Saturday Stories: Casey Buys a Hot Pack

So Hot Packs are an interesting thing - generally speaking, a card collector or dealer has a ton of cards that aren't bad cards, but aren't great  cards either. A lot of the time autos or relics from obscure players, base cards or inserts/subsets of stars and semi stars...a lot of stuff that is hard to move individually, but too nice to throw in the garbage. The seller will take a pile of these cards, add in a handful of legitimately nice cards, and sell them in random lots of 20 or so cards with the potential of getting a hit, but definitely including a bunch of big names and some nice inserts. I have seen these on ebay, and they range from $1 up to $199 for football cards. Higher if you're looking at the NHL or NBA, and usually a little lower for MLB cards. I opted for a $20.95 pack since I figured it would be a low risk with potential for a decent reward. This price point basically gets me to a value pack of Panini Absolute, so it seems worth it from that standpoint, and I noticed that the seller is based in Wisconsin, as am I, so I figured (rightly) that there would be a high potential for a lot of Packers cards. 

Here's the product description from their listing:

Bargain Packs - Jersey - Relic - Patch - Auto - Insert - Refractor - #D - Prizms 

Each pack you buy will contain 15-20 football cards. Each pack is guaranteed:

4-6 Relic, Jersey, Patch, Auto Cards PLUS 11-14 Insert, Refractor, Prizm, Serial Numbered Cards

Cards are all pack pulled in great condition and perfect for gift giving.

Selling off my collection from opening boxes/cases and buying collections from the past 10 years. I hope you will enjoy these cards as much as i did. Packs are made up and ready for shipment.There is a 5 pack limit you can buy for shipping reasons.

 My collection consist of commons,semi stars,stars,plus other goodies and surprises. Packs will vary, some better than others, just like if you bought a pack at your local card shop. Good luck to everyone.

I will also be selecting a customer of the month, details will be included with your order.

FREE Shipping:   

This seems to actually be a pretty good description. Off to the cards:

 

First off is a pretty nice Eddie Lacy RC Relic...too bad he ate himself out of the NFL, but still a nice card, and a player I enjoyed watching while he was in GB. Next up is a Josh Jacobs Donruss Threads, Donruss Jerry Rice Legends Series, Donruss Shady McCoy Production Line, Prestige Isaac Bruce Old School, Score Bucs Team Leaders, and a Panini Contenders Jameis Winston Old School. I really like this last card...Jameis is one of my favorite players because you never know what he might do...Throw for 400 years or throw 6 picks in a game, and I can see him having a career like FitzMagic. A borderline starter/backup, who keeps doing juuuuust enough to keep his career alive without ever establishing himself as a reliable enough passer to hang onto that starting job forever.

Here are the rest of the Packers: a Mosaic Aaron Jones prizm of some sort...(Red & Blue? I can't find the actual name of this anywhere), but still awesome, Jamycal Hasty Contenders College Ticket Auto...wait, how did he get in here? Not a Packer! anyway, Jamycal has shown some potential this year, and this might have some cash potential in the future. Next is a Prizm J'Mon Moore Green refractor Auto, which looks sweet, and J'Mon just got the call back up to the NFL last week, so maybe he will finally prove himself. Next is a Mosaic Brett Favre Will to Win, Donruss Davante Adams Elite Series, a Swervin' Ervin Optic Rated Rookie Foil, which is one of the best looks IMO for any card over the last couple of years, an AJ Dillon Elite Series Rookie (for whom I have high hopes), and a Rookies & Stars Davante Adams On Another Level. I think if you added up the actual Beckett values of these cards, I am probably coming out ahead, but I am not really interested in buying these to flip. More for the pack experience with a greater concentration of cool stuff inside, and some nice additions to my personal collection.

I am really happy with these pulls. Definitely better than just buying a pack of Absolute or Donruss or whatever. I really like the Jamycal card and the Aaron Jones Prizm in particular. What I like about this pack is that it has a lot of cards that I definitely wouldn't have gotten otherwise. I generally buy Donruss and cheaper packs of the current year, so I would not likely have found the Optic or Mosaic cards, particularly from previous season. 

Totally a good purchase. If, like me, you're not trying to flip cards for a buck, and just like opening packs and finding your favorite players or something that you might not get otherwise, a Hot Pack like this is an excellent way to go.