Opinions on "Hot Packs"

frankhardy

Have any of you ever bought any "hot packs" on Ebay, where the seller guarantees an auto or a relic card? Any success? Any rip offs? Also, how do they know?

FavreFan1971

I bought five of these two years ago from Ultra football. They all had a jersey card, no autos. But at $15 each and getting an Antoino Bryant card really sucks.

frankhardy

I can understand how someone would know about a relic card. All that they would have to do is to weigh the packs with digital scales. What I am wondering is how do they know about an auto that is (I am assuming) the same weight.

The reason I am wondering is that I just took a risk. I just bought a 2001 Topps Finest "guaranteeing" an auto for $23.00. I figured, hey, I have the possibility of pulling a Pujols, Morneau, Sheets etc. I thought I would try it.

muchuckwagon

Many times these packs are resealed with low-end autographs or game used cards. Good luck.

envoy98

This has been discussed many times before. Either they are pack feeling, weighing (though I've heard the card companies have the weights VERY close now so that it is more difficult), or they are resealing the packs. Someone even posted the resealing auction here once. Now, I did meet a guy at a local flea market who was an admitted pack searcher and he put out the packs with the cards and I saw some REALLY nice stuff come out of it. Yogi Berra real One auto from heritage, Arod Topps auto, Favre auto/patch #/5...so he was on the up-and-up. I, and many others choose not to support these people. I personally find it a bit repulsive that people spend their day robbing boxes of the "hits", especially retail where a lot of kids go to get thier cards. Your opinion may differ.

At any rate, I hope that answers your question.

ToppsCo1lector

I've never bought one, but again I'm not one to spend 15-20 bucks on a single pack.

XanaduNow

I've seen these auctions a lot of times and thought about taking a chance. But it all came back to the fact that I try not to partake in anything I don't understand.

Needless to say, I don't end up doing much.

Gator

I have bought five or six of the bowman draft baseball hot packs and all of them contained an auto. Also, if you will notice some of the sellers on Ebay will guarantee a serial numbered card or auto. If my memory serves me correct, the auto or serial numberd card is the second card from the back. They slide the back card up and feel for the serial number and that little square numbered authentication sticker on the back.

XanaduNow

Nice avatar, gator.

RichG

From what I understand, most of them are re-sealed! With this said, I would never buy one.
Rich

Stone193

Have never bought one Frank.

But, back around 1996 I bought a box of Fleer Ultra BB and one pack had ALL insert cards in it!

I don't know if I ever got a straight answer as to whether the manufacturer was doing this intentionally.

Now "that's" a HOT pack!

mike

riccaboni

<< <i>Have never bought one Frank.

But, back around 1996 I bought a box of Fleer Ultra BB and one pack had ALL insert cards in it!

I don't know if I ever got a straight answer as to whether the manufacturer was doing this intentionally.

Now "that's" a HOT pack!

mike >>



If I remember correctly, many Fleer products around that time contained "hot" packs or boxes, wherein the packs or entire boxes would just be the inserts. That's all I remember, though...

-Ian

CDsNuts

I would think a lot of them would come straight out of Wal-Mart or wherever from people looking to turn a quick $10 profit for each pack. Either way, why would you want to perpetuate the practice of pack-searching by buying from these clowns? You think the other packs are being thrown away? No, they're being sold to people who have no chance of pulling an auto or GU.

Lee

slatsme

I had 10 bucks to waste so I bought an 05 Legendary Cuts memo pack....got an Andre Dawson Glory Days jersey. Not worth much, but a good looking card.

bjork73

I think that at the very least both the sellers and buyers are entering into a serious ethical gray area with the "hot" packs... just save your $$$ and your karma and buy a sealed hobby box when you can

Wizardsguildcards

If you open enough packs and keep track of the boxes you can easily figure where the good cards are in the box. In 2005 I opened 3 retail boxes of Heritage. The autograph or relic card was always on the left row the third pack up from the bottom. I used this same pattern on a retail box of 2005 Cracker Jack and only bought one pack and pulled a Mini-Alex Rodriguez Autograph #'ed 13/50 that I sold 3 days later for 400.00 on Ebay.