UPDATE - 2010 Tristar Obak Case Bust Quandry

[mintman2]

I bought a master case (2 12 box mini cases), busted most of it, and now have several decisions to make. There's 4 guaranteed hits per master case - box topper auto, mini auto, cut auto and hot box with 35 "hits" including 10 autos). Okay, so I open the first mini case and get the box topper auto and the mini auto, so the next 12 box mini case has to contain the cut auto and hot box. I didn't check the first case but while taking the boxes out of the second case I notice two of them are turned opposite direction from all the rest so I set them aside and start in on the others. Opened all 10 of them and NO cut or hot box so I know the two boxes I set aside are the key boxes, with one small caveat. Each box has 4 autos and with four of the boxes I had pulled three autos with only one pack to go so the remaining pack should have another auto. So what to do now ???????

I'm really leaning towards selling on ebay but here's the quandry......

1) Do I open the last four packs to confirm they don't contain the cut auto, thus allowing me to guarantee each box is a hot one ? Of course if one does contain the cut then I'm 1/2 screwed on the boxes.

OR 2) Do I sell them on ebay as hot packs and also sell the boxes, with the "story" in my description ?

Naturally I want to maximize the selling price and have my own idea which way gives me the best bang but would like to hear others opinions before pulling the trigger.

Thanks,
Alan

 

[mintman2]

Oh yeah, BTW, I pulled a 1/1 Ripken [size=+2][/size]

 

[mj23bullsfan]

wow, that ripken probably made you all jittery, lol

that's quite a canundrum(sp?) you have, lol. good luck which ever way you decide to go with it.

is it possible you could list your hits for us?

paul

 

[mintman2]

Here's the hits, based solely on numbering. Could be others that I don't know about since I don't know very many of the current players.


... 1/1's..
21 Ripken


/5
17 Roger Clemens
49 Tim Raines
62 Daniel "Doc" Adams
89 Luther "Dummy" Taylor

autos /5
37 Drew Storen
68 Ken Landreaux

autos /25
81 Charlie Ward
79 Darryl Strawberry
75 Tom Paciorek
74 John Paciorek
73 Robert Nelson
66 Tommy John
58 Toby Gerhart
39 Trayce Thompson
36 Robert Stark
33 Carlos Santana
27 Tommy Mendonca
22 Jeff Kobernus
19 Brandon Jacobs
4 Josh Bell

Tommy John mini auto /10
Don Baylor box topper auto /25
Tinker/Evers/Chance mini /5

 

[theplasticman]

It would backfire by selling them IMO... the whole pack searching thing is highly frowned upon by most

 

[mintman2]

It would backfire by selling them IMO... the whole pack searching thing is highly frowned upon by most

Really ???? Pack searching ????

How exactly is what I did pack searching ?

I opened ALL the other packs/boxes. If I had yanked out the hot packs/boxes, sold them as such, AND sold the others as still having good random potential then yes that's bad. But I opened them all and by "chance" the last ones were the hot ones. It's just like if I had busted a case of 06 topps sterling, which guaranteed a Mickey Mantle box, and after opening 9 boxes I hadn't seen the Mantle. Would it be unethical to sell the last box as a guaranteed Mantle box ? I don't think so.

 

[valediction]

Really ???? Pack searching ????

How exactly is what I did pack searching ?

I opened ALL the other packs/boxes. If I had yanked out the hot packs/boxes, sold them as such, AND sold the others as still having good random potential then yes that's bad. But I opened them all and by "chance" the last ones were the hot ones. It's just like if I had busted a case of 06 topps sterling, which guaranteed a Mickey Mantle box, and after opening 9 boxes I hadn't seen the Mantle. Would it be unethical to sell the last box as a guaranteed Mantle box ? I don't think so.

Sometimes impressions carry more weight than facts. I was at the bar a couple weeks ago and a woman who lives in the apartments down the block from me. I'm 40, she's 23, young, attractive, and bisexual. She's in a relationship with the woman she lives with. Well, the 23 year old can hold her own in the drinking department. I stopped in for dinner and a beer. The woman had three. By the third beer, she was taking 2 steps sideways for every step forward. Something was seriously unusual, we've seen her drink a lot more and not be acting like this. She's hitting on a guy watching the football game, and she's got 2 50+ year old eyeing her up trying to hit on her. The bartender had her call her roommate to pick her up. They live less than 3 blocks away. 40 minutes later she still wasn't there. The bartender asked me to walk her home and get her away from the 50 year olds trying to take her to their place. I walked her home, having to hold her hand all the way because she's going sideways, backwards and forwards. we get halfway across the street and she wants to relieve herself in the street. I convince her not to. She falls 3 times on the walk to her apartment, she loses her shoe twice, she starts walking barefoot. I get her to her building, she can't find her keys. I help her find them, I walk her to the apartment, she opens the door, stumbles in, I turn around to leave she jumps on my back and plants a huge hickey on mky neck. I got her off my back, walked out the door just as her roommate walks down the hall. She sees me coming out of their apartment with a hickey on my neck and her partner can't even form a coherent sentence. yeah, THAT went over well. Then I go back to finish my dinner at the bar and everyone who saw me leave with her sees the hickey. Doesn't matter what I did, it's what it LOOKS like I did. Same thing with cards. You sell the hot packs and hot boxes, what if you got a dud case? There was a thread a few years ago about a guy who bought a case of Legendary Cuts, opened it and did not get the guaranteed cut. It can happen. A person buys one of the 'hot' boxes, doesn't get the cut and doesn't get the 30+ hits, you're a no good lying pack searcher, facts don't matter, you sold them a lie in their mind. They have no way of knowing how reputable you are. If people buy one of the hot packs and there's no auto, same thing, you sold them a hot pack that wasn't. If you offer a refund, they may just think you are trying to get them to keep quiet about it instead of leaving you a negative instead of honestly caring about making them happy.

 

[mintman2]

I don't necessarily agree with Valediction's assessment BUT it's a darn good thing I heeded the advice.

I opened both remaining boxes and lo and behold NO HOT BOX ! Got the cut auto in one and another mini auto in the other but no 35 hit box. Got the number of the person to talk to at tristar but will be Monday before she's in the office. Looks like a new thread regarding Tristar's service is forthcoming.

 

[valediction]

Sorry you had to deal with the frustration of a short case, but at least you have a leg to stand on. A buyer would have to go back through you, and you'd still have had to deal with Tri Star, only with the caveat that "I sold it, the buyer opened it 4 states away, said he didn't get the hits, the other box I sold had a cut, so he sent me back this box and now I'm sending it back to you Tri Star, to make it right"

 

[Meliah]

Over the years I have learned it is a good move to listen to valediction if he offers his advice on something.