2012 Topps Heritage

[Jantz]

Be careful when buying blaster boxes. People have been known to buy them at Walmart & Target and when they get home and open them up, they find that the packs have been restuff with crap cards from past years. The crooks even go to the trouble of reshrink wrapping the box before they return it. This has never happen to me, but I've read about it on other message boards.


Jantz

[Rich Klein]

There is usually a note on the box that it was returned. Funny story, I missed that on a value box I bought in 2010 so I missed the good card being taken out -- BUT the contest cards were left in.

One of the contest cards became the 2010 Strasburg which was not only booking for over $100 at the time but was also the key to free shipping.

Rich

[betafolio2]

Originally Posted by Jantz

Be careful when buying blaster boxes. People have been known to buy them at Walmart & Target and when they get home and open them up, they find that the packs have been restuff with crap cards from past years. The crooks even go to the trouble of reshrink wrapping the box before they return it. This has never happen to me, but I've read about it on other message boards.

Jantz

People are easily fooled into thinking that a product is NEW, UNOPENED -- and all it takes is shrink-wrap! There's a movie that came out a couple years ago, "Hotel For Dogs," and it shows these two down-on-their-luck kids who would buy an iWhatever, take it home, open it up, put a brick or other weighty object inside the box, shrink-wrap it, and return it to the store for a full cash refund. Sure, it's a fictional film, but as they say, art imitates life!

What surprises me even more is the comment further up on this thread about some guy weighing unopened packs in Target. It makes sense, as the different insert cards, with varying thicknesses, would weigh different amounts. You'd think store security would step in and say something, but if the store cops can't even stop most shoplifters, I'm sure they'd ignore a guy who's actually paying for something.

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Well now they have "filler cards" in packs now to avoid this, have been doing it for a couple of years. They are super thick cards, that weigh the same as an insert card to help throw the people weighing cards off. They're usually like a "topps.com" advertisement, or just a white blank thick card, which is actually pretty nice to get player's autographs on lol.

[Rich Klein]

The Heritage product is a bit softer this year. Even though my local store is still at $74 per box, I suspect that hobby "on-line" retailers may end up going under $50 per box.

In another place, I'll give my argument for all the lesser known autograph players in this product

RIch

[Bilko G]

Originally Posted by betafolio2

People are easily fooled into thinking that a product is NEW, UNOPENED -- and all it takes is shrink-wrap! There's a movie that came out a couple years ago, "Hotel For Dogs," and it shows these two down-on-their-luck kids who would buy an iWhatever, take it home, open it up, put a brick or other weighty object inside the box, shrink-wrap it, and return it to the store for a full cash refund. Sure, it's a fictional film, but as they say, art imitates life!

What surprises me even more is the comment further up on this thread about some guy weighing unopened packs in Target. It makes sense, as the different insert cards, with varying thicknesses, would weigh different amounts. You'd think store security would step in and say something, but if the store cops can't even stop most shoplifters, I'm sure they'd ignore a guy who's actually paying for something.

With that in mind, the card companies do put "Decoy cards" in some packs. Decoy cards are thick blank (or advertisement) cards to throw off people weighing the packs or feeling them up.

Also with the Shrink wrap, just make sure the company logo is on the shrink wrap and you will be fine.

[Jantz]

The "decoy cards" were a joke. Only half the packs in a box would have a decoy card in them, so this just helped the pack searchers pinpoint the pack with the game jersey/bat card in it.

I worked in retail for years and saw my share of pack searchers & all their techniques.

Some were very sophisticated too. Once saw a guy at another retailer with a homemade miniature hand-held metal detector. Of course I had to ask. The metal detector was to find autographs. Factory autographed cards have that little foil certification sticker or a foil sticker where the player signs & that was all it took.



Jantz