Posted By:
D.C. MarkelI'm not a big fan of buying vintage packs. The odds are definitely against you if you open them. For those who choose not to open, that's fine, but I'd rather spend the money on something I can see and fully appreciate.
I think opening them in the presence of the seller is a smart idea. I've heard of many types of scams where people believe or know for certain that they've been defrauded with "unopened material".
I heard an interesting story at the Houston Tri-Star show several weeks ago. Last January a seller come into the Houston Tri-Star show with three ungraded 1950’s vintage packs and as best as the person telling the story recalls they were ‘52 Topps, ‘54 Topps and ‘57 Topps. The amazing thing was that if you looked closely through the back of each pack, you could see that each had a star card and the person telling the story said one was a Banks, another a Mantle and he forgot who was the third star. The seller wanted $1500 for the three and naturally a dealer jumped all over the offer and bought them instantly with cash. Very shortly after the show the dealer decided to open them and found that the semi-visible star card was nothing more than a color, full-scale scan or photocopy on thin paper and the rest of the pack contained worthless cardboard cut to the right size with a fresh piece of gum. The dealer contacted the police and found out that this person most likely pulled the same scam with some local card shops. The good news was that they eventually tracked down the seller, apparently because he left his phone number with another dealer at the same show regarding a sale of some autograph items. The dealer did get his money back and still has the wrappers, but apparently no charges were filed since the seller claimed he bought them from someone else and the police felt it would be difficult to discredit that story in a criminal case.