[jchcollins]

I will be the first to admit I don't know enough about unopened vintage, whether repack or factory - so that is why I avoid this kind of thing. But there are undoubtedly a camp of folks that believe there were some "original" Christmas rack packs - yes repacked somewhere by some entity, but issued usually before a certain date - the one you most often see is through 1963. I have seen at least some evidence in YouTube videos and elsewhere that this might be true. I suppose putting valuable cards in the middle or visible on the back could simply be a tactic to sell contrived modern fantasy pieces as "genuine." Do any of these packs, even if they have a visible Mantle or Aaron or whatever - really sell for much more than slightly above the average value of those cards that can be seen? Not really, from what I can tell. In other words, it's not as if they go for exponentially more than the card(s) that might be in them would be worth in the way that say, a BBCE certified 1975 Topps Cello or Rack might go for because it's possibly holding a minty Brett or Yount RC.

Yes, I would agree that most or at least a high percentage of what you see offered out there in this vein now is 21st century crap - you can tell that the type of plastic / cello used even is wrong and not "vintage" / period correct for those of us that remember on some of them. But I would say from all I have seen that I believe it is possible that there were some original repacks from a time before the modern hobby existed.

I don't buy vintage unopened. I target the specific vintage cards I want and mostly buy them individually. No surprises for me...