Holy grail of packs?

[KCRfan1]

Al,

What's the scarcity with the 1956 and 1958 packs?

[ALR-bishop]

The 5 cent packs are extremely tough and very expensive. I think the last 58 pack I saw a few years back went for over $10,000. I have not seen a 56 pack in forever. You can occasionally find penny packs for those years.

Unlike most of the other years there apparently have been no major unopened finds so far for those two years

[Volod]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

The 5 cent packs are extremely tough and very expensive. I think the last 58 pack I saw a few years back went for over $10,000. I have not seen a 56 pack in forever. You can occasionally find penny packs for those years.

Unlike most of the other years there apparently have been no major unopened finds so far for those two years

Man, what a long-term investment that was, eh? A nickel turned into ten grand and all a kid had to do was wait sixty years.

[pokerplyr80]

I would have guessed a 52 topps unopened pack would be the holy grail. Aside from a rare unopened tobacco pack that contained a rare t206 back, or something along those lines.

[Griffins]

'52 packs come up several times a year. I have only seen one '56 nickel pack come up in the last 15 years, and that was in a private sale. There are a few '58 packs out there, as Al said the last one sold years ago for $10k and it would probably be considerably higher today. One that is out there that is holdered is very suspect and probably not legit.
I've only seen 1 '53 Bowman nickel pack and it was trashed. I've seen one '49 Leaf pack (short print series) and 1 '49 Bowman pack in the last 15 years.
As far as pre war, '33 Sport Kings packs occasionally pop up (due to a find) and Goudey thumbmovie packs, but I've yet to see a '33-'41 Goudey pack, nor a '39-'41 Playball pack. Those would have to be the holy grails IMO.

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

I would have guessed a 52 topps unopened pack would be the holy grail. Aside from a rare unopened tobacco pack that contained a rare t206 back, or something along those lines.

[ALR-bishop]

Jesse-- I get what you are saying about the value of the cards themselves, but serious pack collectors, especially ones seeking to put together runs, usually have no intent to ever open the pack. They are paying for the scarcity of the item itself. I have on several occasions paid much more for a pack than the cards inside could possibly be worth, and had plenty of competition for those packs.

One of my worst nightmares is paying a lot for a pack and then having some major find of a hoard of them

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

Jesse-- I get what you are saying about the value of the cards themselves, but serious pack collectors, especially ones seeking to put together runs, usually have no intent to ever open the pack. They are paying for the scarcity of the item itself. I have on several occasions paid much more for a pack than the cards inside could possibly be worth, and had plenty of competition for those packs.

One of my worst nightmares is paying a lot for a pack and then having some major find of a hoard of them

I get that I just had no idea. I could have seen a 58 pack up for a BIN of 2k and it would have never occurred to me to buy it, until now anyway.

[Brianruns10]

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

I would have guessed a 52 topps unopened pack would be the holy grail. Aside from a rare unopened tobacco pack that contained a rare t206 back, or something along those lines.

I would've thought so too, but I think because the 52 topps cards sold relatively poorly compared to later years, and some retailers had unsold stock, there were more opportunities for unopened packs to be stashed away.

Whereas the more popular and common cards, like the 56 and 58 topps runs by their very popularity means there are fewer packs left unsold or unopened.

[dzolot]

Anyone have info about 51 bowman packs? I have NEVER seen one... Ever.

[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by dzolot

Anyone have info about 51 bowman packs? I have NEVER seen one... Ever.

I've seen 1cent packs on occasion. Rare, but not impossible. I'm sure larger ones exist, but I don't recall seeing them.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

The 5 cent packs are extremely tough and very expensive. I think the last 58 pack I saw a few years back went for over $10,000. I have not seen a 56 pack in forever. You can occasionally find penny packs for those years.

Unlike most of the other years there apparently have been no major unopened finds so far for those two years

I'll take your word on that as I don't collect unopened packs. But I can't imagine paying $10k for a pack when there's no chance to pull a 10k card out of it. That is assuming you don't pull a gem mint Mantle.