Thursday, January 17, 2013

Coming to a local retail outlet near you...Pack Searchers

Some of the articles you read here at Sport Card Collectors are ones I wrote before starting a blog. I have always been into writing and whether it was read or not, I always just typed things up. Sort of a bonus hobby. We will get to why I mentioned this in a bit. The other day when looking around on different sport card Facebook pages I stumbled upon something that caught my eye. Someone claiming to know where all of the good cards were posting clips of their breaks (now to keep this person from being searched I will not mention the name it was under) but as curious as I am I went and checked out the page. To my surprise after reading some of the posts and comments underneath I had uncovered a pack searching page. A place where a person was teaching others how to pack search.

So this made me think back to an article I had started on pack searching but never had finished it. This page helped me bring back the article to shine more light on this darkness in the hobby. So some of this writing is from that article and some is new based on info I have researched from different forums and pages.

For those of you who may not know what "Pack Searching" is, its when someone goes to a retail outlet such as Walmart or Target (some may do it at hobby shops but most hobby shops keep their cards behind the counter) and they feel out the packs from boxes to try and find the hit or the better cards and beat the odds. By feeling out the packs, they can feel which ones are thicker would hold memorabilia cards and sometimes they can even find the die cuts in packs. Don't ask me how they do it, but they have practiced for awhile. Some even bring postal scales into retail outlets and weigh each pack to find the heaviest one which most likely has the hit. And even worse than that some will cut into the card wrappers and find the best cards. Which to me is totally wrong. But they do it.And everyone needs to be warned of it.

Pack Searching hurts the hobby especially those who cannot afford hobby packs and buy retail ones. What do they get to look forward to if they pick out a few packs from a box that may have been searched? No hits or good cards most likely. And some people may not even realize that the box had been Pack Searched or maybe not have even heard of this until now. Also, pack searching can damage the cards for the next person picking up the pack they left behind due to the techniques they use to search it.

A form of pack searching also used to happen in the late 90's before the boom of memorabilia cards. Card companies always had a way of putting packs in a box. For example, a friend of mines uncle (who is no longer in the hobby and left it in 98)  used to have theories on every product that he put together on note cards after buying a certain amount of boxes of it. Like a box of Spx football 96, the hit or insert from the box would be lets say the second row of packs, four packs down. And if no one had touched the box before he put his hand in it, it worked every time. It was very frustrating for me being a child and someone who could only afford a few packs at a time and trying to buy a pack hoping for something big then finding out someone had already taken it out of the box....it made me want out of the hobby. But I continued on. Card companies got smarter after awhile on this in the 90's and no longer laid the boxes out the same. If only they can figure out how to stop pack searchers now a days, everyone might feel safer about buying retail.

Some suggestions I would give is putting decoys in every pack. Maybe putting all retail packs into plastic packaging where no one can touch it.Or maybe having all retail outlets move the packs behind the counter like at a LCS.

Here are a few tips when I buy retail, I look for a couple of things. One, I try to make sure the box looks full that way you know it might be newer. Two, I try to get packs from a box where packs are not tossed all around. Three, I sometimes stick with only blaster boxes from places like Walmart and Target  but be aware of these as well. Some people open these, take out the good stuff, and rewrap them and bring them back to the store. Make sure you are very careful on what you buy. Those most of the time are safe buys

Not all of you will agree with me on this topic. Some of you might say, hey, we all do it sometimes. Others might say, well with the price of cards you want to make sure you get your money back. Or maybe you will agree. But either way, I wanted to shed some light on this and say how I felt about it. And would like to hear what you think as well below in comments!

Do you agree with pack searching? Have you tried it? How can companies fix the problem if you are against it?

9 comments:

  1. Good Article!!! For the record, I am against pack searching. Those who don't, get frustrated when they buy packs and get nothing because somebody else has already searched through the packs. We want people to enjoy card collecting!

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    1. Thanks Harold. I hope others read this to learn about this. I was just completely shocked to have found that Facebook page teaching others to join in on this.

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  2. Completely agree...I cannot tell you how many times I have bought a box from WalMart or Target and take them home only to find that all packs were searched and are missing all rookie cards or the special relic pack. And then we are the ones forced to try and return it and explain the situation. Its a pain and a waste of time, and they always look at you like what we are the guilty ones. At the same time those big box places need to have stricter rules on taking stuff back as some are being placed back on the shelf without the original wrapping meaning they took the return on an already opened box. Now even on blasters I make sure the original companies wrapper is tightly intact before I buy it.

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  3. Pack searching is horrible for the hobby. The only 'searching' I do is by hovering my hands over the packs to see which one has a good vibe coming out of it! Unfortunately I haven't always had the best luck.

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  4. It is easy to tell if your area is being searched. I go in the walmart or target and if the packs are turned sideways in the box it has been searched. I just turn around and leave. In Vegas we have like 25 walmarts and 20 targets - All of which are searched HEAVILY. I found a way to beat them though. I have figured out which day the stores restock here in town (which they know as well). I bust in the stores before the packs can be searched and buy my breaks for the week. It is like a race between the searcher and the honest hobbyist, When I see a full nice stock with no turned packs - VICTORY IS MINE!! I get so excited lol. Anyway, I Break a little each day so it lasts until the next stocking time. Done very well doing this. I like products like Prizm that only contain Autos and the color refractors are worth the most which I assume are impossible to see in the packs.

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    1. Packs are always turned sideways at the targets and Walmarts I go into. Good to know. I buy the boxes anyway but if I do pick up a pack or two I will keep that in mind.

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  5. Pack searchers should have their fingers chopped off. Period.
    arnie

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  6. I actually read an article about people getting caught at Target pack searching.I went to a Target store two weeks ago. I actually picked up a pack to feel it to see if there was a bigger card inside. I felt weird doing it but wanted to see if you could tell any difference. Most of all I wanted to see if anyone working at Target cared. I did it for 10 minutes on the same pack. I had to go out of my way to get an employees attention in order for them to pay attention. I kept asking questions about cards available and some other stupid questions. Finally one employee after asking him questions for 5-10 minutes caught on. At least I think so. He stood there for another 10-15 minutes watching me without conversation until I was finished looking in that section. I am totally against pack searching but again, I don't favor relic cards anyway. I could do without if we had to. The younger generation love them. I only did it with one pack just to see what and if I could feel anything different from the boxed packs that I always buy and to see if the Target employees would even care. I will never do it again. I always buy my Topps cards in boxes so obviously you cannot search packs. Well we can probably rest easy because I think my one trial run at this particular Target shows that they are being Vigilant. Not a big representation I will admit but is good to know that the store employees at least at this Target are aware and keep their eyes peeled for suspicious activity. I will bring the hatchet Arnie. lol.
    Chad D

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  7. Maybe that last statement is not true. It took them a while to even pay me any mind so maybe a pro at this pack searching could get it done quickly before the employees have a chance to realize what is going on.
    Chad D

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