I don't trust them either. Typically they were indeed put together after the production year, and in some cases years later. The trick to get you to bite was to put one or two star cards on the outside showing, with mostly commons on the inside. I bought a 1971 rack in the series with Clemente and Mays, the Mays was showing but the Clemente inside was 90/10 top bottom centering and the rest garbage including doubles in the same pack ! As for searching - the sides of the pack need to be nice and tight, if they are not and you can shuffle each of the cards slightly, to see the players in sequence, the pack has been searched. I have a 1981 rack pack box of football, not as vintage as the 1971 topps baseball and did get two Montanas ( one showing on the bottom of a pack and one inside - but some of the packs were not tight and were clearly searched which was upsetting ), but I bought it long before football cards were worth anything, which explains why I still got two Montanas ( there were no Paytons, Bradshaws etc ). I can't comment on graded packs aside from those showing a star on top which look pretty cool.
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