Well, they arrived today. I was very happy about that. I had kinda planned to spread them out over a while. But after a disappointing rip, I can't help but to rip another, hopeful for something decent.
Each pack includes an uncirculated auto. Sadly, all 4 of these packs were crap.
In order, the autos were:
Tony Armas
Bobby Richardson
Luis Tiant
Ron Swoboda
All 4 I already had. All 4 are "Group G" (commons) and worth about $5 each. Zero guys in the hall. Zero guys I needed. Zero refractors.
In addition, out of the 4 packs, I got just one black parallel, and it was Bill Buckner (#57/99), so it might as well have been a mustard-stained piece of gutter napkin.
So yep, there's a quick way to turn $260 into $20 worth of baseball cards. Huge bummer. But whatever, the brief excitement was cool.
The lesson? Don't waste your time & money chasing hit cards. Distributors/sellers on eBay always seem to know which packs are "hot" and so any "regular" pack they sell you seems to be "cold." Maybe it's sour grapes on my part.. I'm sure there are success stories out there where somebody bought a few packs of something on eBay and pulled a 1/1 mega-rare auto relic refractor test-press prototype. But not me. [Boo-ƒucking-hoo.]
I've gotten the shaft every freaking time, so I think I need to retire from high-end unopened packs that have their prices inflated thanks to super scare "hit" cards included in every millionth pack. Next time I want the thrill of ripping open a pack of baseball cards, I should get a couple 1991 Donruss packs for a quarter and cross my fingers for a 30¢ Griffey.
Sorry for the bitchy blog post, but again, this blog is called Baseball Card Breakdown, so I feel entitled to breakdown on here from time to time.
Anyways, here's what the back of the blister packs look like:
*deep breath* Oh well. If nothing else, these might be "upgrades" for me, as the four I already had of these might have had light scuffs on the cases.
I still have 3 unopened packs from the earlier hobby box I bought (earmarked for special occasions over the next month or so). The first two I opened from the box yielded-- you guessed it-- guys from Group G (more commons). MAYBE one of those 3 remaining packs has a Yogi or Musial or someone who actually got a couple HOF votes in his ƒucking life (no offence to El Tiante). But chances are I'll be posting more heartbroken rantings about how I threw away $500 chasing a hit from this set and got squat out of it. Stay tuned! Sorry for the whiney post. But I'm sure many of you guys reading this know exactly how I feel.
Actually, screw it. I don't want to hold on to this negativity longer than I need to. I'm just gonna go ahead and rip the last 3 packs right now.
[...rip...]
Ok, Darren Daulton. Yep, Group G common, but at least it was one I didn't have already! I count that as a victory. A very expensive victory, but something to feel good about. That cooled my rage enough to where I think I can hold off on opening the last 2 packs for a while.
Nah, check that. I just ripped another one.
Bucky Dent! Finally, somebody above lowly Group G. (Bucky is Group E.. oooh.. ahhhh) Obtaining this card has caused me frustration in the past. Not an expensive card by any means (~$10), so again, I've essentially thrown away hundreds of dollars on these 8 packs of baseball cards (1 left to go). The title of this post should be updated to "How to turn $450 into $35 worth of baseball cards just like that!" But at least I actually needed these last couple guys in my goal of completing the auto set. (I've got most of the cheap/easy-to-find ones now.. just the expensive/hard-to-find ones left to go.. LO f'n L)
On a somber note, Darren Daulton is in the news lately for announcing he has 2 brain tumors he needs surgery for. My thoughts go out to the man and his family, and hope he makes a full recovery.
Stuff like that helps put things in perspective and makes me think I shouldn't freak out so much about blowing a paycheck-and-a-half (--yeah, I'm just temp-to-hire at the moment--) on a few packs of baseball cards to give me a small thrill. Enjoy every sandwich, etc.
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| Bucky Bleeping Dent, indeed |
Yikes. It really makes me leery about buying the premium boxes I'm thinking about. Typically, I have better luck with retail packs, which have led to many of my best pulls.
ReplyDeleteI got lucky a few years ago in buying a case worth of seriously mispriced packs of 2006 Upper Deck Legendary Cuts. As the boxes had been opened, it didn't make sense to sell the packs, so I made a killing opening and selling the packs.