Card shop haul

Alright, finally forced myself to sit down and scan everything I bought from the hobby shop this afternoon.  As usual, I was tempted by the cheap old wax on the table behind all the newer packs, but I fought off my urges and stuck with what I set out for:  higher end new stuff with almost guaranteed hits.

Before I get to the haul, it’s safe to say that in the future ALL box purchases will be made online.  There’s just too big a price difference between the internet distributors and “the little guy”.  I’ll continue to visit my shop for supplies and the occasional higher end pack to fill out a $20 bill, but after doing a TON of “research” all morning long, I’ve realized that they just can’t compete when it comes to hobby boxes.  I’m sorry, but ’08 Upper Deck Timeline should NOT still be $47.  Until an online retailer does me wrong, I’m gonna have to turn to the internet for box purchases.

As for packs, they’re definitely more expensive at the shop than online, but I suppose come out somewhat equal after factoring for shipping.  Price difference between packs was a matter of 50 cents or a dollar, so nothing to get hung up over.  Plus, all of the “good” stuff needs to be retrieved so there’s no real chance of serious pack searching, and the shop doesn’t sell enough hits as singles to make me think they’d be the ones doing the searching.

One more thing to highlight before I post scans of the packs.  This guy was waiting for me on my front porch, discreetly (not at all) hidden under our welcome mat:

Hopefully I’ll get the remaining 30 or so cards I need to complete my set of 2007 UD Masterpieces.  I’ll post all the doubles after I break it in case anyone else is still trying to collate a set of it, too.  Gonna be a while, since I’m only planning on opening a few packs a day, but if you really can’t wait email me what you need and I’ll get the card(s) out to you.

OK, enough jibber jabber.  Here’s what I bought, starting with 2008 Upper Deck Heroes (hobby):

Guess I had Heroes on the mind today.  Hits are inserted at 1:6, so I’ve got a decent chance of getting something with these.  If not I’ll just have a decent start on the base set when I get around to putting it together.  Moving a little higher end, 2008 SP Authentic:

I was trying to get everything to come out to an even $40, so this was picked up near the end of the trip.  Odds of a hit are 1:5(ish) – not horrible for the cost.  If I’ve managed to pull a hit from these four packs, I’m off to a good start.  I’d better pull something from these next three, 2009 SPx:

Hits are 1:3.  Logic says that I’ll get at least one, which is really all I’m hoping for.  And I couldn’t just pretend that the bargain bin wasn’t there, like all of a sudden I was too good for it.  I picked up two packs of 2007 Upper Deck Future Stars:

I have no idea who or what is in this set, but at $1 each I’m guessing probably not much.  I never expect anything from the dollar packs so I’m never disappointed.

In addition to the packs, I picked up a box/pack/whatever you want to call it of 100 pt. top loaders for all of the crazy relics and autographs I’ll be pulling from these packs (which are too big for the cards I was talking about in the previous post. Grrrr…).  I’ve also got a handful of relics laying around the house that need to be put away; I’ve been putting off buying supplies for a while now.

I hope I get at least one relic or good autograph from these packs.  Two would be nice, and any more would be a great bonus. If by some chance I get NO relics or autos, I will never purchase another non-guaranteed hit higher end pack again.  Stay tuned – I’ll try to be quick with posting the results.