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Just listed on eBay.

Vend Pack (vending box) #2 of 4. These do not appear to have been gone through or handled in any way (in agreement with the original owner).

From 1981-1985 Fleer made vending boxes. Each Fleer vending box had 500 cards, but each Fleer vending box was labeled with a number (either 1, 2, 3, or 4). The boxes were packed in such a way, so that if you were to take one box of each number and collate the cards, you were guaranteed to get three whole 660-card sets. Each 24 box vending case came with six of each number, meaning an entire case would produce 18 hand-collated sets.

The complete 1983 Fleer Baseball Card Set includes 660 standard sized cards. The 1983 Fleer cards are organized by the order the teams finished in 1982 and then alphabetically by player last name, just as they were in the two previous issues. The subsets for the 1983 Fleer set include special cards (629-646) and checklists (647-660). 

The key rookie cards in the 1983 Fleer Baseball Card Set include: #179 Wade Boggs, #360 Tony Gwynn, and #507 Ryne Sandberg. These may or may not be contained in this box.

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If all of the statements above are true about a vending box and its relationship with other boxes in the case, doesn't that imply that there are triplicate of 165 cards in this box + 5 extra cards (that come from those same 165)? 

So if someone knows what is in boxes #1, #2, and #3 they know what is in #4? Or am I reading that wrong?

You are reading that correctly. There would be extra cards beyond the completed sets. I haven't found a list of the contents of each box, however one would need at least one of each to make the three sets (plus leftovers).

As someone who worked for a card shop collating these sets, I know about these.

The boxes contained 500 cards. 4 x 500 = 2000

3 sets at 660 each = 1980

This means there were 20 extra cards in each run of boxes, or 5 per box. They were placed neatly behind the cards. to give you a bit of a visual:

extras -                                =
Set - ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

So the 5 cards that were tucked in the back, perpendicular to the other 495, were extras, not part of the sets.

They could be any cards.

And yes, the sequence in box 1, was the same in box 1s. then there was a sequence that ran in box 2 165 cards in. The remaining 335 cards in box 2 were in the same sequence as the first 335 (of 495) in box 1. So if Bob Dernier was the first card in Box 1, you went till you hit Bob Dernier in Box 2, to know you had the set. The same pattern held true throughout boxes 3 and 4.

Fact of the matter is, if this box is truly unsearched/untouched from the vending case, you have 75% of the set - randomly. And in great condition.

BTW, Fleer completely botched this process in 1982. This may not hold true for vending boxes/cases from 1982. We worked on several cases from that year and wound up having to collate the entire case at once, rather than set by set.

I was out of the country when these arrived and then just never quite got around to opening them.  For about 5 minutes I considered holding on to them for 5 more years and opening them up when they turned 40 years old, but I knew I wasn't fooling anyone.  35 years is a nice round number too.

I just have to say...wow.  Thanks Michael!  What a treat.

Glad you're enjoying them, Hawk! I could never decide whether to open them (other than lift the lid) or not, so I'm happy I found the right person for the job! ~ Mike

You got the Boggs, Sandberg, & Gwynn in that box? Wow. Jackpot!

No Ripken. Must have been searched 

Just kidding. I was overly optimistic and crossing my fingers for even 2 of those big 4 but was expecting only 1 and honestly wouldn't have been shocked if zero were in there*. 

Couldn't believe and very pleasantly surprised when they kept coming.  Should make for a much easier completion of the set with those ones already checked off.

Edit: * ...not implying Mike would have searched them!  Just someone else in the chain of custody over the past third of a century!

vrooomed wrote:

You got the Boggs, Sandberg, & Gwynn in that box? Wow. Jackpot!