Repack Box Remorse: Volume 2 - Stealth Edition

Stopped by my local K-Mart today on the way home to see if I could snag some Topps or UD series 2 blasters without diverting my route to Wal-Mart. Was pleased to see that they too have a card section, although it looked a little more neglected than at the other place. No series 2's in sight, but they did have a few leftover UD Super Star pack boxes. I am still trying to get the last couple of these bronze special editions, so I snagged one of those and an '08 Heritage seven-pack-plus-one. Turns out the bonus pack in the Heritage blasters from here is just four more cards. But that's for another possible post.

So I tear the (clear) shrink wrap off the Upper Deck box. Everything is fine so far....
Then I pulled out the block of cards - also shrink wrapped - still looks normal....

The block was bookended with two ad cards for using Starquest cards to earn prizes. I didn't remember the other SStar packs being like this, and for a minute I thought I got two of the inserts, but figured out that these were only ads. OK, a little weird, but not a problem. Until I looked at the cards in between....

A big stack of Upper Deck cards FROM 1994!! And a very repetitious stack at that! Every ten cards is a set of dupes or triples. Someone had to have reloaded this thing and taken it back. The bastards! Well at least the Super Star pack looks sealed....

Tore into it and....

WAAAAAHH! More Bips!

Needless to say, I'm headed back to the returns desk and now have to convince them that these are the wrong cards and that I didn't switch them.
If pack searchers deserve a good beating, then this qualifies the perpetrators for a bullethole.

UPDATE: The store took the box right back, and I checked out the other three that were left. Only one still had shrink wrap with the UD logo, so I took that one and gave the others to the girl at the service desk. I doubt they do anything unless one of the managers knows cards...

Hidden Treasures: World's Greatest Card Chase

On a whim yesterday I stopped by the last outpost of card collecting as we know it: K-Mart. I was surprised to find blasters of 2008 Topps and Upper Deck, but since I will not be pack-collecting either of those, I picked up a nice little item instead.
This Hidden Treasure box is sort of like a lottery ticket where you get to rip packs. (Come to think of it, what pack of cards isn't, right?)

Apparently someone might could possibly maybe have a slight possible chance of pulling some sort of unnamed Babe Ruth card, "worth over $100,000!" Of course.

The back of the pack wrapper gives the odds, which are fairly telling.
Diamond Ticket 1:1,000,000
Autographed Memorabilia 1:10,000
Specialty Insert 1:500
Star Player 1:1
Other 4:1

These are five-card packs, folks, and those odds don't leave too much room for error. I like the up-front honesty actually. They're basically telling you that each pack has 1 star player and 4 scrubs.

Let's tear in.

Pack #1
1984 Topps 780 Steve Carlton

1993 Topps 231 John Wetteland
1987 Donruss 544 Jeff Sellers
1991 Upper Deck 342 David Segui
1991 Upper Deck 44 Blue Jays Checklist


Pack #2
1994 Score Select 39 Scott Cooper
1994 Score Select 38 Derrick May
1996 Fleer Ultra 169 Rey Sanchez
1992 Upper Deck 46 Scott Kamienecki
2000 Skybox Metal 20 Carlos Lee

Grade: B
I basically got what I expected. It's good to see that I'll have the chance of pulling at least something from before 1986, but who knows how long that'll hold out. I'll keep the blog posted on whether or not I pull a card that will allow for an early retirement.

On a side note, the voting turned out to be 4-2 in favor of posting the girlie cards. Actually, the opposition made me think that this might not be such a good idea. When it came down to it, I just couldn't bring myself to open any more subsistence packs before my two hobby boxes of Heritage arrive in a couple of weeks. If you want to see what's on the cards, email me and you can buy a pack from me. $3.50 including shipping will cover the cost of the whole thing.
And if it's exposed skin you're after, click here. (Don't worry, it's a PG-rated football card from the 1990s.)