How can they guarantee these?

frankhardy

I have seen several pack auctions on Ebay where they are guaranteeing "game used" relic cards. How can they do that? Are feeling the edges of the packs and feeling the thicker card? Here is an example of one of those auctions.

Pack Auction

MrRookie

they:
feel the packs
measure the packs
weigh the packs
know where the "good" cards are usually placed
sometimes even open the pack a little and reseal it
who knows what else they do

Knlsportsandmore

I have opened enough Fleer Ultra earlier this year I can take a brand new box and guarantee I get the GU cards. There are many ways to tell.. Just like ever box of Donruss product I have bought the GU or autographs have been in the same spot in a new box.. This is why I will only buy unopened boxes.

TheRoach

I have purchased packs off Ebay that guarantee such cards, and yes, they are indeed in there.

The Bowman Chrome autos have a sticker in the corner of the card with a serial number. They push all the cards in the pack to one side, and then slide each individual card to the other side, one at a time, while feeling for the slighjtly raised sticker. When they feel it, they know it is an auto. That is jusy one of many ways. It seems like way too much work though.

Now, getting a Mettler scale that gives you a precise weight down to the grams, may help alot. Alot quicker I would guess also. Game Used packs probably have a weight difference.





TheRoach

envoy98

Yep, Yep and Yep. All those methods work. I've met many a' pack searcher at my shows. About every other show I put a box or two out, something on closeout from the local shop that I can sell dirt cheap just to get people at my table. I've watched little kids sit and pack search. at first, i didn't pay much attention to them, as when I was a wee lad I would just arbitrarily pick packs. I never just grabbed the top 4 packs for example. I had to dig a little, get the good stuff. Then I realized this one little $hit was sliding his fingers up and down the Flair packs I put out. I told him to grab a pack or two or keep moving. I couldn't believe it. Unless the kid is just really smart, some adult was teaching him this. It's interesting too, cuz the little kids will go "but I'm just tyring to see if I can find the bat card"

"Yeah I know you are, now get lost!"

I never buy retail anymore either because of this. I've actually shown up at Target and seen people searching Heritage BB and Skybox LE BK packs... sliding cards to one side or the other... Ever wonder why those edges on your retail cards are so messed up...now you know why. Kinda hard to bring a scale into Target without being seen I suppose.

Aknot

Good reason for the card manufactures to encapsulate EVERY card they send out. OK maybe not. Except for the "weight" issue how would you (the card companies) combat this? I know some (Playoff Prestige) randomly inserts stock of the same thickness that is "blank" in their packs. Does that help?

ctsoxfan

Exactly how MrRookie and TheRoach described, this is how these cretins obtain their packs. I was in a Target last Sunday, and saw a big, fat, man in his early 20's blatantly feeling the packs (Heritage, whatever basketball they had). I noticed him as soon as I walked in the store, and when I made it to the card section. he was still going strong. I walked right up to him, and watched him in action. He was practically bending the corners of every pack and discarding almost every one. As soon as he saw me, and before I could say anything, he just about ran from the card section into the store...clutching two felt-up packs that he found. I wasn't going to let this go, but have you ever tried to find a manager in one of these stores? I grabbed the nearest associate, and tried to explain to her what I saw, and to get a manager. By this point, the guy had disappeared into the store, and I don't know if the store security was able to do anything to him. He could have said, "I'm not stealing, though...I will pay for these 2 packs"

Scum.

envoy98

I have seen a manager in Target ask someone to leave before. I even spent several minutes rifling through the booster boxes and an associate or a manager or whatever, came over and started watching me. I was like "dude, I'm just looking for Topps Heritage, do you have any in back?" He didn't seem too amused. Not my fault they put all those damn boxes on the bottom shelf and make me crawl on the floor to find what I want.

I am still a little surprised that the insertion rate in retail stuff even makes it worth while for pack searchers to sit there. I mean I get great odds out of those booster boxes, I usually hit a GU or auto in 1 of 2 boxes of just about anything. I hit on 5 of 8 Heritage booster boxes that only have 11 packs in them. I didnt hit once in 6 hobby boxes! But I have never, ever, hit on a retail pack that I just randomly grabbed at 11 o'clock at night. The other problem you have is they won't allow full box sales, I have seen the marketing company in there that sells to them (Excel Marketing for Target) and they open each and every box before they put it out, and they always fill up the half empty boxes first so your 1/box odds (though rarer in retail) are even less likely as the pack that contains the chase card, just might be in the other full box, which 4 hours ago, only had 5 packs in it.

So, I guess your options are... support the pack searchers just to get the card you want for 1/10 the box price(I have done this on ebay on a few occassions...I know, shame on me)
or... buy a full box and spend the money yourself. The one that really confuses me most is the guys that sell their jsy/auto pack from SPx. that one still baffles me. either the hobby shop they visit lets them pack search, or they work at the shop and do it, or they aren't real business savvy and buy a hobby box for $150, find the jsy/auto pack and sell it $40, leaving them with $110 of base cards. I think the first two scenarios are more likely.

frankhardy

Along the same lines...what do you guys do with your base cards if you open a box or a bunch of packs looking for inserts? If anybody has a bunch of regular Topps baseball (any year) base cards, I wouldn't mind having them if the price is right.

envoy98

I usually put them out in boxes at my shows for the set builders. I usually only have my last 15-20 breaks in the boxes cuz they take up so much room. I opened about a box and half worth of 04 Topps Baseball. About a dozen packs were 1st edition, the rest were normal series 1 & 2. I have quite a bit of topps bk if you're interested in that.

Stone193

<< <i>If anybody has a bunch of regular Topps baseball (any year) base cards, I wouldn't mind having them if the price is right. >>


Frank
If you are in no hurry, I will be organizing my stuff this summer - I've got commons and stars from years 1990 and up - I've got a ton of upper deck from 91 and 92 and extra topps from most years - I'm a one set a year builder minimum along with vintage and odd memorabilia.
PM me and we can make a 'more than fair' arrangement in the future. That is, if the world doesn't come to an end?!
Mike