Buying unopened packs
 

Has anyone ever bought an unopened vintage pack off ebay or elsewhere (whether graded or not) and pulled some amazing card? I see people getting big bucks for certain unopened packs with the come on " . . . of course could include [FILL IN SUPER RARE CARD]." Seems to me that a relatively careful school kid could carefully open a pack with a razor blade and reglue it in about 10 minutes. Is any collector really going to let an unopened pack sit for decades when there is a possible rare card inside?

Yes, my question would be, based on experiences, is there a general sense that such packs really have not been tinkered with? That such concerns are overblown or realistic?

a lot of packs come from finds, where a case or a few boxes have sat in some grocers warehouse for decades. Such is the case with the Paris Tenn find of '54 and '54 Topps and Bowman packs, the box of '64 Standup penny packs and '65 Topps penny packs, and the 5 boxes of '54 Topps Canadian that walked into a show a few years ago. There was a box of Sport King packs in the early '90's, and a box of '52 Topps packs was broken up about 20 years ago at a show. There have been other instances of the same thing happening with different sets.
There are many things to look for when buying an unopened pack- roller marks, corner folds, etc.
Most vintage packs are worth a lot more than the sum of their parts, the value is in keeping it unopened.

Thanks. Useful info. What about the holiday three packs of 1956 Topps cards I've seen on eBay. You can see the two outside cards on each of the three sleeves, but not what is in the middle. Wonder if those are safe to buy. A pretty cool item and I came close a few times to taking a shot on those.

Those aren't worth it, they're repackaged and IMO a waste of money.

-Owen

thanks

agreed, the Christmas rack packs are an aftermarket craft project.

X Mas Packs
 

The last pack I bought online was a raw 1978 ops baseball for like 25 bucks. I pulled an Eddie Murray rookie. It was oc, but it's probably the best time with cards I've had in a long time.

recently bought some 79s and pulled an Ozzie Smith RC, waay off center. Still a nice suprise

If you want a cheap unopened pack, you can normally find some 1961 Nu-Card football packs for cheap and the cards come out looking Mint. There was a big find of these boxes, and since there's really only one or two worthwhile rookie cards in the set (Ernie Davis), there's not a huge demand.

Totally fabricated after the fact, way after. Stay away.

I bought a 1951 topps redback pack showing Monte Irvin through the wrapper

I bought five GAI-graded 1975 mini packs about 10 years ago. I kept one sealed but opened the other four. I got a couple Aaron Highlight cards and a Reggie Jackson and a Carew, I think. All were badly oc. It seems that if you get a couple packs loaded with oc cards, you can count on the rest of the packs in the box they came in to be similar. So I think that's why a lot of these packs are sold. Better to get some money from your box than a stack of off-centered cards.

Also, yes I'm certain a lot of these "unopened" packs are searched and resealed. I remember about 20 years ago my cousin and a friend buying dozens of 1980s-era hockey card packs from a sports card shop and getting nothing but commons, over and over and over. They went back a few more times to the same store and got the same crappy results on lots and lots of packs. The odds of that happening legitimately are about zero.

Card Shop
 

db-- is that the shop owned by Julia Ruth Stephens ? Does she still have an arm or what ?

well
 

It's always a leap of faith when buying "unopened" products but as diligence and knowledge are requisite in any collectible endeavor - one can proactively reduce the risk.
As for the statement "Is any collector really going to let an unopened pack sit for decades when there is a possible rare card inside?" most see the economic value in keeping the item sealed - it's closest to it's original state and the contents are at this point an uncashed lottery ticket. Like sell the sizzle and not the steak. Of course if we are not talking about a COMMODITY but an emotional activity (these are after all cards we are talking about) - they were meant to at least be SEEN - like having a book but never opening it to read the words - I would probably want to open it.
One might take either approach depending on the desired outcome - I have some early sealed tobacco packs but that's a different animal as there's no advantage to opening them.

If you buy one cent packs you can usually see the single card through the wrapper. So if you're worried about temptation and blowing your money, buy an expensive one cent pack, shine a bright light on it, and then decide if you're going to open it for the card inside, or leave it be if it's a common. That way you either get a card you want or you get a neat pack in its original state with peace of mind that you aren't missing anything.

Probably. She is the spawn of Satan, after all.

You might want to check out a dealer called The Baseball Card Exchange for unopened packs in all sports. They sell graded packs and raw ungraded. Here's the link. https://www.bbcexchange.com/default.aspx

BBCE is one of if not the most respected unopened pack/box dealer there is. PSA sends all packs to BBCE's owner, Steve Hart, for inspection before PSA will grade them. There are a lot of bad packs on Ebay. There are dealers that sell mostly resealed packs, raintele being one of them. I wouldn't touch any of the Christmas rack packs. There are still being made today.
James

Someone once sold me his small childhood collection because he needed money and it included a couple of 80-81 Topps basketball packs. I didn't buy the collection for the packs, they were just part of it. I opened them and one included the Larry Bird/Magic Johnson rookie. He asked me what I pulled from the packs and I told him nothing special so as to not make him feel bad.

I have a few unopened packs around as I think they make great display pieces. Like someone has said before, with many packs they are worth more as "unscratched lottery tickets" to many folks.

Many people work the system on these by either opening a few and finding the centering sucks for the box or some issues have easily figured out collation of the cards. 1986 fleer basketball for one, I have heard from some that you can basically open a box pull out the 3-4 Jordan's based on the sequence of the top visible card of the pack and then sell the other packs for a couple hundred each to people who don't know about this.

BBCE is a good supplier as previously mentioned, but I still would buy a sealed box and not single packs to get the best chances for fun.

As for those christmas rack packs, as others have mentioned those are absolute fantasy pieces. Complete Ebay junk.

Pack display
 

Justin--- if you want to see what a great pack display looks like we need to get Anthony ( Griffins) to post his. Awesome

Sounds like something I need to see!

I love vintage unopened packs as just picking one up brings me back in time to that youthful moment when you were in the dime store and you first saw the new cards of the spring next to the other candy.

love it.

Some excellent insight on vintage unopened packs, Christmas racks, spotting reseals etc.,from Steve Hart of BBCE/PSA: http://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com...ed-collectors/

Amazing how much you can learn on these boards in a day. Thanks everyone.

That is exactly why I started collecting packs and empty display boxes. I still get that feeling every time I look at them

Display
 

Anthony--post the boxes too

Great collection! Thanks!

http://photos.imageevent.com/griffin...xBoxes.tif.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/griffin.../IMG_64652.JPG
http://photos.imageevent.com/griffin.../IMG_64662.JPG

packs and boxes
 

very nice,

thanks for sharing the pics.

jsq

Really,really impressive!

X2, Very Nice, and something I never knew people collected?

Do vending machines count? A few years ago one of those "All Star" machines you see in supermarkets had packs of 1982 Topps. I bought a few packs, and I pulled a Ripken rookie.

Never get tired of Anthony's displays... its like looking at a old time candy store display! :D

Ricky Y

+ 1

I once bought one single pack of 86 Donruss at a Cincy card show back in the day, opened it on the spot and got a Canseco rookie. Now that was when that card was "mistakenly" worth something. But it was cool at the time because everyone was crowding around me like I pulled a 52 Mantle. :D

I bought some packs from BBCE and in a 1977 Topps pack, I pulled an Andre Dawson rc.
I ended up sending to PSA and got a 8.5 on it. I was happy with that.