My local store had some open boxes of various stuff so I decided to sample them.

LOTR ROTK Update- 3 packs, 1 Sam's Wedding Jacket memorabilia card

Star Wars Heritage- 8 packs, 2 foil cards (#3 and 5) and a Randall sketch card (almost identical to the one i posted in the breakdown section)

Angel Season 5- 10 packs, 0 regular inserts, pw6 pieceworks (spike's shirt) and 1 autograph redemption card AR-1 (Johnathan Woodward as Knox).

They also had various boxes reduced. I snagged a Buffy Connections box for $69.99 (Canadian $) and I'm mulling over some of the others, X-Files season 9 ($69.99), Quotable Xena ($69.99), Angel season 4 ($69.99) and Animated Star Trek ($79.99)

Great pulls you got there.
I once pulled a Nimoy auto from TOS 3 buying the last 16 or so packs as well as many other high-end inserts.

Single packs are never bad!

My local stroe ordered a box of WoS just for me.
But I did not want the whole bix, so he kept it in the store.

When I first went in, I picked up the BL-3 and DST-1, as well as 6 packs.
I pulled a PW-2 variant, adnd te rest were base cards.

So, do not ever listen to someone when the say....."buying loose packs from an open box is bad!"

Chris

I'd never say "Don't buy single packs" (with my luck over the years, I'd be daft to do so!) - unless, of course, you happen to be buying from my local store, in which case I'd advise against it - either I've been in there before you and been lucky, or I'll be annoyed because someone bet me to it!

The odds are such that single pack buyers still stand a chance of pulling something nice - but it is still probably the most expensive way of collecting a set. As long as you buy packs on the basis that you don't mind not pulling anything other than base cards (which is not bad thing!) and you have a couple of pounds or dollars loose in your pocket, then go ahead - you might be lucky!
Au Res.,
Paul (most of whose great pulls have been from pack purchases rather than boxes - namely the Shatner/Nimoy dual auto, two of the John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) FOTR autos (from separate stores) and, of course the most recent Angel 5 pulls)

While I normally buy boxes from a couple of internet based vendors due to market conditions in my area, There are about 4 comic book stores that will have a few current releases on the shelf. I stop in every now and then to buy a few packs of something just to promote the retailers or to sample a set I have only a passing interest in.

Today I stopped in a store I haven't been to in a long time, but they stock plastic storage boxes. And since the LOTR Trilogy sets need a 150 count so I needed a couple. There was a box of Complete Babylon 5 sitting out! (did I say slow market here?) It had been well picked over, but I bought 5 packs and managed to pull a total of 5 chase cards, including 2 of the lenticulars that are 1:10 as I recall.

Couldn't agree more. Normally I never buy a box (I can never find one!) so I pick up single packs from local stores that have open boxes. Today I bought a coupls of packs of the new LOTR Trilogy Topps chrome set. To my surprise the prop card was still there and I grabbed another pack for good measure. Check this out. For my $6.12 investment I pulled a Sam's Elven Tunic memorabilia card (1:652) and .... a Viggo Mortensen auotgraphed King Elessar card! I was stoked, that's the best pull I've ever gotten. I know some think the Trilogy isn't that great but I've always want a VM auto and I pulled it myself!!
Too cool huh?

I'd love to be able to chance my luck with packs from boxes - but there are no stores in my area that have packs of ANY card sets
my only source is the internet and ebay.
And seeking inserts from opened boxes is a definite 'no-no' from there.

I think it all depends where you are buying from.

Whenever I've picked up a couple of packs from a shop / dealer I've never had any inserts. So I quickly stopped doing it. I don't have a local card shop, or even one that's vaguely near, so it's Ebay, online and shows for me.

LW

quote:

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Originally posted by LesleyW:
I think it all depends where you are buying from.

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That's the killer, of course. If you can trust your local store, then the single pack route is by far the best way to take a look at new sets, to try out whether you want to collect... and maybe to snag something interesting into the bargain...

Buying single packs on Ebay, however...

Buying single packs from anywhere is ok as long as you do not expect to find anything.
If you do then great, as for me i unfortunatly know far too much about what goes on to ever go near an open box.

Usually I do okay buying single packs. I have found some of my best cards in packs from open boxes.

I have bought packs of Star Wars heritage from 3 different boxes, and i have 3 sketches.
Recently I bought one pack of Nascar cards and found Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s auto as well.

The key is being able to trust your dealer, as someone else pointed out above, and also, do other customers have access to the packs? In the local Target, it is obvious to me when someone has gone through and cherry-picked the packs.

That's the key when going into buying packs! If you don't expect anything but use it as resarch to see if you want to buy a set its the way to go.
I have been very lucky with pulling over half of my auto/memoribilia cards from packs at stores. And when I mean half, we're talking up to 30 cards have come from single pack buys.

some of the best pulls have been from single packs, Richard Dean Anderson auto, Don S Davis, Brad Wright, all from single packs, i would just buy to see what the sets like.

Just pick out random packs, what i do.

Bought 10 packs of Star Wars Heritage and 5 packs of Angel season 5 from an open box today.
1 Foil and 1 sketch card - Darth Vader by Fabri - from the Star Wars packs and just base cards from Angel.

(Admittedly, It didn't look like anyone had bought any packs from the SWH box since I bought the first 10 packs from it last week last week)

I says so

I bought over the past two weeks, 5 packs of angel 5 and 6 of Buffy WOS, and yielded nothing but a foil from the angel 5

quote:

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Originally posted by RupT:
I says so

I bought over the past two weeks, 5 packs of angel 5 and 6 of Buffy WOS, and yielded nothing but a foil from the angel 5

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Odds-wise that's just about right. Most Inkworks boxes have 7 inserts per 36 count box (1 auto, 1 pieceworks, 2 of the 6 card 1:17 inserts, 3 of the 9 card 1:11 puzzle inserts) which is almost exactly 1 insert per 5 packs.

quote:

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Originally posted by RupT:
I bought over the past two weeks, 5 packs of angel 5 and 6 of Buffy WOS, and yielded nothing but a foil from the angel 5

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Okay, I'll raise you.

Bought a box of Charmed from an online retailer, it yielded a Vanquishing Evil foil, a puzzle foil, and that was it!

Somebody, somewhere has my costume card... come on, who is it???

Well, I have only had good purchases.
My local store orered a box into the shop.
I think I bought about 15 packs altogether.
Here is what I got:

1/1 PW [PW-2 vraiation]
1/3 BL's [BL-3]
1/1 DST card
1/2 LC cards [#6]
2/3 FE cards [#3 & 4]

I did quite well out of that box.
I think I may get him to ordr another onein for me....
Thanks -- Chris

I went to see a movie and decided to get a few small supplies but when i poppped into the store they had newly opened boxes of Xena and LOTR Chrome. Cursing my luck that I brought almost no cash I bought 7 total packs:

1 pack of Star Wars Heritage- nothing

2 packs of Xena- 1 portraits of a warrior PP18 and 1 ArtiFex card R7

4 packs of LOTR Chrome- 1 costume card, Bilbo's Grey Havens Waistcoat and 2 autographs,Bernard Hill as Theoden and Billy Boyd as Pippin.

I loved getting all 3 inserts from the box of Chrome in just 4 packs. Think I'll go buy a lottery ticket today.

I walked into my local card shop and eyed a stack of Star Wars Heritage. It looked like it was close to a full box but I seriously thought about buying an unsealed box to increase my chances of getting the sketch card.

I opted against the heavy purchase and bought 5 packs from the open box instead. Before I opened the 4th pack, I said to the owner "It sure would be nice if one of these had an autograph".

Low and behold, on the 4th pack, I noticed a different looking card. I was staring at the back of a card and i noticed that it said Authentic Autograph along the top. Then i fanned out the cards. There were two of them. I pulled them apart and vader's picture was on the back of both and i thoguht "no way!!". I flipped them over and there they were, two autographs of James Earl Jones.

Best pull in months for me. =)