Partly. Online pack opening platforms use features familiar from gaming: animated reveals, pack tiers, published odds and instant sell-back. But every digital card pack still delivers a real trading card that can be shipped, traded or kept. The experience looks more like gaming. The product is still collecting.
And the format is going mainstream. Fanatics, GameStop, PrizePicks and now Coinbase have all moved into card rips. Here is how it works, who is offering it, how fast interest is growing and what it means for marketers.
How online pack opening works
Physical cards, often graded by companies such as PSA, are stored in a secure vault. Each one is linked to a digital record, so ownership can change without the card moving.
When you buy a pack, you are assigned one of those cards. After the on-screen reveal, you can usually:
- keep it in the vault or your online collection
- list or trade it on the platform
- have the physical card shipped to you
- sell it back to the platform at a set percentage of its value
Which platforms offer card rips?
| Platform | What it offers |
|---|---|
| Packs.com | Real sealed packs and single pulls for Pokémon, Magic: The Gathering, One Piece and Riftbound, bought with Coins (1 Coin = $1). Cards can be shipped, sold back or kept in an online Backpack. |
| Packed | A mobile platform for opening real sealed trading card packs, with cards sold back for cash or shipped to the owner. |
| Ripz.gg | Pokémon-focused packs from around $6, with a catalogue spanning 52 sets. Pulls can be kept, sold back or shipped, and users can also trade and grade cards. |
| Clash.gg | Best known for CS2 cases and mystery boxes, with a dedicated card rips section. |
| Fanatics | Instant Rips on Fanatics Live, where breakers open digital twins of cards held in the Fanatics Collect vault. Owners can keep, sell on the Fanatics Collect marketplace or ship. |
| Ripit | Graded “slabs” of NBA, MLB and Pokémon cards, with US shipping and an offer system for selling pulls. |
| Underdog | Underdog Rips, a card pack product inside the Underdog fantasy sports app, powered by Phygitals. |
| Rips by Triumph | A mobile app where cards are revealed one by one, then sold back instantly, shipped or stored in Triumph’s vault. |
| HypeDrop | A mystery box site that includes Pokémon, Lorcana, One Piece and graded cards, with box contents shown before opening. |
Big companies are moving in
The clearest sign that card rips are going mainstream is who is now offering them.
Coinbase, the largest US crypto exchange, has announced its own digital collectibles product. In September 2026 it previewed pack openings in its app where each card revealed on screen matches a real physical card, which users can keep in storage or have shipped. It has confirmed Pokémon cards are included, but has not yet given a launch date, pricing or odds.
GameStop launched Power Packs in April 2026, digital packs of PSA-graded cards priced from $25 to $2,500.
PrizePicks launched PrizePicks Packs in October 2026 with basketball, football and Pokémon cards from $1. Its launch inventory included a one-of-one Cooper Flagg rookie card that reportedly sold for around $8 million.
Fanatics, the biggest name in sports collectibles, runs Instant Rips through Fanatics Live, and fantasy sports rival Underdog has added card packs to its app.
Gaming technology is following. Vegangster, a supplier to casino and betting operators, has added Phygitals’ graded card packs so its operator partners can offer them too.
When a crypto exchange, a video game retailer and the biggest fantasy sports apps all launch the same product within a year, it is no longer a niche.
How fast is interest in card rips growing?
Search data shows how quickly the format has taken off. Comparing estimated US monthly searches in October 2024 with October 2026:
Search data
How fast card rip searches are growing
Estimated US monthly Google searches, October 2024 vs October 2026
Branded searches for PackDraw, one of the largest pack opening sites, grew around sevenfold in two years, to an estimated 44,000 a month worldwide. Searches for PrizePicks Packs went from nothing to over 2,000 in its launch month. Generic terms such as "card rips" and "online pack opening" are still small, but they barely existed two years ago.
Google's own data shows the same pattern worldwide. Search interest in pack opening platforms such as PackDraw, Ripit, Ripz, Fanatics Live and Underdog Rips was close to zero in 2021 and 2022, began rising in 2024 and has surged in 2026.
What card rips share with gaming
- Animated reveals with rarity effects
- Tiered pricing, from entry-level to premium packs
- Published odds and item values per pack
- Instant results, with sell-back in seconds
- Verifiable draws, with some platforms using provably fair systems
What keeps them rooted in collecting
- Every pull is a real item. A physical card sits behind every digital record.
- Values come from the hobby. Prices are set by the wider collectibles market, not by the platform.
- Many users are collectors. They open packs to build sets and chase specific cards.
- Vaulting solves real problems. Storage, insurance, authentication and postal damage are all handled.
Are card rips regulated as gambling?
Not as of October 2026. No court or regulator has ruled that digital card packs are gambling, and platforms generally position them as collectibles. In the US, legal claims have argued that some randomised card breaks should count as lotteries under state law, but none has been decided.
How packs are treated will likely depend on the product and the market. Two recent examples show how quickly rules can change for fast-growing hybrid products:
- Sweepstakes casinos grew quickly in the US outside the licensed casino model. New Jersey, New York and California have since banned them, and California's law also covers suppliers, payment processors and affiliates.
- Skin gambling sites, where players wagered in-game items, led to a UK Gambling Commission prosecution and to a Washington state regulator ordering Valve to stop its platform being used for it.
Card rips are a different product, not least because they deliver physical items with established value. But fast growth tends to bring scrutiny, and the arrival of household names will only increase it.
What this means for marketers
Most demand is branded, for now. People search for platforms by name far more than for the category. Generic terms are growing from a low base, so an evergreen hub published now can rank before competition arrives. Update it rather than relying on one-off news posts.
Use both audiences' language. Collectors search for rips, pulls, grails and slabs. Gamers search for odds, drops and tiers. Cover both.
Apply strict age controls. Pokémon has a young audience. Never target or appeal to under-18s with paid, randomised products.
Be factual about value. Don't suggest packs are a way to make money. Show odds, values and terms clearly.
Keep it separate from gambling content. Licensed operators and affiliates should keep card pack content apart from their gambling pages and check the rules in each market first.
Planning content or links around a new product or market? Talk to our iGaming SEO team or book a free consultation.
FAQs
What are card rips?
"Ripping" is collector slang for opening packs. Card rips usually means opening packs online, where the reveal happens on screen and the pulled card is held in a vault or shipped.
What is a digital trading card pack?
An online pack opening where each pull is linked to a real card stored in a vault. The owner can keep, trade, ship or sell it back.
Is Coinbase launching trading card packs?
Coinbase has previewed digital packs backed by real Pokémon cards, which users can store or have shipped. As of October 2026 it has not confirmed a launch date or pricing.
Are card rips gambling?
No court or regulator has ruled that they are, as of October 2026. Treatment is likely to vary by country and US state.
Why are big companies offering card packs?
Card collecting has a large, engaged audience that overlaps with sports fans, gamers and crypto users, and digital packs give them a fast way to take part.
Correct as of October 2026. For general information only, not legal advice.
