1975 Baseball cellos: gradeable cards or junk?

summerof68

Hello set builders. I am new to the forum and I want to share a very disheartening experience I had with the opening of my first 1975 baseball cello pak with the hopes of finding possible psa 9 cards. I purchased a gai 9 pak with a nicely centered top card (Dave Nelson) on ebay recently for $78. I opened the slab and opened the pak and it contained a perfectly centered Johnny Bench. But to my dismay (ALL) 18 cards had slight damage to the top right and bottom left corners. Obviously this was due to the cellophane being pulled too tight. Additionally all 18 cards were very warped as a result of the cards being pulled around the gum in the middle of the pak. I was disgusted and threw the cards in the trash--$78 down the drain. Was this a rare occurance or are '75 cellos nothing more than "eye candy" routinely containing cards with soft corners from tightly pulled cellophane????

Darin

Welcome to the boards, summer of 68.
Unfortunately, your experience is exactlly like mine for 75 cellos. I've opened quite a few of them and most all have damaged corners from the cellophane being too tight.

Fuzz

Joe O. was once quoted in an article that the average card out of the pack is a 7 or an 8. I find this to be quite useful in looking at packs to open. Many people believe that they ought to be better and some are. But some are not. Any unopened pack is PSA lotto. Had you hit a Brett PSA 10, your a winner but on average most will not profit. The market will insure that over the long haul. There is enough knowledge on this board about years and types of packs that can help you get the best probability of sucsess when cracking packs. There are some here that make a habit of it to say the least. I have done it once myself. Sorry about your result but it wasn;t that bad. The pack was legit and you did get a nicely centered HOF.
Best of Luck
Fuzz

Bosox1976

1975 Topps racks are the way to go. Usually 1-2 10's and 8-10 9's (and about 10 o/c junky cards), rest are 8-ish. Usually around $200 - 225 - they are infinitely beter than three cellos.

summerof68

I would like to thank the individuals who took time to respond to my concerns about the quality of cards contained in 1975 baseball cello paks. Your combined answers have confirmed my suspicions that the cellophane is wrapped too tightly and all too often leads to damaged corners rendering them unworththy of submission. In this regard rack packs would seem to be a much better choice--provided of course the cards inside the rak haven't experienced damage from people manipulating the cards for a peek inside. Thanks again

grote15

Most cellos from this era of the mid to late 70s were wrapped rather tightly by Topps, so they look real sharp in the package but the cards suffer as a result. I have pulled a few PSA 9s from cello packs, but they are much tougher to come by than cards pulled from rack packs or wax packs. I've had great success with wax, though two cards in each 10 card pack are going to be damaged due to the wax seal (which can usually be corrected) and the gum stain (which usually cannot). I'd think most collectors who purchase cello packs from this era do so with little intention of ever opening the pack and are usually unopened collectors instead. Just my 2 cents.