That is, I bought 12 boxes–or 384 hobby packs–of 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee Hockey.
Crazy, right?
I’ve never bought a case of cards before. But yesterday, the 22-pound behemoth you see above was delivered to my front door.
I had to rationalize this expense–as most collectors would. I did put in some OT at my job last month, so these cards are paid for. I waited and waited and found the best available online price from a retailer who offered an additional $25 off. Plus, no tax and no shipping costs.
But I also had to come up with numerous good reasons why I should buy a whole freakin’ case, and not just a few hobby boxes.
- I will get a complete base set (and then some)
- I will get 192 Short Prints–hopefully one of each of the 100 possible
- I will get 384 Retro Variants
- I will get roughly 128 Stickers–hopefully at least one copy of 1-100
- I will get 24 Pop Ups, which I’ll probably want to keep too
- I will get 4 patch cards, and can probably sell those and make back a good portion of my money
- I will get the 2 OPC Signatures cards. I do enjoy autographs.
- I will get the case hit Team Canada autograph. I would like to have that card too.
- I will get all of the box bottom cards, and have more left over to trade
- I will have 384 wrappers leftover that I could potentially trade to a Canadian collector for Upper Deck’s “Canada Only” OPC promotion
- I will have 96 Rainbow Parallels that I could potentially trade for the Retro Variants or Pop-Ups I still need.
Of course, I may not get a complete set out of the deal, might get shorted on an autograph and get the worst possible “hits” imaginable.
Then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Wish me luck.