No honor in pack-searching

[jedijohnson]

Yesterday I witnessed my first pack-searcher. It was at the main military department store here in Hawaii. As is the norm, when my family and I go there, my kids and I walk thru the card aisle to see if there's anything new.
And there he was. A Chief Petty Officer (in uniform) searching packs by placing them on his thigh and pushing-down & rubbing with his thumb VERY hard trying to locate the GU and/or auto. At the time I saw him, he was searching the retail-packaged single packs, not the ones loose in the retail-box. He had probably already moved on from those. It made me SICK to watch.
For those non-military folk, a Chief Petty Officer is a senior enlisted leader and should be setting the example for our junior (future leaders) to emulate.
Had my two young boys not been there, I would like to think that I would've confront this "leader" setting this extremely poor example, but I felt my boys didnt need to see what would've surely been a heated conversation.
So sick it made me that I vowed never to buy another pack or box of cards again. I want to avoid that scene all together now. I'll still continue my hobby through buying singles via shows, shops, eBay, and trading.
I've read many threads in here about searchers and how they're ruining the hobby, and while good reads, I never really felt the sting until yesterday.
It made me sick.
It looked wrong, it felt wrong, IT IS WRONG!!!

[meuandthelot]

Correct you are!! Not to mention he probably damaged many cards while fondling the packs...I'd definately make the store clerk aware of these practices.
Funny thing is, I've been accused of doing the searching because it seems so far fetched to the employee made aware...Like in the case of my Pre-searched, resealed Bowman MLB boxes(Quite the fiasco!!)

If I choose to buy loose packs over a sealed box(Sometimes I get the urge to see the product with min investment) AND If I happen to see an Obvious fat pack I will buy that one, but there's something inside me that says "Take your poison, pick a pack or 2-3-?? & move on" maybe it's morals, or the Golden Rule, Karma, whatever.

PS: Thanks for making our lives here, and the lives of those around you safer.

[CYmarlins]

never do retail anymore because of things like that. always buy hobby packs at the shop or just do singles which is way better imo

[fact81]

Ahhh here we go again with the Pack searching debate. Im going to say it again, and may take heat for it but I just dont believe people when they say they "Dont pack search" I dont buy it for 2 second.

There are so many ways to pack search. Hey I will be the 1st and (hopefully not the only) guy to sit here and I say, Sure I pack search at retail stores if there is a fresh box sitting there. I dont damage the cards by any means, I do know twisting of the packs etc etc to ruin anything inside. If everyone else is doing it? Why cant i?

To me, its black and white, 1st come, 1st serve. Im not doin anything illegal, now there are people who buy retail boxes from Target/Walmart and take the stuff inside and reseal with shrink wrap and return it to the store. NOW THAT IS STEALING AND I WOULD NEVER, EVER DO THAT.

Again, virtually everyone knows how to pack search in some way shape or form, hell, people sell ways to do it on ebay.com for godsake.

My brother asked me the other day a good question , he said, "Rob, if u pack search at Target, doesnt that ruin it for some poor guy who walks in and just buys a few loose packs"

My response - Anyone who goes to Target/Walmart and just picks a few loose packs up hoping to pull something, u r down right mental. 99% of the time they are searched allready, why in the world would u buy em? Thats just plain stupid. Everyone knows there are pack searchers out there, and I am willing to bet 75% or more of the members on here are to some extent. By some extent i mean this::

I do not and will not go into a card/hobby shop and search packs, even if the store owner let me. Just isnt right to me for a lot of reasons.

I do not buy retail boxes and re-seal them and return em. Thats not searching, thats stealing.

Call me a loser if u desire but yes, when i make a trip to the local Walmart/Target - and if they have a brand new box of 24 packs, Sure I will try n find the GU pack, Who wouldnt? Maybe not everyone, but I gurantee the majority would, even if they dont come out n say it.


Rob

[flemingtime]

fact i wont call you loser for searching, i just wont respect your collection, you cheated, and maybe many others cheat too, but i have never searched, in any format, so dont go assuming all collectors search, i dont, my collection has all been put together through trading buying singles, and busting packs the honest way. in fact i have never pulled anything worth while out of a pack, maybe its because people like you have gotten to the goodies first, what a joke. dont assume everyone is as shady as you.

[fdgowin]

I walked into the grocery store the other day, and I saw an older woman in the meat isle. She picked up a pound of bacon, ripped back the little flap, and searched the bacon! I guess it really is first come, first served.

Where I live there is actually a ring of people who follow the distributor, search the packs, and sell them on eBay. There's not much chance of a guy with a day job to pull anything out the retail.

A lot of times you can buy inserts cheaper than a pack at shows, or you can trade, so there are lots of alternatives to retail packs.

fdgowin

[fact81]

Flemingtime - Never said , EVeryone pack searches, never said everyone was "shady" as u put it. Hell, I have been collecting since i was 10 yrs old, and am willing to bet I have just as much as you or more money on loose packs/boxes/single/sets everything since i started collecting. Hell, I have 2 hobby boxes coming in tonight I am box breaking live @900pm.

U dont have to respect my collection, thats fine, not trying to start an arguement here by any means, just see this topic brought so many times and the run around happens and it goes nowhere.

if i am shady in your eyes, so be it, everyone has their own respective opinions, atleast Im up front about the topic and tell my side of it and dont LIE and say i dont pack search, - not trying to insinuate that you do, but a good majority of people do and wont admit it.

All i here are things like "Ohh, poor 11 yr kids walk into walmart and the fun of collecting is ruined because of pack searchers. I say thats crap and people that say that dont give a rats a** about the little kids who just have $3.00 to spend, biggest bunch of garbage i have ever heard.

[jedijohnson]

fact81...I would never call you a "loser". I will say that our idea a fair play does differ. I'm not foolish enough to think that pack-searching is rare. Heck, anyone who reads this forum regularly knows that it's rampid. The main point of my thread (because I know the issue has been beat to death) was two-fold.
1. To express how differently it effected me to actually see it, versus reading about it.
2. Therapy for myself, because it really bothered me and put me in a fowl mood. Writing abit about it made me feel better. Sleeping on it sure didnt.

I'm sure you're right, depending one's defintion of searching. Many folk do pickup the obvious "fat-packs" looking for GU. But seriously fondling and rubbing the packs is not right imo.

Growing up I was always told (and I tell me kids this too) "if something looks or feels wrong, chances are very good that it's wrong." What this guy did was wrong.

[flemingtime]

fact- i will admit i respect the fact that you admit it, we just fall on differant sides of the opinion on this one, i am a lil harsh with my words, i just completly disagree with pack searching.

tim

[Greenbeans]

This will be a never ending debate on here im sure....it happens once a month or so....