Taking one for the team
Ever wonder what’s in a hot pack on eBay? I may be one of the few and buying one of these packs is also giving the pack searchers fodder for continuing to do so.
However, I just wanted to see. I just wanted to take a shot.
I bought a ‘hot pack’ of SP Authentic on eBay a few weeks ago. There are five cards in the pack. I actually liked the base cards I got.
I got two Yankees, a soon-to-be Yankee and NiCole Hamels (not scanned).
The auto is not really that exciting. Josh Anderson of the Tigers, except he got traded to the Royals last season. He batted .240 last year in 118 games with a home run and 25 RBIs. He also had 25 stolen bases.
That’ll teach me to buy hot packs off eBay.
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I have grabbed a couple of hot packs off ebay, never for more than $5 total. If you wait it out sometimes you can find them way cheap. I've never pulled anything exciting, save for a Josh Outman framed auto from T206.
I always wonder how they know, especially if the autos are on the same stock as the base.
Micrometer. By using one you can tell the subtle differences of the raised sticket on the cardboard.
Some are extremely easy, too. Goodwin Champions only puts 3 cards in a pack with a jersey card, and it's not the same height and width (slightly less). Also, packs with relics don't bend as easily. There's a variety of methods, some easy to master some hard, but I'd rather grab a handful of packs and be surprised by a big hit, personally.
I used to get a bunch of hot packs on eBay, I'm very embarrassed to say. Never got any super amazing pulls (though there was at least one that pretty damn cool). Plenty of junk too, but only a couple were cringe-inducingly bad. I don't bother anymore though. I realized I'm good enough through a combination of low level psychic powers, observation, educated guessing, and plain old dumb luck to pull my own at a pretty decent clip anyway, lol.