bad experience in a hobby store....

[flydream]

i live in toronto. i started to purchase some basketball packs from a hobby store months ago. i went there about 6-7 times, and bought more than 30 packs in total from the store.(spx, slam, spa, diamond..) but i never got any gu or auto from the packs. Then, i started suspect that the boss or the staff in the store search the packs before they put on the stack. today, i purchased one 05-06 reflection pack from them (13 bucks). the first pack they gave it to me was already opened. The staff gave the opened pack to the other staff, and with many other opened hockey packs. The other staff start pulling these cards and yelling "patch, oh, another patch. Yeah, MOney..."
i feel kinda pissed off... and of course, there is nothing but base cards in the pack i bought today. i feel that they are pretty dumb to do that, and i am dumb to keep buying packs from them. sigh...
how can a hobby store do that? any ideas? have you had the same experience before?

[vikingfan101]

Well, ya know, its just something they can do. I had the problem myself once at a store and I confronted the owner. After that, its never happened again. Besides that, I really dont know what you can do, I dont think you can file a small claims lawsuit or anything like that. But then again, maybe you just had bad luck in the other packs. Were they feeling packs? Weighing them? Let me know.

[flydream]

hi, thanks for your reply. I feel much better now. i donno how they know there is gu in the pack.(maybe twist the pack) but all the packs they open is at least one gu in there... i was thinking maybe i had bad luck until today...
that's also the reason why i keep trying from that store.(not many bball hobby store in toronto actually)

[vikingfan101]

Ok, well there is a way at feeling packs, which most people are disgusted by. I tried this a few times and its quite easy. They just push down on the packs, and if it goes down, or indents, there is a memorbilia piece. By weighing it, they can figure out the average weight, and they can go for highest weight and lowest weight, to figure out what has an auto or game used. If I were you, dependent on age, either you, or your parents if your a younger person, go in and confront the owner about it. Im not sure if id go as far as threatening them, but make them know you know what there doing is not only wrong, but say something like they can be fined for it or something. Good luck dude, and for future, just buy off ebay. I go to card stores alot, but only those I trust.

[new8403]

I have 2 shops that I go to locally, and fortunately I know both guys pretty well and 75% of the time I watch them open the boxes up so I know what's going on. Plus I'll ask them what's been pulled, and if they can remember they will tell me. But they rarely open the packs themselves so it's not much of an issue around here.

[flydream]

thanks for your advice. i will not go to that store anymore. too bad that i didnt confront that seller. i should do that. ebay is the best place to get cards.

[vikingfan101]

Ya, I would go back in there and say something. Is the actual owner in there at the time? Or just his employees. When you come in, mention it to him, and who knows, maybe hell give you some stuff?

[RenegadeLonghorn]

I suggest saving your money and ordering hobby boxes online. It is very unfortunate that this hobby shop does this. Ultimately, they will only cost themselves business.

Check out these sites to order hobby boxes and even packs.

www.charmcitycards.com
www.dacardworld.com

[flydream]

RenegadeLonghorn -- thanks for giving me these websites. the price is pretty fair.

vikingfan101 -- i think he is the boss, cuz all the people are just watching him pull the cards from the opened packs, and nobody said anything. i will definitely mention this next time i stop by that store. thanks

[cardshark]

sounds like they probably tried teasing you by opening packs they knew had good cards to get you to buy more. I think you should post the name of this store so everyone is aware to stay away.