Friday, October 11, 2019

Packs, packs, and more packs!


If there's one thing that I wasn't looking for at the most recent card show, it was unopened packs. Not to sound like a braggart or anything, but I've got maybe 25 or 30 different unopened packs, as well as half a dozen overproduction era boxes stashed away for a rainy day, all blog material of course, so there was absolutely no reason for me to pick up anymore... or so I thought!

Seeing as how this was one of the super mega giant shows, there were dealers there from near and far, many of whom hadn't set up there before. One of those first-timers was a guy who had an obscene amount of unopened packs, all of which were priced at either fifty cents or a dollar. He had sports, and he had non-sports, probably more of the latter than the former. There was plenty of "junk wax", but also plenty of newer things as well, from Dinosaurs Attack! to packs with Aaron Judge on the wrapper (sorry, I don't know what set those were from).

I didn't find this guy until I was about three hours in, and by then I was already more than a little weary, so much so that I almost didn't stop at his table, despite the impressive spread -- but there was no one else there, and after having been elbow to elbow with people for the previous couple of hours, the thought of being able to look through something without having another guy rubbing up on me was just too darn appealing to pass up. Even so, I wasn't planning on looking through everything, but that plan was tossed out the window after I found the above two packs of RockCards... then I knew that I wasn't going anywhere until I saw every single pack!

Until just recently I never realized how popular MusiCards were. I remember seeing somebody post something about them on Twitter a year or so ago, and then all of sudden they were all over the blogs. Wish I would've known some of these fans of the set when I was a kid, because back then I don't recall ever seeing anybody other than myself buying them. Since Gavin wanted one of the promo cards, I'll probably be opening these up sooner than later, that way he doesn't have to wait to long to get it.

It was kind of funny/eerie that I would find a pack of Tek World cards, as I had just been reading an old TV Guide the night before, a TV Guide that just happened to feature an interview with William Shatner about the upcoming premiere of Tek World. Kind of strange, huh?

These were gotten for, Matt. And I'm not showing them to be like "look how great I am because I bought something for somebody else", no I'm just showing them because they're part of the overall purchase, plus Matt already knows about them, so I'm not ruining any sort of surprise or anything. As I already told Matt on Twitter, I tried to get him some packs from the Power Rangers movie as well, but they felt like they were bricked, and I'm not about to take a chance on something that's likely already ruined. This guy had a bunch of Saga of the Dark Knight packs that appeared to be suffering from the same problem, which is too bad, because I would've bought all of those. [Note to Matt: I know I've already said it, but I will try to get these out to you sometime soon]
 
I'm pretty sure that I've never opened any 1992 Pro Set before, and I had no idea that Pro Set ever came in jumbo packs, so I kind of had to get this one... too bad it was the only one that he had!

I've seen some singles from this set before, but had never really thought about the actual set, meaning that I didn't know if it came in packs, or was just one of those sets that you'd buy as a whole... obviously they came in packs! I don't know if I actually needed these or not, but like some of the other stuff in this post, they'll at least make for some good blog fodder.

Initially I was going to be done with what you've already seen, but as I was wrapping up my search, the dealer came around the table with two handfuls of packs and started trying to find space for them. I was immediately drawn to one group of packs that he had in his hand, so before he could even start, I said "Can I please see those", to which he replied with a hearty "You sure can!".

These are what caught my eye! I hadn't seen a pack of these since I was probably eight or nine years old, and didn't really think that I ever would again. It's certainly not the greatest set ever, but seeing them again brought back a ton of nostalgia, so I had to have some. He had brought out like twenty packs, and I briefly thought about getting them all, but soon settled on ten. Still wonder if I should have gotten them all though?

I soon learned that some guy had pulled out a bunch of packs earlier, but didn't have enough money to pay for them, asked the dealer to hold them out and he would come back and pay for them, and as of a couple of hours later, still hadn't come back, so the dealer was putting the packs back out for sale... and I just so happened to be standing there when he decided to do so (things like that never happen to me)!

As a quick aside, asking a dealer at any kind of collectibles show to hold some stuff for you, and then not coming back to pay for it, is a prick move... so don't do it!

Oh, and there were more than just WrestleMania packs being put back out, this flaky buyer had obviously cherry picked the boxes, because there weren't any other examples of these packs when I went through the boxes -- so except for some of the WrestleMania packs, and a few from newer baseball sets that I didn't recognize, I ended up buying the rest of what was being put back out...

I'm not familiar with this set at all, and I'm intentionally not looking it up, I want to be surprised! Five cards for a buck was a bit much, but since there was only one, I figured it was worth the chance.

Collector's Edge... YES!!!!!!

Check out that groovy reflection of my hands and phone! I'm not familiar with this set either, and these were the only packs that I second guessed myself on, so hopefully I won't hate the design.

And last but not least, a golden ticket! I wish that there would've been some more of these, but one pack was better than nothing... thanks flaky buyer!

So, not a bad haul, eh? I would've bought more had some of the packs been only $0.25, namely those of the New Kids on the Block and Rocketeer variety, but I really only wanted those for the stickers, and paying fifty cents for a sticker didn't seem like a very good deal. I'm sort of wondering now if I should've asked the guy if he'd sell them for a quarter a pack, provided I take them all? I guess if I ever see him again, and he still has the packs, I'll give it a go, as I don't think that it would be considered an insult to make such an offer.

I always see people say that they got something "for the price of a blaster", or a "blaster and a half", which is all fine and good, but I don't really know what the going rate of blaster is these days? $15? $20? If they are in that range, I guess I can say that I got these for the price of a blaster, because the 28 packs set me back $18. And I may not know how much a blaster costs, but I'm fairly certain that none of them come with 28 packs, so I think as far as buying packs goes, this turned out to be a pretty good purchase.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

23 comments:

  1. Outside of the Power Rangers (I never got into it), that looks like a great haul. I'd absolutely ask if he comes back about a better deal on NKOTB and Rocketeer packs. I've seen cards from probably all these sets, but not sure if I've seen what the packs look like, so this was cool to see.

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    1. I tried to get into the Power Rangers, I really did, but it just didn't (or wouldn't) stick. It's possible that I might've just been too old for them by the time the show started up, at least the American version. I hadn't seen most of these packs before either, or if I had, I've forgotten what they looked like, so they were pretty much all "new" to me as well.

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  2. Nice snag! Check my site for MusiCard wants from series 2, and I think I can help with more if you like the silver Upper Decks.

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    1. I will definitely be looking to see if you need any of these.

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  3. Hope you post what you pull from the MusiCards! As I told you earlier, Series 2 show up in the wild a lot less often than Series 1, so that's cool you found some cheap packs.

    Retail price of a blaster is typically $19.99. Saying "I got this for the price of a blaster" is kinda like code so that if our significant others happen to read our blogs, they won't know how much we're spending on cards. LOL

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    1. Oh, I will! These'll probably be up on the blog sometime in the next two weeks.

      Thanks for the clarification, apparently the "code" works on SO's and bloggers :)

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  4. Looking forward to seeing what's inside these packs!

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    1. It'll probably take a while, but everything will eventually make it onto the blog.

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  5. It's tough to resist a cheap unopened pack, no matter what set or year. It's one of my (many) weaknesses at card shows.

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  6. Go Go Power Rangers!! Thanks again for the Jon! I have a few things to send back as a thank you. I also really like the Upper Deck Silver and of course the Zenith pack. You don't find those kickiing around very often.

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    1. I've never seen a Zenith pack in the wild. Even when they were new I never saw any.

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  7. I totally understand where you're coming from. I have a stash of boxes and packs too... and generally don't think about adding to it... but if something cool catches my eye and the price is right... I'll buy it. Can't wait to see if you pull anything special out of those football packs.

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    1. Yeah, but I think that your stash is considerably larger than mine, I'm envisioning one whole closet being full of nothing but packs and boxes :)

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    2. Not quite a closet... but I probably have 25 to 40 unopened boxes that I've picked up over the years. Some are from the days of working at the card store. While others are flea market finds I've never gotten around to opening. Maybe one day I'll take some photos and write up a post.

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    3. Okay, so more like a large cupboard full :)

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  8. Cool pickups! Definitely good rainy-day stuff. Good price, too.

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  9. Those Classic wrestling packs are awesome and hard to come by in my opinion. I would have bought them al!!!

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    1. I don't know how rare they are, but I do know that I haven't seen any in almost 30 years, so there was no way that I couldn't at least buy a few... time will tell whether or not I should have bought the rest though.

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  10. The only blaster I know of that would put you close to that many packs for the price was 2008-09 Fleer basketball. They had 22 packs in them. But of course the cards themselves were flimsy as heck and ugly as sin (the two glossy bonus packs were sturdier & slightly better looking, but still not very good; basically the '80s throwback rookie inserts & vet parallels & a small chance at a hit were the only saving grace). So yeah, I think your haul still won pretty handily.

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    1. 22 packs in a blaster sounds like an awful lot, but I guess if the cards were "flimsy as heck and ugly as sin", it probably didn't matter how many packs they included! I don't think I know of this set, so I'll have to go see just how ugly they truly are.

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  11. no one called you a pack rat. sorry I am so late in doing so. ;)

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