The math in a case split is the easy part. Case Split calculates it in real time and nobody has ever successfully argued with arithmetic. What actually breaks group splits is everything the spreadsheet does not cover: who decided the weights, what happens to cards nobody wants, when payment is due, and what to do when someone changes their mind after the packs are open. This guide is the social contract that should sit alongside the math.
Rule one: nothing is decided after the wrapper comes off
Every rule below should be settled before the first pack is opened. Once people can see what came out of the case, every proposal is read as self-interested — and usually is. A weight change that seemed reasonable an hour ago becomes a negotiation the moment someone knows which pile they are in.
Any rule proposed after the case is open is a proposal to change who pays what. Treat it that way.
Case Split's Terms & Conditions field exists for this. Write the rules there when you create the case, share the link, and get everyone to confirm they have read it before you open. It takes five minutes and prevents the only argument that actually ends friendships over cardboard.
Decide who is an admin
Admins can edit the case cost, change rarities and weights, add and remove cards, and manage participants. Regular participants can claim and unclaim their own cards. One admin is cleanest — usually whoever bought the case. Two admins is reasonable for a large group so nobody is blocked. Four admins on a four-person split means the weights can change under you, which defeats the purpose.
Decide the pick order
There are four conventions in common use, and all of them work as long as everyone knows which one is in play:
- Snake draft: pick in order 1-2-3-4, then 4-3-2-1, repeating. Fairest for a group with overlapping wants.
- Random per card: roll for each contested card. Fast, high variance, good for casual groups.
- Pre-claim: everyone declares before opening what they want (a color, a character, an archetype). Anything nobody claimed goes to snake draft.
- Whoever wants it pays for it: nobody drafts; people just take what they want and the weighted split makes it fair financially. Works well in small, trusting groups.
Note that the last option is only viable because of weighted pricing. Without it, 'take what you want' collapses immediately.
Decide what happens to bulk
Every case produces cards nobody wants. Options, in rough order of popularity:
- Set them to weight 0 and give them to whoever will take them. Simplest, and honest — they are worth roughly nothing.
- Sell as a lot and split proceeds evenly, outside the case math.
- Rotate: bulk goes to a different participant each case.
- Donate to a local shop's kids' league or a school club.
What does not work is leaving bulk unassigned and unaddressed. In Case Split, unassigned cards with a non-zero weight show up as unallocated weight and nobody pays for them — which quietly means everyone else's share is calculated against a pool that includes cards nobody bought. Set bulk to weight 0 instead.
Decide payment terms up front
Write down the payment method, the deadline, and who is fronting the money. The most common structure is: one person buys the case, everyone pays them within 48 hours of settlement, via one agreed platform. If someone routinely pays late, they buy the next case — the person carrying the float should not be the same person every time.
Screenshot the Split panel when you finalize. It is a timestamped record of who owed what, and it ends the 'I thought I paid you' conversation permanently.
Handle disputes with a pre-agreed tiebreaker
Occasionally two people want the same card badly and neither will move. Agree in advance on a tiebreaker: a die roll, the person lower in the current pick order, or a small auction where the winner pays the difference as a fixed cost. The auction option is elegant because it converts a social problem into a number the split already knows how to handle.
Be generous about pricing errors
Sometimes a card's agreed fixed cost turns out to be badly wrong — a card spikes the week after opening, or the market price you used was a stale outlier. The default should be that the number stands. Reopening settled prices means every future split is provisional, and nobody wants that. If a group wants a correction mechanism, agree on one narrow rule in advance, such as: any fixed cost off by more than 50% within seven days is re-priced once, by mutual agreement.
Splitting with people you do not know
Online splits with strangers need more structure than a split among friends. Require payment before shipping, use a public share link so everyone can audit the assignments without needing an account, and log every card — including bulk — so the record is complete. The read-only share view exists for exactly this: it lets people verify the math without giving them edit access to the case.