Tuesday, December 22, 2009

a failed ebay experiment... or is it?

Quite often lately I've been reading about other bloggers exploits at Wally World, or Target. You know the story. They stop for food, diapers, socks, and decide to swing by the card aisle.
I cannot express to you how this infuriates me. Not at the bloggers. But at Wal Mart Canada. We have no card aisle. Some WalMarts will have a few cards by the checkstand, but it's 90% My Little Pony, 10% overpriced Hockey.
I've read how even some bloggers like A Cardboard Problem or A Priceless Pursuit, among others, even go there to buy high end stuff like Sweet Spot. I've never even seen a pack of Sweet Spot, let alone be able to get one when I buy deodorant.

So I decided to buy an ebay pack of Sweet Spot for myself. And before you cry out, no. I am not dumb enough to buy a pack of anything off of ebay.
Merely, I was going to spend the price of a Sweet Spot pack on Sweet Spot singles, and make up my own pack. My budget, $30.

Sounds like a decent enough plan, right? Going in I felt confident. But somewhere between there and here, I got derailed.

Here's what I ended up with.

A 1953 Topps Jim Pendleton #185 with a slight wrinkle on the top right corner.
1953 Topps Jim Wilson #208 with a wrinkle under his nose.
1953 Topps Jack Dittmer #212 no creases
1953 Topps Bill Bruton #214 with a wrinkle going throught the "M" logo
1953 Topps Gene Conley #215 with obvious scuffing, no creases.
1953 Topps Murray Wall #217 in beautiful shape.
Total price for all 6? $28.25 shipped.
My pack of Sweet Spot has no autos, no Game Used. Just base cards. Six of them. But at least they're all from my favourite team, right?
Does anyone else get distracted on ebay like I do and end up with a bunch of stuff you had no intentions on buying in the first place?

18 comments:

Matt Runyon said...

I'd take that pack over any "autograph," "game-used," or "relic" type of pack. For me regular vintage cards are where it's at. :)

Hackenbush said...

I'll bet you'll continue to be happier with this purchase than what you had planned.

deal said...

Best pack of Sweet Spot Ever.

This is pretty close to what I usually refer to as a Faux Blaster.

AdamE said...

This was the greatest Sweet Spot pack break I ever saw.

Collective Troll said...

DUDE!!! You did GREAT!!! Aside from the obvious problem that you ended up with a bunch of Braves cards-that is poor collation right there my friend... You did really well there. The only card out of there I own is the Gene Conley and mine is well loved as well. Those are really nice slabs of cardboard. Good Job! I still boycott ebay myself, but I also boycott 30 dollar packs of cards...

the sewingmachineguy said...

Ha! Thats a great story. I was looking for a certain Jeter auto from a certain 08 Goudey set. I ended up with a box of 98 Topps Finest.

NMCLax24 said...

Ebay tends to give me A.D.D. It becomes hard to focus on what you set out to buy when all of the icons for other "similar" items show up. Inevitably something else catches my eye

Joe S. said...

LOL!! That's too funny. Nice Sweet Spot pack, by the way!! I didn't see the odds of pulling cards from 1953 from a whole different company on any of the backs of my Sweet Spot packs... must be rare!

At least this way there was no chance of you being disappointed.

Anonymous said...

I think that was a better deal than anything you might have found from Sweet Spot.

I tend to have the same problem with staying focused on eBay, so I try to limit my visits to the site as much as possible. :)

Alfredo Ortega said...

LOL Sweet.... Really nice pick up cap...

night owl said...

I suppose you shop for your Christmas gifts in September, too?

Unknown said...

Nice pulls. And at least this way, you don't run the risk of getting ebay fakes.

dayf said...

Now that's a pack!

Play at the Plate said...

Absolutely brilliant. Nice "hot pack" too!

Doc said...

Awesome haul. Makes me think that collating a REAL vintage set is reasonably possible.

I can't wait to try my hand at 56 Topps, but that shall wait until we are a dual income household again.

cynicalbuddha said...

YOu know some of the greatest discoveries of mankind have come from "failed" experiments. And congrats on finally getting your Hanson redemption I got my RHR's a couple of days ago too!

Aaron said...

Anything Ripken, Markakis, or Roberts or a combo thereof, I've got the base card and the chromish card from the set as well, if you want me to add those in...I'll post a pic of that auto in my photobucket shortly.

Sooz said...

Well, good for you! I hope you're proud of yourself.

Merry Christmas