Our hobby,how dishonest can it get.

**spuds1961** · 04-03-2011, 08:59 AM

Let me preface this article by saying I'm 49 years young and have seen alot going on in this hobby.When I first started collecting it was the late 60's and there weren't gu or autographs in the packs,but they did have see thru cello packs and the first kid to get to the store after they restocked always had his pick of the cello packs,bad but still not completely dishonest.The same goes for the 70's and 80's nothing really major put in packs that could be searched out by a feel of the packs.

Onto the late 90's this is where the fun begins,the inclusion of gu and autographs has hit the market,very cool concept and the odds were astronomical to pull one,so pack searchers really weren't at too much of an advantage as they could feel thousands of packs and still come up empty handed.

Let's fast forward to the 2,000's and the here and now,meaning the advent of selling cards on ebay and card trading sites such as sportscardforum.com.The companies figured that if one gu or auto in 2,500 packs was good one per box was even better,we as collectors obviously agreed as that is why we bust wax,more for the big hit than to put a set together.I have seen pack searchers first hand and I guess it's a skill as one of the card shop owners in New York would crack a box of 97 ud legends football and show me how he could always pull the pack with the gu card.I should have known right then and there that this hobby was going down the wrong path but still I kept collecting.

Now let's forward to the fiasco known as Topps rookie premiere football autographs,possibly the most forged autograph set of all time.For some reason Topps let unsigned versions of these cards get on the outside market and the forgers had a field day,the red versions which supposedly had a print run of 10 were all of a sudden showing up in truckloads.

Let's move onto patch cards shall we,when gu cards first came out there were usually only one color swatches and if you got really lucky you pulled a 2 color swatch.Sp authentic football started coming out with rookie patch autographs which was an innovative and great idea.I pulled an antwaan randle el and it was a 1 color patch auto but I was still satisfied.Now comes some more dishonesty in our hobby,the sellers on ebay didn't seem satisfied with the money they were making from their 1 color patch auto's,so what's a seller to do,yep that's right switch the patch out for the most awesome fake patch your eyes could see,the most mind blowing is the faked adrian peterson viking head.To this day I will not buy a more than one color patch unless I saw it pack pulled myself.

Okay I'll be honest the reason I started this article was because of the Topps diamond giveaway codes.I had bought a mixed topps pack for 14.99 that came with 2 guaranteed giveaway codes.I was lucky enough to pull a code from one of the packs and entered it and everything was fine,now here comes the problem,the 2 codes that came wih the box did not work showing up as invalid.I guess when Topps packaged these things they didn't take into consideration how dishonest today's collectors are,as I noticed after the fact that if you turned the package a certain way you could read the codes without actually buying the product.

I love this hobby and I love pulling great cards and autographs,but lately the dishonest scum are making collecting a very hard thing to do.I would rather go back to the good old days of the 60's where you traded and put sets together with the help of your schoolyard friends,and book value didn't come into play as you got a card you needed and so did your trading partner.I will still collect as hard as I always have,but I will do so with both eyes wide open,and I would suggest you my fellow collectors do the same,as if we can get rid of the scammers and dishonest people in this hobby one true collector at a time things just might get better.Have a great collecting day,take care Steve

**stewart20rulz** · 04-03-2011, 09:58 AM

You are right on the money Steve. I also received all invalid codes for my $14.99 Topps mixed packs w/ the guaranteed code cards. I don't think the card companies can ever 100% prevent people from screwing the honest collectors, but sometimes I don't think they truly think everything through on how the package their cards. There are plenty of ways that pack searching can be prevented if the card companies R&D teams just spent a little time brainstorming and really thinking about the problems in the hobby.

You also have the problem with resealed "Hot Packs" and I'm also hearing a lot of people getting "resealed" boxes from crooks off eBay.

Great article!

**spuds1961** · 04-03-2011, 10:12 AM

Thanks Don,but I stand corrected on the giveaway codes.That was a Topps error as all the codes in those packages are coming up invalid,I tried emailing them but the server is down,I'll place a call on monday.As far as making the packs and boxes so they can't be searched,it really wouldn't be that hard.I remember when flair came out in 1994 they came in a cardboard box that couldn't be searched,or donruss preferred from 1997 which came in a metal tin,but people with their little scales will still weigh the boxes,anything for an advantage I guess.Don't get me started on resealed boxes as 2 times on boxes I've bought from target every pack in the box was already opened and I guess someone with a resealing machine could have a field day,as most of these retail stores will just take the returned box without even examining it.

**stewart20rulz** · 04-03-2011, 11:59 AM

I recently bought a 2010 Bowman Platinum blaster at Wally World. Every pack was already opened and 25% of the cards were missing. I hate crooks!

Originally Posted by spuds1961 View Post

Thanks Don,but I stand corrected on the giveaway codes.That was a Topps error as all the codes in those packages are coming up invalid,I tried emailing them but the server is down,I'll place a call on monday.As far as making the packs and boxes so they can't be searched,it really wouldn't be that hard.I remember when flair came out in 1994 they came in a cardboard box that couldn't be searched,or donruss preferred from 1997 which came in a metal tin,but people with their little scales will still weigh the boxes,anything for an advantage I guess.Don't get me started on resealed boxes as 2 times on boxes I've bought from target every pack in the box was already opened and I guess someone with a resealing machine could have a field day,as most of these retail stores will just take the returned box without even examining it.

**Ray Rice Collector** · 04-03-2011, 09:37 PM

Great article. Ithink that we as collectors have to do our homework. If we continue to pay our money we have to live by the if it is too good to be true then it probaly is motto. The thing that I hate the most is multiple versions of cards. Back in the day there was only one version if you got it you got it. Now a days you think you have completed a set of your favorite player only to find that there are more cards in a different color.

**spuds1961** · 04-03-2011, 10:45 PM

Thanks for the reply pee632,player collecting is one of the hardest things to do with all the parallels,sp's and variations,not to mention Topps moments and milestones.I think most collectors don't even include that set as part of their player collections that's how many variables are in that set.Take care Steve

**BlueJaysRock** · 04-04-2011, 08:25 AM

Haven't bought many cards in my life. I bought like a hobby box with random packs in a store on vacation and got 2 jersey cards which made me so happy (Pat Burell and a Javy Lopez all star jersey card. For hockey I've bought many blaster boxes only got 4 jersey cards (my best was a MVP 2on2 card of weber, rinee vs stuart osgood). Why don't people buy hobby boxes so they can't be searched or jus stop buying like me last thing i bought was like 2010.