How online pack opening works, step by step
What happens when you buy a pack on a rip site: how your card is picked, where it is stored, and the choices you have after the reveal, site by site.
By the Rip.fan Editorial Team.
Published Updated 6 min read
Buying a pack online means paying a fixed price for a card the site already holds. When your payment goes through, the site assigns your card from the pack’s listed pool. The reveal on screen shows you what you got. The physical card stays in the site’s storage under your account until you keep it, sell it, trade it back to the site or have it shipped.
Our reviews of Rips by Triumph and Phygitals, two of the sites in our ranking of rip sites, cover each one in full, and the ranking sets the sites we recommend side by side.
What are you actually buying?
You are buying real cards that are already sitting in storage. The rip site sells them in pack form, so you learn which card you got only after you pay.
- Rips by Triumph sells packs of real cards that sit in its vault until you ship them or trade them in. A card comes graded or raw, and the raw ones come as they are. Its packs cover Pokémon, One Piece, baseball, basketball and football.
- Phygitals sells packs of graded and raw cards that sit in its vaults, on its website and in its iPhone app.
- Packed sells packs of graded and raw cards in an iPhone app, and every pack gives one card.
So a “digital pack” is a way of selling physical cards. The slab packs guide covers what is inside one in more detail, and are rip site cards real? covers where the cards are kept.
Step 1: what does the pack page show before you pay?
Each site shows the pool in its own way, and the differences matter more than the artwork on the pack.
- Phygitals sets out two to five value ranges on every pack page, with how often each comes up and the pack’s trade-in share.
- Rips by Triumph shows each pack’s lowest and highest card value, with a link to what is inside.
- Packed prints five value bands under every pack, from Common to Mythic, each with its range of card values and how often it comes up. The shares are small ranges, since the cards behind each pack come and go.
- Gotya keeps its card rates in step with the cards left in each pack’s card pool, so they can move between one visit and the next.
A useful habit: note whether the pool is listed card by card or only as value ranges, and note who set the values. GrailCart, for one, lists every card a pack can contain, each with its card rate. A site’s figure can also drift from recent sales by the time you decide what to do with the card.
To see which of the sites we list carry packs of the cards you collect, start at card rips.
Step 2: what happens when you pay?
You pay a fixed price, often from an account balance. Phygitals has you add money first, by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, with its service fee on its own line before you confirm. Rips by Triumph takes a credit card or your account balance.
Treat the purchase as final. At Drip Shop Live, for one, opened Instant Packs are final sales.
Identity checks come before a card leaves:
- Rips by Triumph asks you to pass an identity check before your first shipment.
- Packed ships cards to US addresses once your identity check is complete.
- Gotya may check your ID before it sends a box of graded cards.
If you expect to ship a card soon, it helps to clear the check early.
Step 3: does the reveal decide your card?
No. The card is assigned when the purchase goes through, and the animation only shows the result.
At Rips by Triumph, the opening animation is only for show and does not change which card you get. A One Piece pack opens inside a wooden chest under water, and a Pokémon pack glows orange against a field of stars before the card flips over. At Packed, you tear the sealed pack open on screen, and the card appears in its holder, lit in a color that follows its value band.
Step 4: where does the card go?
It goes into your account, and the physical card stays where it was.
- Rips by Triumph keeps the card in the app for seven days at most, then trades it in at the app’s own value.
- Phygitals keeps the card in one of its three vaults. Each card gets its own page, with its grade, its certificate number and a chart of its price history.
- Packed holds up to 10 cards in its vault, each for 24 hours.
- TiltRips stores cards at no charge, and you can sell, list, hold or ship one whenever you want.
Step 5: which choices do you have after the reveal?
Up to four, depending on the site: keep the card stored, take the instant trade-in offer, list it for other collectors, or ship it home. The table sets out the trade-in and shipping terms at three sites.
| After the reveal | Rips by Triumph | Phygitals | Packed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instant trade-in offer | At the app’s own value, set when you bought the pack, for at least seven days | 85% to 100% of the listed value, set by pack | 100% of fair market value, with no fee |
| Ship it home | US addresses only, one card to a package, after an identity check | From the vault that holds the card, with a processing estimate for each vault | US addresses only, after an identity check |
Watch the clock on the instant trade-in offer. Packed sells a card back for you after 24 hours in its vault. TiltRips sets no deadline on its offer of 90% of live market value. Packs.com pays its trade-in as site credit, which can only be spent on the site. The fees, deadlines and shipping times for each choice are set out in vault or ship it home?, and our comparison of trade-in offers looks at the offers side by side.
Step 6: what should you check when the card arrives?
Check that the card in your hand is the card in your account.
- Find the certification number on the slab’s label and compare it with the record in your account.
- Look the number up on the grading company’s own site to confirm the card and the grade.
- Report any problem quickly. Rips by Triumph asks you to report a damaged or wrong card within 10 business days, and to contact support if a package has not moved for 5 business days.
For what each site charges to send a card out of its vault, see what it costs to ship a graded card home.
Where do the values on these sites come from?
Every value you see on these sites is the site’s own figure. Rips by Triumph sets its values itself. Packed sets its own from recent sales, the grade and how rare the card is. Slabz takes its values from recent sales on public marketplaces.
Check a card’s recent sales before you accept an offer or list it. Rip.fan’s card price lookup and Pokémon card prices show market prices you can set beside a site’s figure.
Rules and windows change, so check the pack page and your account before you buy. Terms used here are defined in the glossary.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a Phygitals trade-in offer last?
At Phygitals, the offer on a standard card lasts 30 minutes from the reveal, on a card from sealed product 3 days, and on an inventory card 7 days. Each offer is made once, and you can take it on some cards from an opening and turn it down on others.
How long does the identity check take?
At Rips by Triumph it usually takes about a day, and support wants to hear from you if it is still pending after 48 hours. At Phygitals it usually takes minutes, and a manual review can take up to 48 hours.
Where do Packs.com's card values come from?
From live TCGplayer market data for the exact printing in Near Mint, refreshed about every 4 hours for each game. Packs.com locks a card's value the moment it comes out, and a card whose price jumps or crashes without confirmation can't ship until the price settles.
What if a pack reveal does not load?
At Gotya, a completed pack is always saved to your account even when the reveal fails to load. Refresh the page, then check your collection and your account history.
Can a Packed pack show a value band it can't give?
No. At Packed, a value band with no card left to give shows a card rate of zero, and the highest value on a pack belongs to a card that can come out. The minimum value shown is an estimate that can move before the pack opens.