Saturday, May 7, 2022

Bulk Buy - $30 - Not Too Shabby

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".   



2020 Topps - 9 cards from S1, 40 from Update, and 67 from Update Chrome

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?  


2021 Topps - 109 cards, 7 inserts

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?