should be aware that there’s a high risk that the trading cards inside the packs will have a lower value than the price you paid for the pack.
Digital football card rips pros and cons
Pros
Digital packs with real trading cards Fun product for NFL card collectors Available in 50 states Many reputable football card rips sitesCons
High risk of losing money/valueWho can buy digital football card rips in the US?
Although card rip platforms aren’t the same as NFL betting sites, there is still a financial risk involved, as you can pull cards that are valued at a lower price than the package it was ripped from. Because of this, you must be over 18 to rip football card packs online in the United States.
In terms of availability, you can buy and rip NFL card packs in all 50 states. While some sites may have outright or partial exclusions in certain states and territories, all of the platforms recommended in this article are available to customers aged 18+ across the US.
How football card rips work - Step-by-step
To give you a general idea, here is how the process of digital mystery pack purchasing and opening works on the best NHL card rips sites and NFL apps:
- Create - Sign up for one of the top five football mystery card rips sites that the experts have recommended in this article
- Deposit - Fund your account using one of the available payment methods (if direct purchases are not available)
- Packs - Browse the available digital football card rip packs and select the one you’re interested in
- Check - Take a look at the average value, pull probability distribution, and chase cards
- Purchase - If you’re happy with everything, follow the instructions to buy the pack
- Rip - After purchase, the pack should instantly rip on screen to reveal the football trading card(s) inside
What to do with your football cards after ripping
After you’ve bought a football or soccer card rips pack and instantly revealed your card, you own the physical asset, even if it isn’t in your possession yet. At this stage, you have some or all of the following options, depending on the site you’re using:
Football card rips formats - Retail, digital, and live breaks
As is the case with the best Marvel card rips sites, there are different formats of football card ripping:
- Retail - The traditional option where you buy a mystery pack from a retail store and rip it open in person to reveal the football trading cards that are inside.
- Digital - You buy and rip a virtual package online to instantly reveal a card that you can have physically shipped to you, securely vaulted, or that you can sell online.
- Live breaks - This format effectively blends retail and digital rips, as you can buy physical card rips back via an online stream where the presenter will rip it for you in real time.
- Pick Your Team (PYT) - Usually only available for live breaks and retail packs, you can select a mystery pack that contains players' cards solely from one team, such as the New England Patriots or Denver Broncos.
Football trading card pulls - Major brands and holy grail cards
Throughout the years, three main brands have created official football trading cards: Panini Prizm, Donruss Optic, and Topps Chrome. You can discover more about the latter in the Topps review on this site.
The cards that you get in mystery packs are known as “pulls”, with rare or high-value cards referred to as “grails”. Cards with decent value that fall into the tier just below grails are often referred to as “chase” cards.
Here are some of the pulls that you might want to look for when opening a pack:
- Rookie Cards (RC) - If you find an original rookie card for a player that went on to become a superstar. For example, 2000 Tom Brady Rookie Cards have sold for up to $500,000.
- Autograph Cards - Cards containing a player’s signature in some form often pull a higher value.
- Parallel Cards - Trading cards with a special colored border, hologram, or design feature.
- Inert Cards - Football cards that have a different design from the rest of the set and are therefore rarer to pull, giving them a higher value.
- Memorabilia Cards - Rare cards that have a piece of memorabilia embedded within the cards, such as a cut of fabric from a game-worn jersey.
The 5 best football card rips sites in the US
Above all, the most important thing when it comes to sports card rips is that you sign up and buy from a reputable online store. With that in mind, here are the five best card rips sites for football packs according to the experts:
Trove - Forever buyback on football cards
Trove is a card rips website and iOS app that sells instant rips for several types of trading cards. When it comes to football, there are eight pack tiers, with the $25 Start being the cheapest, and the $5,000 Mythos pack being the most expensive. Of course, the overall potential pull value of the chase card increases with each price tier.
After you have ripped a pack to reveal your slab, you have the usual options of shipping, no-fee vaulting, and sellback. While Trove lacks a marketplace, it is the only football card rips site that offers “forever buyback”, meaning that they will buy your cards back at any time.
If you sell your card back to Trove instantly, you’ll receive 100% of the FMV as a cash payment via your bank or Apple Pay. For up to 24 hours, you can sell for 90% of the FMV, and thereafter the buyback rate is 80%, but never falls lower.
The Trove website and the iOS app both have a user-friendly interface that’s very easy to navigate. While there isn’t an Android app available, you can access Trove on your mobile browser from an Android device.
Arena Club - Slab showroom for football card collectors
If you’re a proper collector who isn’t overly interested in selling your cards as quickly as possible, Arena Club has a showroom where you can organize your football cards into digital sets for other collectors to view. If any of your cards are for sale, the price will be listed in the showroom.
Arena Club has an awesome eBay-style card and collectables selling platform where you can list your cards at a fixed price or auction them. Instant buyback is also available, and you can pay an extra fee at the point of purchase to guarantee a buyback at 80% of the pack tier's value.
Speaking of football card rip tiers, there are eight packs in total, ranging in price from $25 to $5,000. Before you buy and rip a pack, you can see the chance of landing all the available cards, which are divided into three categories: Grails, Chase Cards, and Lineups.
Besides football, Arena Clubs is considered one of the top NBA card rips sites. Additionally, it’s hugely popular with baseball fans as one of the three co-founders is five-time World Series Winner and MLB Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.
Ripit - Best user interface for new collectors
If you are a new or casual collector and football card ripper, Ripit is a good option thanks to its simple but high-spec user interface. Additionally, there are just four packs that cost between $25 and $250, so you won’t get caught up in expensive grail hunting.
After you have ripped your back, vaulting is always free with no maximum time limit. You will also receive an instant buyback offer that’s based on the FMV and that you can choose to accept or decline within 24 hours. After that, Ripit may send you other buyback offers from time to time.
When it comes to shipping, there’s a fee of $18 per delivery, which is fairly reasonable compared to many competitor sites. Moreover, you can have up to 19 cards per shipment, so if you wait until you max that out, shipping works out at less than a dollar per slab.
Ripit was founded by Logan Paul, so it’s a highly reputable and trusted brand with a wide user base as a result. It’s available to users aged 18+ everywhere in all 500 states, but is not accessible anywhere outside of the US.
Fanatics Instant Rips - Live NFL card breaks
Fanatics Instant Rips is available via the Fanatics Live app, where you can buy physical card rip packs during one of the many live streams that are available. If you buy one of the limited number of packs during a stream, the host will rip it live in front of your eyes.
Once the card has been ripped, it is instantly added to your Fanatics Collect account, which you’ll need to make in advance. From here, you can vault it for free, sell it back for 90% of the FMV, or have it shipped to your home for a reasonable fee.
There are more than 200 football live card break channels on Fanatics Live, so you’ll almost always find one available to join at any given time. For less popular collections, like hockey card rips online, there are around 20 to 30 streams, so you may have to wait a while until the next one begins.
Overall, if you’re a serious collector, or are simply looking for a more engaging way to rip football mystery card packs online, Fanatics Instant Rips could work for you. You must be over 18 and a US citizen or permanent resident to join Fanatics Collect.
Tilt Rips - Adjustable volatility for football card rips
Tilt Rips is a fun card rips online store and collectable marketplace with a very unique design featuring animated monkey characters. When it comes to football card rips, there are six packs to choose from that cost between $25 and $1,000.
When buying your pack to rip, there are a few cool adjustable features. For starters, you can adjust the volatility level between Conservative, Speculative, Risky, and Full Tilt. At the Conservative end, you’re more likely to pull cards worth the same value as the pack price, but less likely to pull a rare grail.
If you go Full Tilt, on the other hand, there’s a massive risk that you’ll pull a dud, but also a high chance you’ll pull a holy grail with a very high market value. You can also choose between a quick rip animation or to cut that way and instantly reveal your card at the point of purchase.
Tilt Rips is available to users aged 18+ everywhere in the US, with no excluded states. The site regularly runs discounts and buy one, get one free promos for new customers. If such a welcome offer is available right now, it will be displayed in the banners on this page.
Digital football card rips - Summary and conclusion
In conclusion, there are many online stores and apps where you can purchase and open digital mystery football card packs. There are a few different formats, including fully digitized rips and the live breaks that you can find at Fanatics.
Just remember that card pack rips are risky and incur a very high chance of pulling cards that are worth less than what you paid. For that reason, these products are aimed at football card collectors and should never be viewed as an investment.
Our recommended card rip sites
Football card rips FAQ
Mike Murphy is the founder of BettingUSA.com and has over 20 years of experience in the legal gambling industry. A regular attendee of industry trade shows and conferences, Mike is a strong proponent in the idea of a well regulated online betting industry.