What's this? A new post? Don't get used to it. ;-)
Perusing Facebook Marketplace last Saturday night, I came across a new ad. A guy was trying to sell a medium flat-rate box of cards. His ad said 2,000 cards and the only picture looked something like this:
He wanted $30 + $17 shipping. However, he was local to me (15 mins away) so I could pick-up without the shipping charge. I messaged him and asked "How much of this is junk wax?" He said "None. It's 2014 and 2019-present." Intriguing. We set up a time to meet Sunday and I grabbed it without digging into it any further. He said he buys blasters and this is all from there. 8 stacks fit in the box. Let's show it off in chronological order and see how I did.
1990 Topps - 8 cards
What????!?! I was promised no junk wax! It's OK. These were the only junk in the whole box, so I'm not disgruntled. These are going in the trash, though. :-)
2012 Panini Triple Play - 6 cards, 1 insert
Don't need any of these, but maybe that Zimmerman sticker can find a home.
2014 Topps Update - 328 cards, 3 inserts
Lots of base here! They left in stars here (Jeter, Miggy, etc.), but there was no Mookie Betts rookie (of course).
Only inserts were the 3 mini die-cuts (below).
Props to this guy -- condition on all these cards in the box was top-notch. Definitely looked pack-fresh.
2018 Topps Finest - 2 cards
These are in the same picture with the minis above.
2014 Topps Heritage - 251 cards, 5 inserts
There was a VERY healthy stack of these, but they had definitely been picked-over in the past. Not a lot of major stars. Fun to see a clean-shaven Charlie Blackmon, though. Inserts here were "Then and Now" and "New Age Performers".
I was very happy when I started finding Chromes of Ichiro, Ripken, Judge, Jeter, etc. I never buy these, but Chromes aren't cheap, right? Aren't they like 50 cents-per-card coming out of the packs?
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Got a decent stack of these, and was really happy to get 3 Medallion cards of HOFers! I haven't bought a lot of new cards, so all of these will supplement my trade-list on TCDB.com.
2021 - Topps Heritage - 210 cards, 9 inserts
Another sizable new stack! I feel like the guy I bought from has pulled out most of the rookies from this set, but left everything else. Nice to see Tatis, Vlad Jr, Soto, etc. Jimenez is chrome/999, and Kepler is red.
2021 Topps Gypsy Queen - 43 cards, 4 inserts
Another Tatis. An Ohtani. A Tarot Verlander. Looking good here!
2021 (2022 release date) Topps Big League - 57 cards, 19 inserts
I got very excited when I saw these. Didn't they come out, like, LAST WEEK?? I was thinking I would go buy a $20 Target blaster to get a taste for them, but now I don't have to. Maybe he was mistakenly Wander hunting? This is about 75% of a full blaster, including the blue blaster parallels. Two of the oranges were Royals, so Mondesi and Benintendi will go right into my PC, and there were 3-4 Royals base, too.
2021 Donruss Optic - 10 cards, 1 insert
Small stack here, but includes a nice Yaz insert that will probably go to a collector kid at church who told me that Yaz is his current favorite player.
2021 Donruss - 59 cards, 3 inserts
These were picked over in terms of pulling out the obvious inserts, but still had an Ohtani base (and a good-looking Salvy for me). Don't think he noticed the variations on the names/cities. Got a KESTDADDY, WINDY CITY, and THE 6 variation.
2021 Diamond Kings - 4 cards, 2 inserts
Here's all of them. Didn't know Sammy Sosa was still getting hobby love, but here he is. It's a nice-looking card, IMHO.
2021 Absolute Retail - 93 cards, 34 inserts
2021 Absolute Retail GREEN - 25 cards, 18 inserts
The final set in the box. Forgot to take a picture of the whole stack, so just pulled a few inserts/parallels for this picture. Quite a sizable stack. There are LOTS of inserts in this set, so those are fun to get. A mix of current and OLD timers (saw a Frank Chance in there).
Bieber is Red Retail/99. I'm not sure why there are so many GREEN parallels of both the base and the inserts, but there are a lot. They look neat, so I'm OK with that.
2022 Topps Series 1 - 469 cards
Definitely some Wander and insert hunting going on here. Giant stack of base cards only in here - all for trade if you need something for your set-build.
FINAL TALLY
1,785 Base Cards
111 Inserts/Parallels
1,896 Total Cards
1,896??? That's less than the 2,000 he advertised! FRAUD. I think I'll ask my credit card company to do a chargeback. :-) JK - in the world of cash bulk buys all sales are final -- caveat emptor! I'm actually very happy - I definitely consider this to be worth my money, and will have a lot of fun keeping some of these, and trading the rest away. If you read this far and see something you need - let me know!!
Question: What was the last bulk buy you made, and how did you find out about it?