So, I was out and about last night again, and decided to drop some birthday money on some cards at my local retail shop (I can’t wait for my local card shop to re-open in their newer, bigger location).  And, since I couldn’t bring myself to buy individual packs, and I wasn’t interested in any of their boxes, I found myself back to looking at the sucker boxes.  But I’ll provide a little more detail this time around…

Mixed Card Blister PackThe first pack was a blister pack for $9.99, which promised at least $50 in catalog value (and “Look for RARE ‘1 of 1’ inserts!”). This pack is distributed by FairField, at PO Box 1297, in Des Moines, IA (remember that PO Box).

In looking up the values of the cards from this pack, it was better than I expected when I first opened it–originally I thought that the Tomlinson rookie was the only good card, but it turns out the McNair and Harrison were rookies too, so the total value did end up at actually over $60 for the pack.

1995 Crown Royale Joey Galloway  $4.00
1995 Crown Royale Steve McNair  $8.00
1996 Crown Royale Marvin Harrison  $12.00
2001 Pacific Dynagon LaDanion Tomlinson $25.00
2001 Pacific Dynagon Dan Alexander  $2.50
2000 Collector’s Edge Supreme Doug Johnson  $4.00
1997 Playoff Zone Prime Target Eddie Kennison  $5.00
1995 Playoff Super Bowl Card Show Irving Spikes  $1.25
1995 Playoff Super Bowl Card Show David Palmer  $1.25

Of course, even with those cards, getting my $10 back might be kind of tough on eBay.  But it was still better than the last one of these I opened, where I think that the total value was less than $50 (and I have a hard time believing that the value went down after the pack was put together, but I could never prove it).

The second pack was another $9.99 pack, which guaranteed One Memorabilia Card & One Star Card, along with two unopened packs.    This pack is distributed by Excell Marketing, L.C., PO Box 1297, Des Moines, IA.  Is it a bad thing that two companies that sell essentially the same thing at the same address?  Seems like they’re hiding something.

I could see the packs were 2005 Press Pass SE and 2002 Score, so I wasn’t expecting much there, but I was able to peak enough at the memorabilia card to see that it was a New Orleans Saint jersey card, and since the rest of the packs all had only skinny cards, I went with that pack.

Well, the jersey card ended up being a 2006 SPx Swatch Supremacy of Deuce McAllister, which lists at $8.00, but of course has a couple dinged corners, so good luck with that.  The “star” card was a real bummer, as it was a 1995 Playoff Prime Boomer Esiason, who I’m not sure I would consider a star, and based on the $0.15 that the card books for, Beckett agrees.

From the packs, the most impressive card was a 2005 Press Pass SE Gold Aaron Rodgers, which books for $6, but again, might have some minor corner issues.

The last thing that I picked up was another $20 tin of cards, which guaranteed $50 in book value, and 3 unopened packs.  I was surprised to find a Sports Collecters Digest Authentic slabbed card in the tin (2002 Score QBC Materials Jim Everett), which books for $10.  Other than that, the only cards that are probably “of value” were in the stack of 1998 Collector’s Edge T3, which I haven’t even priced out yet.  But there were a bunch of fun cards, like the 1989 Topps Don Majkowski, and a 1990 Pro Set Terry Kinard which has him wearing a sweet pair of short shorts.

In the end, once again I feel afterwards like I just need to stop buying these boxes/packs–but of course, I doubt I will, especially at times like these when there aren’t many new products coming out. 

**UPDATE** I started pricing out what I called the “1998 Collector’s Edge T3” cards above–turns out it’s actually 1998 Collector’s Edge First Place Triple Threat, and what was in the tin was a complete set–so the tin I got yesterday actually had a book value of well over $200, although again there are some condition issues.  So now I wonder how long I can hold off on buying another one of these tins…