I was in Las Vegas on a three-day vacation and not necessarilly being a 'Sin City' type - what interested me was going to at least a couple of Las Vegas 51s baseball games. I was interested in getting some in-person autographs from the Toronto Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate.
From the looks of it, the team store offered a quaint selection of baseball cards. A 'two-pack' of Tristar blasters [2008 Projections High/2008 Prospects Plus] were being sold for around $42 - there were about five packs in each blaster [with a guaranteed autograph].
There was old junk wax on top of one of the showcases - packs of what looked like 1991 O-Pee-Chee Premier were $1 each.
There were also official MLB baseballs [individually wrapped in tissue, but in ball cubes or boxes] - $15 each.
There were old team sets - most were from the 'junk wax' years, but the 1985 Fleer Angels was interesting [$4]. Some guy bought three of the team sets for whatever reason [I don't think the cards he bought contained anyone playing down on the field] and was guiding the lady working there what to reach for.
There were some various singles in one showcase - maybe selling for $2-$5 each, though none might be worth more than $0.50.
I saw there were plastic boxes with had 90 different cards for $5 -with the cards I have in my A-Z boxes, I could probably come up with a 100 sets of 90'repack' cards.
The next night I ended up purchasing an official Major League Baseball and one plastic box of those 90 assorted cards - I think I'm always will to look at another man's junk [trading cards] even if I know there isn't remotely valuable in a repack.
However, how do I use the cards [if I know it won't be cards from the last five years] - making a blanket statement like, 'I'll use these for through the mail' requests never work out because it is an excuse to pick up more crap.
I'm all about picking up any type of cards - as long as I feel like 'hey, I can probably get that signed in-person today, tomorrow or in a month or so.'
I broke down because I saw a 1988 Fleer Tim Flannery card on top of one - the card isn't special by any means. I didn't grow up with it or anything. It is just a card with a posed shot of a player and his surfboard.
The particular card ended up being damaged of course - never fall for the 'showcase' card in any repack, because it is the one that ends up being off-conditioned thanks to the Hefty Hinge Sports Cube.
The damage was an indentation left by the piece of plastic molded inside the box to help snap the lid shut - a design fail for trading card storage if there was one. For storage items such as plastic boxes, the piece of plastic [that gives the ability for the collector to snap the lid shut] should be on the outside, not where it can damage the top card.
I don't really want to have to worry about cards being damaged by a plastic box - but maybe I shouldn't fill the card plastic box up to 'capacity' and always use some kind of filler card [the thicker, the better] to protect the top cards.
The rest of the cards were 80s-90s filler - it is kind of fun looking through the cards, especially some of the cards using a less than flattering image of a particular baseball player. The box wasn't completely devoid of stars, though I think no cards were worth more than a nickel each. The lone card from the last 10 years was a 2005 Leaf Certified Material Miguel Cabrera.
