Vending boxes

arex

Can anyone tell me how to tell if a vending box has been unsearched?
I was always under the impression that you couldnt do that.

jeffcbay

You would see a defined alternating cut pattern on the edge of the cards when you open up the vending box. Here are a couple examples of mine:

arex

excellent information. Thanks!
Are any of them shrinkwrapped? Im looking on eBay and seeing some of them that are shrinkwrapped.
Got any 83 or 84 baseball vending you want to sell?

waxman2745

Nice vending boxes! Judging by the orange backs, I'm guessing these are either 1978 or 1988.

hhmag70

Would they look the same if someone got them out and looked through them but kept the in the same basic back/forth pattern?

jeffcbay

<< <i> Judging by the orange backs, I'm guessing these are either 1978 or 1988. >>



Good call! These are from a 1988 Topps Vending case I bought from BBCE. I would have rather shot myself in the face than gone through all of those, but I did it anyway. I was hunting for a Ripken PSA 10. No luck. lol



<< <i>Would they look the same if someone got them out and looked through them but kept the in the same basic back/forth pattern? >>



Good question! No. You could definitely tell if they were gone through. These boxes are like bricks, and even if you were to carefully go through them and leave every card in there, you could tell. This is just my opinion though, maybe someone else can weigh in.

Mefer

Here is a good exercise and worth the minimal expense to educate yourself on vending.

Buy a cheap junk vending box. Take all of the cards out. You will find in most cases the vending boxes have over 500 cards. Now attempt to shove all the cards you just pulled out back into the vending box. It will be hard to do and you will notice a difference on the "patterns" as shown in the pictures above.

Matt