How a case split works: the complete guide

What is a case split?

A case of sealed displays costs a lot, often several thousand euros, and no one needs a whole one. A case split means buying that case together: each buyer reserves a spot, the case is opened, and everyone gets a sealed display from that same case, unsorted beforehand.

The concept has existed for years in the TCG community, on Discord and on X. What's different with Unmapped is how it's run: price fixed upfront, a documented random draw, and physical certification on every display that comes out of the batch.

How it actually plays out, room by room

We call the opening of a case on Unmapped a "room." A room corresponds to a specific set (a One Piece or Pokémon release), with a number of spots limited to the number of displays the case contains.

• The room opens with a price per spot fixed from the start.
• Each buyer reserves one or more spots, until the room is full.
• No card is charged during this phase: your spot is simply pre-authorized, like a deposit.
• Once the room is full, the case is opened and filmed in full.
• Displays are assigned to buyers by random draw, nothing is removed or sorted before the opening.
• Every display gets a numbered, tamper-evident certification sticker before shipping.

Why not just buy a display on its own?

Because a display sold individually on the secondary market is almost never guaranteed to be unsorted. Based on community reports, up to 70% of individually resold displays have already been opened and resealed after pulling the most sought-after card.

On Unmapped, the case isn't sorted before it's offered: it's opened in front of the room's buyers, once the room is full, and never before. No one, not even Unmapped, knows in advance what any given display contains.

The price doesn't move during the room

The price per spot is fixed when the room opens. It doesn't change if the market goes up while the room is filling, and it's the same for every buyer in that room, whichever display they end up with in the draw.

The 45-day window

From the first reservation, a room has a maximum of 45 days to fill up. As long as no spot has been reserved, that clock doesn't start: an empty room can stay open indefinitely.

If that window expires without the room being full, it closes automatically, every pending pre-authorization is cancelled, and no charge ever happens. No one is left stuck with a card held indefinitely on a reservation that never goes through.

A fair shot at a fair price: the room format only exists to make that principle verifiable, not just promised.