Is It Just Me?

[ReimerFan]

Update on the Halton Walmart thief. I've been back a few times and have continued to see tampered packages left out for sale. These have been purchased, all hits pulled, repackaged and returned. Everyone please keep an eye out for bad blasters/boxes and bring them to customer service. The do appreciate it and it prevents someone from getting ripped off. It really kills me to think a kid could get a box like this.

I ask to speak to the manager each time and eventually the thief will get caught.

Who has the time to go through all the trouble to return a $30 box of cards? Seriously. If you're reading this you suck.

[Drewk86a]

I have been educating the walmart and Toys R Us staff in my area about theft. There are a lot of shrink wrapped boxes (s1 parkhurst blasters in particular) that don't have the UD logo on it anymore. They're buying the boxes, opening the packs, taking the big hits and then sealing up the packs and box and returning the blasters for a refund.

I go through them about once a week and pull all of the tampered boxes from the shelf. Flag down the store manager and explain to them what is going on. I also chat with the Customer service manager and let them know not to accept the boxes back. Hopefully they will also call the authorities. It infuriates me that a kid could save up $50 to buy a box only to be cheated out of a chance at a good card. It's hard enough to get good value out of an un-tampered box.

If you see a tampered with product please take it to the front and let them know. This has to stop!

Great work!! Dept store pack searchers are the lowest of the low, except for the distributor who searches and repacks boxes as you mention. I, too, see many boxes with loose shrink wrap, or horribly re-wrapped.

Last year I bought a 20-pack mixed set box which was shrink wrapped. All of the packs were already opened. Many did not contain the stated number of cards. Some even contained cards from other sets!

Sadly, in my area, the store management doesn't really care.

[Drewk86a]

Don't know if it is still true but, back in the day you could cherry-pick the hits because the packs containing hits were always located in the same spot in the box. i.e. 3rd pack on the left...bottom pack on the right, etc... As soon as a new box was opened people would grab for specific packs.

[chakhae1]

I think you can still cherry pick young guns in a blaster but don't quote me on that. I think it is really sad that this kind of thing is going on, but at least there are people trying to stop it and stores are aware that it is going on.

[kdnist]

Some places keep track of the hits from the hobby boxes. The customer would know in this situation that there is 1 or 2 hits remaining and that they aren't drawing dead. This comes at a higher price per pack, however and all packs would have to be broken in the store. Dead packs get sold at half cost or so for set builders. No hits left, new box opened up for the next packs.

[chakhae1]

Some places keep track of the hits from the hobby boxes. The customer would know in this situation that there is 1 or 2 hits remaining and that they aren't drawing dead. This comes at a higher price per pack, however and all packs would have to be broken in the store. Dead packs get sold at half cost or so for set builders. No hits left, new box opened up for the next packs.

Every LCS should do this! I used to only buy packs and granted my luck was better than most but typically the employee would just guess to what was being hit and that never is a good proposition.

[kdnist]

Every LCS should do this! I used to only buy packs and granted my luck was better than most but typically the employee would just guess to what was being hit and that never is a good proposition.

Its a great system. The cost per pack does see an increase though. The LCS has to be able to cover for when someone buys the first 4 packs and snipes both hits out of the hobby box. The dead packs do sell eventually, but usually build up in bulk until someone gets them. Good news is, the hotbox hits and extra hits are left in the dead packs.

[chakhae1]

Its a great system. The cost per pack does see an increase though. The LCS has to be able to cover for when someone buys the first 4 packs and snipes both hits out of the hobby box. The dead packs do sell eventually, but usually build up in bulk until someone gets them. Good news is, the hotbox hits and extra hits are left in the dead packs.

I think it is a good system for those that can not afford to buy boxes such as kids and students. It would be a lot easier if boxes were cheaper, but that's not happening anytime soon.