quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
You can always try putting a small helium filled balloon in the package to lighten it up by a gram or two.

That would at least make sure that the buyer got a bigger bang for his bucks (sorry- sometimes I just can't help myself)

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
You can always try putting a small helium filled balloon in the package to lighten it up by a gram or two.

Have you seen the price of helium these days ?

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin F:

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
You can always try putting a small helium filled balloon in the package to lighten it up by a gram or two.

Have you seen the price of helium these days ?

We have those giant tanks of it where I work, and there's a way I can smuggle a bit out each day, but it is really difficult to hold my breath until I get home.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:

quote:

Originally posted by Kevin F:

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
You can always try putting a small helium filled balloon in the package to lighten it up by a gram or two.

Have you seen the price of helium these days ?

We have those giant tanks of it where I work, and there's a way I can smuggle a bit out each day, but it is really difficult to hold my breath until I get home.

And even then someone would have to have a string around your ankle to stop you floating off somewhere.

Helium is best when served with Princess Dejah Thoris.

As for "dumped" - it can be a feature that changes with time. A lot of sets were over-produced through the mid-1990s, especially when cards were sold at convenience stores or were flooded into the mass marketers. Cases and cases of some card series were left unopened in warehouses. Returned merchandise was repackaged into box-size lots or packs were sold in large lots or "polybags."

There are people like me who will want one of everything if it's cheap enough, and when there was a lot of dumped product, it was a great time to be building a collection.

Over the years, this oversupply evened itself out. If a seller is patient and has storage space, they can sell off the boxes from a case a few at a time over a decade. Some of the items you could get for $10 a case ten years ago are now selling for $10 a box now. I know of a few dealers who used to sell a lot of dumped cards, and some have moved on to other things, and others have dwindling inventories.

A big black mark across the top of a box is a sure sign that the cards were dumped at one time, usually returned as unsold from a dealer.

So what's the "official" definition? In valuing cards for trading, I use the convention that a series is Dumped if the cards are selling today for less than about a third of what they sold for at retail when they were new. Long ago the NSU Price Guide tried to track dumped sets with a "*" to alert the collector that the historical price may be high because the cards were known to be dumped. But it got impossible to keep track, because you might see the market flooded temporarily when somebody unloads a warehouse. And some cards naturally end up less valuable when interest wanes in the subject matter. You could call any set that didn't sell out at the time of the release "semi-dumped" at least.

quote:

Originally posted by chesspieceface:
You can always try putting a small helium filled balloon in the package to lighten it up by a gram or two.

Does anyone remember the `Tippi Turtle' cartoon skits they had on Saturday Night Live back in the 80's? They had one where he put a helium balloon in a box and took it to the post office. He demanded money since it weighed less than zero.

Part of the fun in this hobby is opening packs, dumped products fill this erge in me until the next big release is out.

Amen, John!

The problem comes when you've gone through just about every set that was ever dumped. I don't even go to eBay and sort boxes and cases by lowest price very often, since I can go through the first 30 pages without seeing anything new.

But it does make it a great time for a new collector! Let's tell all of our non-card friends how cheap it can be to build that collection. We just need to get them started, and some of them will become fanatics.