Recently purchased three sets of 5 FRLG booster packs from different sellers on a certain popular auction site.
Wondering if buying packs when in comes to online auctions ?
Set numbers one and two duly arrived (sent from seller in USA) and I received an extra "free" booster pack of Keepers .... at this stage I was thinking wow what a nice seller. However when I looked at my FRLG booster packs there were two tiny needle point type holes in the back of each pack about on third of the way across the pack and the holes were about one inch apart. Gave the cards to the kids thinking nothing further of it. They pulled junky cards and enjoy the thrill (they are both younger than 7)
Set number three arrived two day later. This time there are three pokecoins thrown in for free. All of a sudden I begin thinking hmmmm why are these sellers throwing in stuff for free when they are gouging top dollar for the cards. Lo and behold I notice the same marks on the back so these packs. However this time rather than giving the cards to the kids I examined the pack more closely. It was pretty evident that these same needle type marks are not present on my DP/MP or previous type boosters so they cant be from distributor. Whilst the first set received on the previous day appeared to be regular packs (except for the two holes) the second set that came from UK looked like the centre strip had been carefully peeled open about half an inch, then the pack opened about half an inch across the top and subsequently everythng was folded back in place and carefully glued in place although in three of the packs the job was pretty poor.
See pics at links for rough idea on holes and amateur looking glue job at end of pack:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d50/lamfox/frlg1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d50/lamfox/FRLG2.jpg
Generally I would care less as they were purchased for the kids and to be fair although everything they received was junk they did enjoy opening the boosters to see what they got.
Is this a well known phenomonon to be chalked up to experience or is there a list anywhere here of ppl to avoid on certain auction sites ?
EDIT:
Almost forgot the point of the post (other than to warn others to be cautious) ...... can someone please tell me what those little pin ***** holes on the backs of the cards were for so in future I can just avoid any similar packs if I happen across them anywhere. I want to encourage the kids to save for their packs and to share in the enjoyment of collecting the sets together but really want to avoid being jacked around if poss.
Thanks in advance for the advise/comments
For the record: Out of 15 packs the kids did not receive a single Ex and with came across two Holos from the first 17 cards of the set (Marowak and Poliwrath). Seems pretty low to me
Wondering if buying packs when in comes to online auctions ?
Set numbers one and two duly arrived (sent from seller in USA) and I received an extra "free" booster pack of Keepers .... at this stage I was thinking wow what a nice seller. However when I looked at my FRLG booster packs there were two tiny needle point type holes in the back of each pack about on third of the way across the pack and the holes were about one inch apart. Gave the cards to the kids thinking nothing further of it. They pulled junky cards and enjoy the thrill (they are both younger than 7)
Set number three arrived two day later. This time there are three pokecoins thrown in for free. All of a sudden I begin thinking hmmmm why are these sellers throwing in stuff for free when they are gouging top dollar for the cards. Lo and behold I notice the same marks on the back so these packs. However this time rather than giving the cards to the kids I examined the pack more closely. It was pretty evident that these same needle type marks are not present on my DP/MP or previous type boosters so they cant be from distributor. Whilst the first set received on the previous day appeared to be regular packs (except for the two holes) the second set that came from UK looked like the centre strip had been carefully peeled open about half an inch, then the pack opened about half an inch across the top and subsequently everythng was folded back in place and carefully glued in place although in three of the packs the job was pretty poor.
See pics at links for rough idea on holes and amateur looking glue job at end of pack:
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d50/lamfox/frlg1.jpg
http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d50/lamfox/FRLG2.jpg
Generally I would care less as they were purchased for the kids and to be fair although everything they received was junk they did enjoy opening the boosters to see what they got.
Is this a well known phenomonon to be chalked up to experience or is there a list anywhere here of ppl to avoid on certain auction sites ?
EDIT:
Almost forgot the point of the post (other than to warn others to be cautious) ...... can someone please tell me what those little pin ***** holes on the backs of the cards were for so in future I can just avoid any similar packs if I happen across them anywhere. I want to encourage the kids to save for their packs and to share in the enjoyment of collecting the sets together but really want to avoid being jacked around if poss.
Thanks in advance for the advise/comments
For the record: Out of 15 packs the kids did not receive a single Ex and with came across two Holos from the first 17 cards of the set (Marowak and Poliwrath). Seems pretty low to me
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