Hi,

Got myself 6 loose packs of X-Files Connections today and managed to get:

HC-2
PW-2 Mulder

Not bad for a few loose ones I would say.

Walked into Alameda Sports Cards & Comics today and bought 5 packs of Buffy Men of Sunnydale. Pulled the following inserts:

Dressed to Kill #DK2

and

The Evil Trio triple autograph card #A11

COOL!! I have to say that I've been pretty lucky pulling niced auto cards from packs that I bought from this store. That's why I keep going back. No cherry picking allowed at this store!

Just back from my Local Store, where I found a new box of MOS. As is my habit, I pulled out two packs (usually I go for packs from different locations, but today, for some reason, I just pulled out two packs together - i.e. 1 in front of the other)
In the first I found the PW1 card containing a piece of jacket worn by Xander in "Forever" - I'm guessing there are probably quite a few of these.
In the second pack, I found ANOTHER PW card - this time PW4 containing a piece of t-shirt worn by Andrew in "Dirty Girls" - the interesting this about this card is that it has a small portion of the shirt print! As soon as I get my scanner working again, I'll post a pic.
Woo-Hoo, as a unwise man once said.
Au Res.,
Paul

quote:

Originally posted by Quaint1:
Just back from my Local Store, where I found a new box of MOS. As is my habit, I pulled out two packs (usually I go for packs from different locations, but today, for some reason, I just pulled out two packs together - i.e. 1 in front of the other)
In the first I found the PW1 card containing a piece of jacket worn by Xander in "Forever" - I'm guessing there are probably quite a few of these.
In the second pack, I found ANOTHER PW card - this time PW4 containing a piece of t-shirt worn by Andrew in "Dirty Girls" - the interesting this about this card is that it has a small portion of the shirt print! As soon as I get my scanner working again, I'll post a pic.
Woo-Hoo, as a unwise man once said.
Au Res.,
Paul

Two costumes from one box . Yet another example of the wacky collation on this product. But congratulations on both pulls, particularly with the PW4 variant. I can't wait to see a picture of it.

As promised, here are the cards I pulled yesterday!
PW1:

PW4:

Au Res.,
Paul

Could you tell from the feel of the pack that there was a costume card in it?

Just curious based on past posts.

No, not really - the cards, although thicker than base, are not that thick; each pack contained 5 base and the PW card, so it takes the place of 2 cards only (as opposed to some of the Farscape costume cards where you got just one base in the pack with the costume card). I suppose an expert cherrypicker might have been able to tell the difference but not me.

Au Res.,
Paul

Somebody at my store got a Linsner autograph card from a pack of the new Dawn set from Dynamic Forces the other day. And a glow-in-the-dark card from another pack.

-Bob-

I haven't had much opportunity for pack busting but I finally made it to my local shop and bought a nice assortment of packs.

10 packs of Charmed conversations- Transformations T-7,T-8 and auto A7 (James Avery)
4 packs Star Wars Heritage- foil #4 andwhat I'm guessing is a SEAN PHILLIPS sketch (scan below)
1 (yes just 1) pack of Battlestar Galactica- Aaron Douglas as Chief Petty Officer Tyrol autograph

They had the new TOPPS basketball in so I thought I'd try my luck at getting a celeb auto or Celebrity Threads card despite the ridiculous odds.

14 packs- 1 gold parallel (out of 99), 1 black parallel (out of 500), 1 Lebron James All-Star Attitude (1:10 packs), 1 Francisco Garcia autograph (as near as I can tell this is a "Photoshoot" autograph which is 1:619 packs).

No Celebrity Threads or Celebrity autographs but I did beat the odds on the auto I did get and I ended up with all 5 of the celebrity rookie cards.

Ok, these aren't non-sports but since I was opening packs looking for the non-sport autographs I think they still count on a technicality.

As I said previously I opened 14 packs of TOPPS basketball yesterday taking a long shot at pulling a Celebrity Autograph and pulled one of the Photo Shoot Rookie autograph cards and today I was at a different store and got 5 packs there and got another Photo Shoot Rookie autograph. The odds on getting 1 are 1:619 packs (about 1:17.2 boxes) and I hit 2 in 19 packs. Right after that I bought a lottery ticket for tonight, we'll see how that turns out in a couple of hours.

quote:

Originally posted by Incarnadine:
Ok, these aren't non-sports but since I was opening packs looking for the non-sport autographs I think they still count on a technicality.

As I said previously I opened 14 packs of TOPPS basketball yesterday taking a long shot at pulling a Celebrity Autograph and pulled one of the Photo Shoot Rookie autograph cards and today I was at a different store and got 5 packs there and got another Photo Shoot Rookie autograph. The odds on getting 1 are 1:619 packs (about 1:17.2 boxes) and I hit 2 in 19 packs. Right after that I bought a lottery ticket for tonight, we'll see how that turns out in a couple of hours.

Do you want to get rid of your Felton, to a Carolina guy

This weekend, I got 7 packs of Charmed conversations and pulled a PWCC8, and 1 pack of SPIKE and pulled the Palz Redemption....

quote:

Originally posted by Darth Vader Fan:

quote:

Originally posted by Incarnadine:
Ok, these aren't non-sports but since I was opening packs looking for the non-sport autographs I think they still count on a technicality.

As I said previously I opened 14 packs of TOPPS basketball yesterday taking a long shot at pulling a Celebrity Autograph and pulled one of the Photo Shoot Rookie autograph cards and today I was at a different store and got 5 packs there and got another Photo Shoot Rookie autograph. The odds on getting 1 are 1:619 packs (about 1:17.2 boxes) and I hit 2 in 19 packs. Right after that I bought a lottery ticket for tonight, we'll see how that turns out in a couple of hours.

Do you want to get rid of your Felton, to a Carolina guy

Being a sporstcard and not something I'd keep for myself it has ended up on a certain auction site. It never even crossed my mind that someone here might be interested in it or I might have tried my luck using it for trade bait when I finally get around to making a new trade list (I finally got all my extra insert cards in 1 place and they fill an 800 count box )

I went to see Serenity today and stopped by my local shop and they had a box of Serenity with just 4 packs left so I grabbed them. Got a Women of Serenity WS1 (geez, willI ever finish this insert set? I've pulled 10 of them now and have 3 WS1's, 1 WS2 and 6 WS5's) and a Morena Baccarin A6 autograph, 1 of the 3 autos I still needed and the last of the big ones.

quote:

Originally posted by Kennywood:
This weekend, I picked up 10 packs of "Kingdom Come." I pulled a Mark Waid autograph card.

Where the heck are they still selling those?!!! I tell you, I need to move somewhere where there still exist card stores!

Great pull Kennywood... I'd love to see a scan if possible.

I'm not really a Star Wars collector but I saw an open box of ROTS Widevision so I tried my luck.

10 packs yielded chrome cards H4 and H5 (I think the chrome cards look fantastic, they would have made a great parallel set) and a Michael Kingma auto. A minor auto but since they aren't exactly easy to pull I'm happy.

Why is it risky buying individual packets...? Do sellers/stores pick through the box to try and remove the packets that have valuable cards in?

How does anyone know what's in a sealed pack? Does it feel different?

I'd like to know how to tell if a box has obviously been 'picked through'!

Thanks,
Olly X

PS- Sorry for creating a thread similar to this one- I'm new and had no idea it was here! It's such a fun thread

quote:

Originally posted by terihatcherfan:
Why is it risky buying individual packets...? Do sellers/stores pick through the box to try and remove the packets that have valuable cards in?

Some sellers who are not very honest and don't care about their customers do this. Also stores that don't stop customers from doing this are also a cause for concern.

quote:

How does anyone know what's in a sealed pack? Does it feel different?

Actually, we prefer not to discuss that part of the problem here because it just makes things worse. But some products are easier to tell than others. Obviously a product like Stargate: Atlantis or Harry Potter with really thick costume cards, the pack is going to be different.

quote:

I'd like to know how to tell if a box has obviously been 'picked through'!

No real way to tell honestly, unless you see it being unwrapped and opened. That said, if you find a dealer you trust you stay with them and reward them for their honesty.

Another indication is if packs are sold very cheap, you see this on eBay a lot. If a pack should be $2-3 and they are selling them for 50 cents to a dollar each, they have probably been picked through.

Welcome to the board. Nice to see you are not a "new member" anymore!

Ed

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome Ed, and it's nice to see you've been keeping track of my membership status!

I'm really sorry to ask how people can tell what a packet contains- I didn't realise that by discussing it we actually promote the dishonesty, and I can totally see why it's a bit of a tabboo subject! My intentions were genuine, but still, I should have thought before I spoke!

The people on these boards are lovely, I can't wait to get to know some people better

Olly

When buying loose packs it pretty much comes down to if you think the store owner is trustworthy. There are 3 card/comic shops within a reasonable distance from me, 2 I trust absolutely (they don't even open packs of nonsports and won't let the customers search packs. They will let you pick your own packs when you buy but they set the box on the counter watch you pick so there's no hanky-panky) and am perfectly willing to try my luck even if there are only 2 or 3 packs left in a box, the other one will never see another dime from me. I never had much luck there but since I didn't go to that one too often I figured it could just be I was hitting the wrong side of the odds, until I happened to spot him "feeling" packs of sportscards from a box he just opened and was about to put out.