Again can someone enlighten me about this pack searching? Are the hits always in the same spot in a box or something? Or is it X-ray Vision?

quote:

Originally posted by Andy28:
Again can someone enlighten me about this pack searching? Are the hits always in the same spot in a box or something? Or is it X-ray Vision?

You won't get a response but they are not always in the same spot. Pack searching is considered unethical and giving advice on pack searching is therefore not done here.

quote:

Originally posted by tangent:

quote:

Originally posted by Andy28:
Again can someone enlighten me about this pack searching? Are the hits always in the same spot in a box or something? Or is it X-ray Vision?

You won't get a response but they are not always in the same spot. Pack searching is considered unethical and giving advice on pack searching is therefore not done here.

Not quite true. When it comes to feeling up packs of meat at the grocery everyone is quite down with that.

quote:

Originally posted by tangent:

quote:

Originally posted by Andy28:
Again can someone enlighten me about this pack searching? Are the hits always in the same spot in a box or something? Or is it X-ray Vision?

You won't get a response but they are not always in the same spot. Pack searching is considered unethical and giving advice on pack searching is therefore not done here.

Exactly. And this is also not permitted, as stated in the FAQ:

Q. I just discovered a way to locate the autograph card pack in the Primal Fuzzbusters Series One box! Can I post this?

Although there will always be people who try to circumvent the system by attempting to 'cherry-pick' or 'box-strip' packs out of opened boxes, we don't allow posting of such information on the board. It goes against the principles of fair chance, and since NSU is supported by card manufacturers through their advertising, we don't want to risk any of them losing business because of deceitful practices.

quote:

Originally posted by Arvin Sloane:

quote:

Originally posted by tangent:

You won't get a response but they are not always in the same spot. Pack searching is considered unethical and giving advice on pack searching is therefore not done here.

Not quite true. When it comes to feeling up packs of meat at the grocery everyone is quite down with that.

Actually, No.

I won't patronize places that allow customers to manhandle the fruit, the meat, the salad bar or whatever else can get mutilated by uncaring people looking to find the best bits for themselves at the expense of others.

And the stores know that they have to control it too, or else they will lose way more good customers outright, plus have a ton of waste that has to be thrown away because its in no condition to be bought by anyone.

The same language can be applied to card packs as with food. Open boxes and loose packs have to be kept behind the counter or glass. If a hobby store allows one or two pack searchers to go through it and pull the hits because no one is watching all the other customers get no premium cards. Before long no one will buy there anymore except the pack searcher and good business is lost.

I don't even know why we are talking about this unless someone out there would really like to spend their money on boxes that they know have been searched. It is more than unethical, it's do unto others time.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
The same language can be applied to card packs as with food. Open boxes and loose packs have to be kept behind the counter or glass. If a hobby store allows one or two pack searchers to go through it and pull the hits because no one is watching all the other customers get no premium cards. Before long no one will buy there anymore except the pack searcher and good business is lost.

The main reason the big retail chains don't police the trading card area for pack searcher is because they don't own any of that merchandise. It's all consigned. They only pay for what is sold and everything else (no matter the condition) is 100% returnable. So it's not a big deal to them.

The returns is where the cheap multi-pack packages and $1 packs come from. Yes, there is occasionally a hit that was missed but normally they are all stripped packs.

Ed

Ok fair enough. I wasn't going to use this info obviously (no B&M stores here anyway)!, just found it interesting that it can in fact be done.

I've never had the fortune of finding a "hot" box.

Can you tell by looking at the box if it's "hot"? Or does the case indicate that there's a "hot" box inside?

I'm asking because I'm wondering if these can be "picked" as well.

I've heard and experienced similar and bad things when dealing with Diamond Distribution on non-card items.

quote:

Originally posted by simpsonscardman:
There's 200 hot boxes and 200 mini archive boxes.if the production run is 6000 boxes??that means 1 hot or mini archive every 15 boxes.I like those odds.

Only 6000? I wonder if that will mean the base/chase do better value wise than their other Marvel sets.

Regarding pack searching, if this set is like MGH you should steer clear of open boxes as the packs with the biggest hits actually look different.

quote:

Originally posted by Tattoox:
I've never had the fortune of finding a "hot" box.

Can you tell by looking at the box if it's "hot"? Or does the case indicate that there's a "hot" box inside?

I'm asking because I'm wondering if these can be "picked" as well.

I've heard and experienced similar and bad things when dealing with Diamond Distribution on non-card items.

No, they just replace the other cards with the puzzle pieces so they should be more or less the same as any other box unless it's some insane million piece puzzle.

Assuming there's 200 each of hot boxes and mini-archive boxes that's actually not too shabby, every second case should net you one or the other and as fantastic as the MGH archive boxes were it detracted from the rest of the set to lose all those puzzles.

quote:

Originally posted by DeathStorm:

quote:

Originally posted by simpsonscardman:
There's 200 hot boxes and 200 mini archive boxes.if the production run is 6000 boxes??that means 1 hot or mini archive every 15 boxes.I like those odds.

Only 6000? I wonder if that will mean the base/chase do better value wise than their other Marvel sets.

I doubt it as it will be the same big dealers who are blowing them out from day one as they will have make their money on the incentives and "midnight sales".

I didn't notice any difference in MGH, but then again, I'm not trying to find clues to cherry pick.

So you don't know if you have a "hot" box until you get a few packs into it?

I suppose I got an accidental "hot" pack once. A Captain America pack had 2 or 3 sketches in it.

quote:

Originally posted by Scifi Cards:

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
The same language can be applied to card packs as with food. Open boxes and loose packs have to be kept behind the counter or glass. If a hobby store allows one or two pack searchers to go through it and pull the hits because no one is watching all the other customers get no premium cards. Before long no one will buy there anymore except the pack searcher and good business is lost.

The main reason the big retail chains don't police the trading card area for pack searcher is because they don't own any of that merchandise. It's all consigned. They only pay for what is sold and everything else (no matter the condition) is 100% returnable. So it's not a big deal to them.
Ed

Absolutely Ed, that's why I specified hobby stores selling hobby boxes. Big retailers couldn't care less about cherry picking, but they are also selling retail boxes with very limited hits, if any at all. If you buy at a Walmart type store you can't complain about pack searchers or bad hit ratios, its a given to expect it, but it's cheaper if you only want the base cards.

Buying at hobby store prices and expecting a normal shot at pulling the premium hits from hobby boxes has nothing to do with Big Retailers. The LHS owner has to protect his merchandise from cherry pickers or he will lose his regular customers once they realize that they are continually coming up empty with open boxes.

quote:

Originally posted by Tattoox:
I didn't notice any difference in MGH, but then again, I'm not trying to find clues to cherry pick.

So you don't know if you have a "hot" box until you get a few packs into it?

I suppose I got an accidental "hot" pack once. A Captain America pack had 2 or 3 sketches in it.

Well I don't want to say too much even though most of this set is already out there because it's frowned upon here and I disagree with cherry picking myself but it was so obvious with MGH I thought Rittenhouse might have done it intentionally.

I wonder why Upperdeck adopts similar approaches such as including puzzles in the same boxes but doesn't really bother to mention it? I have noticed there's been several puzzles missing 1 piece so perhaps they just don't want to make it a commitment.

I've been getting disappointed with releases lately, assuming the information we have is correct I think reducing the number of boxes by 25% to 6000 and giving more incentives to buy cases (i.e. seeding a hot box or mini archive box every other cases) are steps in the right direction.

OK, so we've come to the conclusion that most people like the idea of Hot Boxes and Mini Archive boxes.

Some people think they should be labelled, some people think they shouldn't.

Why is this such a secret, someone please tell us, will they, or won't they be labelled? As a buyer I think I should be able to find this out before it is released.