Stumbled across fairly (or cheaply) priced full boxes online lately. Various sets and manufacturers. A few from the same seller.

There's the full pack count but none have the original manufacturers shrink wrap. Is it possible they simply had the shrink removed before sale?

Or more likely boxes (in fair or poor condition) were refilled with 'dud' packs left over from other box breaks?

Does this void any manufacturer guarantees of probable box break down?

Plus this isn't 'a box' for sale they're selling 6 or 10+ full boxes of the same product without shrink but full pack count.

I don't want to put down fair prices on a few boxes to end up with stacks of base cards, no chase cards and not even a full base set.

I don't want to contact the sellers because I don't want to sound like I'm accusing them of being dishonest when it could be a genuine mistake. Advice? Thanks.

Nobody takes the wrap off to sell a full box. Most unopened boxes will also have an intact seal with the box number on it.

You could also have retail packs and you think its a hobby box.

If it doesn't look right, pass.

I'd never buy a box that doesn't have its original shrink wrapping.
In the case of Game of Thrones boxes all have a foil numbered seal over the opening, and that seal has to be cut/slit to open the box.

Some sets a few years back had a really formatted distribution of where the packs with hits were. I think one of the Harry Potter set's boxes, either DH1 or DH2 all had the autograph cards and other hits about two packs in on the right hand side. Something like that.

If you just want base cards, or a set didn't have anything more hit-worthy than foils, then it might be OK. But the collation could still be way off.

If they are Rittenhouse boxes, you could have the same problem that I had. When hidden archive boxes were inserted into cases, I bought two boxes of Farscape online that came without the outer seal. I can only assume that this was because the orange archive label used to be on the inside of the lid. If the outer was removed, the seller could look inside without breaking the box seal. I don't know if my reporting this to Rittenhouse caused the change, but future releases had the notification label on the inside bottom, safe from unscrupulous sellers.

I purchased one once that had no shrink wrap on the box. It also had no hits or guaranteed autos. When I contacted the seller he told me to take it up with the manufacturer even though he was selling auto cards from the same set I just purchased. It was okay though, he lost many future sales to me for his greed. This is also why I do not buy packs from open boxes anymore....fool me once, shame on you......

Like everyone else that would be a hard no from me.

A well known dealer sells boxes of packs for $12 or so at shows. The costumes and autos are gone, but there are still chase and possibly another hit such as a sketch or plate.
I would only buy opened boxes if you knew the seller and if the price was really reasonable.

Agree with Don if it is cheap then at least you know what you are getting. If they are asking $30+ leave alone.

Of course I have purchased sealed boxes from dealers only to see them selling all the top autos on ebay lol

I fell for this when I first started out, "a box of 36 packs".
Didnt even get a base set from it, just many multiples of the same base cards.

A wee while back Cards Inc issued some of their boxes uncelophaned and no sticker seal! I was dubious at first but all the dealers got them this way. Lead to some quite heated discussions with CI customer service when the boxes came up short from their expected content.

quote:

Originally posted by Spencer Quist:
A wee while back Cards Inc issued some of their boxes uncelophaned and no sticker seal! I was dubious at first but all the dealers got them this way. Lead to some quite heated discussions with CI customer service when the boxes came up short from their expected content.

Yeah some boxes are Topps and obviously re-packaged even with the 'correct' pack count. Fair price if you want a base set or three and there's no major chase cards in the sets anyway. Irritates me when you know they've taken the hits and not been upfront about it.

But there are some sellers with reasonably priced Cards Inc. boxes who explained about the lack of shrink wrap. Honestly quite a surprising move by a manufacturer.

I guess they thought the packs would be on a shop counter and aimed at the youth market so why worry about shrink wrap for integrity of the boxes content.

Seen vids on youtube of people who bought unwrapped boxes, of which there sure was a lot of tampering involved, as there were not any of the better inserts inside! I've seen boxes myself that were not wrapped, but bought them because they were at a good price and found that they were searched! It's another "buyer beware" thing I guess, as you get what you paid for!

quote:

Originally posted by TC00:
But there are some sellers with reasonably priced Cards Inc. boxes who explained about the lack of shrink wrap. Honestly quite a surprising move by a manufacturer.

I guess they thought the packs would be on a shop counter and aimed at the youth market so why worry about shrink wrap for integrity of the boxes content.

Did you get that story straight from the manufacturer or the sellers?

A wrapped and sealed box is a wrapped and sealed box, no matter who it is aimed at. If its not wrapped and sealed you can reasonably assume its been opened by someone along the food chain. You asked for advice and the response has been unanimous, which is probably a first right there.

quote:

Originally posted by Neilsy:
I fell for this when I first started out, "a box of 36 packs".
Didnt even get a base set from it, just many multiples of the same base cards.

Yeah I've been in the game long enough to know better (fool me once and all that). I've picked up a few bargains of 20 lose packs lately but since I'm collecting the base sets from scratch it's just added fun if I pull an 'extras'.

But if I had a base or mini master set and was pulling lose packs for hits I'd be irritated for sure if I felt the seller hadn't been honest about the chance of hits.

quote:

Originally posted by <<<<ALDO_NOVA>>>>:
Seen vids on youtube of people who bought unwrapped boxes, of which there sure was a lot of tampering involved, as there were not any of the better inserts inside! I've seen boxes myself that were not wrapped, but bought them because they were at a good price and found that they were searched! It's another "buyer beware" thing I guess, as you get what you paid for!

Yeah there's this one box of cards (Won't name product) that keeps coming up on Ebay every few months and has done for years. It's an unpopular product from a movie flop. Clearly the box has been poorly re-wrapped with cellophane and they're trying to get at least half the original retail value (Around £20+) for the box. It's a joke really.

quote:

Originally posted by hammer:
Agree with Don if it is cheap then at least you know what you are getting. If they are asking $30+ leave alone.

It's $15 for TWO boxes re-packaged. I can imagine I'd be building forts with the base cards.

quote:

Originally posted by Don Norton:
A well known dealer sells boxes of packs for $12 or so at shows. The costumes and autos are gone, but there are still chase and possibly another hit such as a sketch or plate.
I would only buy opened boxes if you knew the seller and if the price was really reasonable.

Good advice Don, thanks. If the sellers up front and offering a decent price that's fair enough. It's when they play it up as 'might haves' when they know it s a dud that I get annoyed by the dishonesty of it.

quote:

Originally posted by Graham:
If they are Rittenhouse boxes, you could have the same problem that I had. When hidden archive boxes were inserted into cases, I bought two boxes of Farscape online that came without the outer seal. I can only assume that this was because the orange archive label used to be on the inside of the lid. If the outer was removed, the seller could look inside without breaking the box seal. I don't know if my reporting this to Rittenhouse caused the change, but future releases had the notification label on the inside bottom, safe from unscrupulous sellers.

Thanks for letting me know about the Rittenhouse boxes. They're a mix of Topps and Cards Inc and some Inkworks products.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:

quote:

Originally posted by TC00:
But there are some sellers with reasonably priced Cards Inc. boxes who explained about the lack of shrink wrap. Honestly quite a surprising move by a manufacturer.

I guess they thought the packs would be on a shop counter and aimed at the youth market so why worry about shrink wrap for integrity of the boxes content.

Did you get that story straight from the manufacturer or the sellers?

A wrapped and sealed box is a wrapped and sealed box, no matter who it is aimed at. If its not wrapped and sealed you can reasonably assume its been opened by someone along the food chain. You asked for advice and the response has been unanimous, which is probably a first right there.

Yeah the advice has been unanimous and appreciated. Another card talker explained that Cards Inc. released Thunderbirds Are Go set without shrink wrap or seals which I think's odd. I saw a box of that product for sale and the seller said the same thing (as the card talker) in the sale description.

I figure Cards Inc thought if only kids were buying the product (In the UK cards of all kinds are aimed at kid, don't know about US/Worldwide) who cares if they got the autograph card. Or if a pack was stolen and had something of value in it as they clearly didn't place much value on their products. Perhaps why they went out of business.