15 Year Anniversary of the 1975 Topps Mini Case Break…

Those were the days. That's what got me into vintage boxes. We were big rollers back then!

I remember taking part. I can't remember much about it though other than all of my cards where off centered. I can't remember how many I bought. I may have just bought one pack. Does anybody remember how much they were per pack? I still have a wrapper for my wrapper collection! Whoo hoo!

I had no idea it had been 15 years!

Yep - mostly way off centered cards - but looking through the old thread, Zef and Julen were always a hoot.

So this was the mini break before the Gary fiasco?

@nam812 said:
So this was the mini break before the Gary fiasco?

I tried to read the Gary fiasco thread and it is a really difficult slog. Was there any ultimate resolution to the situation, or did he just continue denying and it just kind of fizzled?

I don't recall if that was the break with the Gary debacle. Here's my recollection of the sequence of events without revisiting the old threads to jog my memory...

• Gary volunteered to arrange breaks. He would purchase the boxes from BBCE who would ship them to Gary. Gary would then break the boxes and ship the packs out to all the participants.
• I participated in an 80s pack break he coordinated. When I got the packs, they looked resealed. I was confused because some packs like '84 Topps weren't really worth the effort to reseal, but apparently making $5 by scamming fellow board members is worth it to an unscrupulous few.
• I and a few others challenged him about the condition of the packs, especially after not getting any star cards in the packs
• He denied it
• My memory gets a bit fuzzy here. I recall him wanting to "line his coffee table" with '75 wax wrappers. He set up the '75 mini break. I don't recall if he managed one before the big case break or not.
• The one I participated in was where Gary and Zef traveled back to BBCE to break the case.
• Gary looked like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family
• By that time, we arranged with Steve to break the boxes at his store and ship to the participants directly. This removed the risk of having a scammer in the middle.
• Gary was shamed from the board and probably eventually banned. Before he left, he would rub salt in the wounds by showing off all the 80s cards he pulled from that pack break.

I still have the box I bought from the case break as well as two others including one FASC. I don't think Steve was wrapping them at that time because my box from this case break didn't come wrapped and I probably would have done so if he offered the service at that time...or I was too cheap to pay for the wrap and didn't understand the future value of the service back at that time. I'm glad I bought them when I did. One recently sold for $9,300. I think I bought the FASC box for around $1,000.

I remember now him wanting to line his table with wrappers.

@gemint said:

• My memory gets a bit fuzzy here. I recall him wanting to "line his coffee table" with '75 wax wrappers.

Didn't he claim he was going to make a display for the top of the bar in his house? Like putting the wrappers under the glass top?

That break was a little before my time as I joined the CU boards 10 years ago. I did, however, buy a 1975 Topps mini box in 2012 for $1,300. The intention was to hold it for 5 years and then sell. I ended up opening a bunch of packs very quickly and submitting a bunch of packs and some singles to PSA for grading. I sold all of the graded packs, built a really sharp set that I still have and made a few hundred dollars profit. I do miss the days when '70's packs were affordable.

@grote15 said:
........I believe it was Lee (cdsnuts) who posted the initial thread bringing the revelations to light.

Correct.

@PaulMaul said:

@grote15 said:
Great memories! I believe Gary was exposed right before the 1978 baseball case break.

I believe it was Lee (cdsnuts) who posted the initial thread bringing the revelations to light.

Was his guilt conclusively proven?

Yes, as far as I can recall.

This is one of those threads that should remind people just how long the vintage wax reseal game has been going on. People always seem to think that just because they bought their packs on eBay long ago it protects them from this sort of fraud as they can't imagine people were doing this sort of thing way back then.

I didn't participate - so I just read - and don't remember responding to any of it.

Here's a thread a bit later entitled - What Ever Happened to Gary? Where he tries to justify himself.

LINK

Just a note.

I found a few threads next to the one I linked - one had to do with RichG e.g. - these threads went on forever! I realized back around 15 yrs ago? I spent way, way, way too much time here. It was a different time tho in that the board had way, way more participants in any given hour.

This thread takes the cake - I think I used more words in my responses here than I did on a college thesis!

LINK - if you have time - sad - RichG died in a car accident. I think I was pretty hard on him at times.

I don't collect unopened. however there was a psa board 75 mini break of at least 2 boxes originally from steve hart. FASC.
I am guessing about 5 years ago.???
I bought 2 packs. I think they were $75 each. Many guys opened them and posted results. No brett or yount
It was the same guy who handles many box breaks. Many of the unopened guys here participated.
The packs were team bagged next to a top loader.

@jay0791 said:
I don't collect unopened. however there was a psa board 75 mini break of at least 2 boxes originally from steve hart. FASC.
I am guessing about 5 years ago.???
I bought 2 packs. I think they were $75 each. Many guys opened them and posted results. No brett or yount
It was the same guy who handles many box breaks. Many of the unopened guys here participated.
The packs were team bagged next to a top loader.

I remember one like that Jay - but it was around 2014 based on the wrapper.

I wasn't gonna participate but they needed some to buy to close the deal is what I remember - so I decided to jump in.

This is how mine was packed.

These were sealed in the team bags by the guy who broke down the box.
I have nor even taken the packs out.
I guess people can tell who is on back or front. I dunno

Received six packs on September 6, 2006, for $245. Lots of fun to open , but as you can see the centering was hellish. Here were my "highlights":

Pack 1

Pack 2

Pack 3

Pack 4

Packs 5 & 6

Graded only one of them - the Yaz/Cepeda '67 MVPs got an "8."

I was in on the group break Gary handled with football packs. Got absolutely nothing in the 70's packs, but he must have skipped resealing the 81 football because I got a Montana PSA 9 from that one.

I think it was maybe a $1,000 card at the time. I sold it to a board member at a discount.

Great memories!