Buying Boxes on eBay

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fly4apuckguy

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I live in the middle of nowhere. For me to buy a box of cards, I need to drive about 100 kms, and hope the guys are open. Yeah, I could check ahead of time, but I never do. Plus, I have four kids and a pretty demanding job (and wife :) ), so I rarely get out.

So I like sniping boxes of cards on eBay. Here's my most recent:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=300315833679

Pretty good deal, right? That's a cheap box of SP Game Used, if you ask me.

So I won the auction, but then I wonder...is this a foolish thing to do? Should I assume that this is the dud box from the case, and that the case hit has already been found? Or are there dealers out there that will actually sell them out of the case in the order they come out?

I don't want any more of a shot than anyone else, but I have never pulled a "case hit" type of card (20 or more boxes in from eBay), and I am wondering if it is bad luck, or do dealers generally get the case hit and then sell the rest of the case off?

What do you guys know about this? Am I too naive in thinking I have as good a shot as anyone of getting a decent box?
 
You always run the risk of buying dud boxes on eBay, especially if they are listed individually by sellers who rarely deal in boxes.

I buy from a wholesaler in Quebec, and have pulled some nice cards from their boxes:

http://shop.ebay.ca/merchant/quecandistribution_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZ

Definitely my number one choice when it comes to boxes in Canada, and can't say enough good things about their service (2-3 day shipping from Quebec to here in Nova Scotia)
 
Inferno said:
You always run the risk of buying dud boxes on eBay, especially if they are listed individually by sellers who rarely deal in boxes.

I buy from a wholesaler in Quebec, and have pulled some nice cards from their boxes:

http://shop.ebay.ca/merchant/quecandistribution_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZ

Definitely my number one choice when it comes to boxes in Canada, and can't say enough good things about their service (2-3 day shipping from Quebec to here in Nova Scotia)
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Thanks Kevin. I believe I have purchased from that dealer before, and they offer very competative pricing, so I will add them to my favourite seller's list.

I must admit, I like the thrill of the auction-style listings, and paying less than the BINs. But like they say, you probably get what you pay for, right?
 
That's a steal of a price if you ask me. I am not 100 percent sure but I think spgu boxes in my local shop run about $230 each. And to answer your other question I have bought about 8 or so boxes of spa and spgu on ebay and the best pull I had was a cherry auto. I just assume the case hit was pulled and the seller is just trying to recoup his losses on the other boxes. Then again you never really know. You should definitely do a live break once you receive the spgu box as now I am very curious what you will pull:beer:
 
fly4apuckguy said:
Thanks Kevin. I believe I have purchased from that dealer before, and they offer very competative pricing, so I will add them to my favourite seller's list.

I must admit, I like the thrill of the auction-style listings, and paying less than the BINs. But like they say, you probably get what you pay for, right?
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Their prices are fair in my opinion, especially for the quick service you get, and still less than you would pay at a hobby shop. If I had a hobby shop near me (closest is 3 hours away) I would support it, but in my position buying online is the only reasonable option. The folks at Quecan list their boxes by the case and once the case sells out they usually list another another case worth of boxes soon after. I have pulled some pretty nice cards from their boxes and will continue buying from them, they've never even given me the slightest reason to doubt their honesty when it comes to selling quality boxes.
 
I'll make a quick comment on the "case pull box."
If you are looking for the case pull, buy a case! easiest way of almost guaranteeing the case hit but we all know that emphasis is put on the almost.

If you are looking for very shortprinted cards, then you might be out of luck as I am sure there are dealers out there that do what you are saying...but with that in mind, there are some great cards out there and they can't get them all.

This year's SPGU is a great example of a hit or miss, more hit this year than the past few years. Until this year, my best rc's from SPGU were Malkin and Phaneuf. I have had some good luck with patches in 05-06 (Hasek, Spezza auto/patches & DiPietro patch), since then it has been a Sullivan patch and a few ok autos. This year, I hit the payload with a /99 rc, a nickname letter (/50), a dual patch (/25), and a J/P/P #/10 which I traded for another box which yielded a Roy Fight Strap /3. In total I pulled from 3 boxes 2 auto's and 12 rc's (Steve Mason most notable). I pulled (3)/100 parallels including 2 rc's. I did not manage to pull one gold jersey (/50) but I am very happy with what I pulled. I was only hoping to pull a single patch at best.

Good luck on your box. This year's SPGU is a nice set and has some great inserts. If you are a collector looking for that thrill of opening the packs, you have a great box to start with. Other boxes that you might want to pick up might be Artifacts Hobby. You can't beat a "short printed card" (/999 or less) or insert in all but maybe one pack.
 
That, is a fantastic price. Good luck with the Box!! My SPGU was a Rookie Hot Box this year, but then again so was my Trilogy and my Champs.....
 
Gerber29 said:
I bought my boxes at queenscollectibles or something like that. They always shipped fast and the boxes were good too.
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same i buy from that person too...

in my 07/08 spgu, 07/08 ultimate, 07/08 sp authetnic i got from that person i pulled

crosby auto in spgu, mueller /99 in ultimate and gagner auto patch in sp authentic.
 
FYI ... nolandennis is an HI member and pretty well known locally here (It's Ryan / NSCCanada for you local guys trying to figure out who it is.) He's generally a good guy and doesn't pick through his wax (case in point...someone hit a Tiger Woods auto out of his Champs wax) so your chances of hitting anything out of your SPGU Box would be about the same as buying a box from a store Travis...good luck when you receive it.
 
i'll vouch for Ryan , i have bought from him online and always look for him at the shows, i almost always get something good from his boxes and he is a good guy to deal with
Jeff
 
chadsexington said:
FYI ... nolandennis is an HI member and pretty well known locally here (It's Ryan / NSCCanada for you local guys trying to figure out who it is.) He's generally a good guy and doesn't pick through his wax (case in point...someone hit a Tiger Woods auto out of his Champs wax) so your chances of hitting anything out of your SPGU Box would be about the same as buying a box from a store Travis...good luck when you receive it.
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I am sure you are correct. I wasn't making any judgements about this seller or this box in particular, just a question in general about boxes on eBay, since that is where I buy most of my boxes from.

I am sure this seller is as reliable as they come. Thanks for the info.


crjeff said:
i'll vouch for Ryan , i have bought from him online and always look for him at the shows, i almost always get something good from his boxes and he is a good guy to deal with
Jeff
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Again, thanks for the information. Glad to see I bought from a good guy.
 
I've bought many loose boxes from seller's on E'bay and did get case hit's.

example that I can remember
1 box of 03-04 spx- fantasy franchise howe/gretz/lemieux /25
1 box of 05-06 rookie update holmstrom/??? dual patch /25 (I bought a case from BLOWOUTCARDS and did not pull a patch)
last month 2- box of SPA and pulled a frolik patch /100 die-cut Crosby too.

This goes to show you that there are good people on e-bay.
 
odjickfan said:
I bought my first box online this week, from there: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=370191243135

Didn't got it yet. There is no case hit in that product, so I don't worry much about boxes searching.
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Grossistesk is basically Quecan, but for some reason the Quecan prices tend to be a bit lower which is odd considering they are the same outfit. They also seem to ship from the same area. I bought from grossistesk for the first while until they created the new eBay store under Quecan and the prices were a bit better (and slightly different selection).
 
queenscollectibles and quecan are the same owner,I buy all my boxes and cases from Quecan, they are 5 minutes from my house, their selection is just unbelievable
 

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