General Forum

I went to a local Five Below store (it's a store similar to Dollar General where everything is $5 or less) where my daughter works to see if they had any cards.  Lo and behold in addition to some Topps and Bowman packs they have these Fairfield repackages that are a pretty decent deal.  For $5 you get 100 cards, 2 unopened packs, a rookiecard, a HOF card, and a miniature, and it's all in a nice acrylic case you can use to store your cards.  Each of the ones I've bought so far have contained packs of 2014 Topps Heritage, and each has had a high number (one of the SP's numbered 426-500) making the one card almost worth the purchase.  The reason for the post though is not only to mention the nice deal, but to mention I found something strange.  In one of the packages was a 1981 Topps team card of the Detroit Tigers, and when I flipped it over about 2/3rds of the checklist blocks were filled in with pen or pencil.  I thought these Fairfield repackages are supposed to be uncirculated cards, but I guess not.  I just want to warn folks the cards you get in the Fairfield repackages aren't necessarily 100% new, uncirculated cards.   

Fairfield buys on the secondary market and then packages them for re-sell. I like what they offer though. Especially the NASCAR 10 and 20 pack packages. Many people have pulled AU's from them. I don't usually get the assorted cards cases, even though they're pretty good for the money. I'd rather have packs.

I like the variety of cards.  In these repackages I've found cards from all sorts of different sets.  Yesterday I got a Michael Jordan minor league card when he was with the Birmingham Barons, a card for a player from the Womens league of the mid 40's (the A League of Their Own girls), a Carl Hubbell card from the early 90's Conlon set, etc.  I even got a Topps '81 Kent Tekulve card that's not only off-center, it's miscut.  It's significantly wider at the top than the bottom.  So much so it barely fits in a card sleeve.  I like oddball stuff like that.  

I recently bought one that had a card from the 1990 Donruss Learning Series.  I had never owned one of those.  You never know what you are going to get.  I love repackages!

I buy repacks from Dollar Tree, and not too long ago I got a card that was autographed by a minor league Athletic Trainer.  I think most repacks are low risk-low rewards, but sometimes you can get some good stuff.  I always wanted to check out a Five Below store, now I have a reason to do it if I ever am close to one.

Don't get me wrong, I like what Fairfield delivers. I usually find them at Target though. I've never seen a Five Below store around here and the Dollar Tree stores are few and far between. I've gotten quite a few random baseball cards that I had never heard of from those re-packs. I really like their Racing re-packs though. The $8 box with 4 unopened packs and 30+ loose cards ALWAYS seems to be a deal. I have pulled so many $20+ cards from those that it's almost unbelievable. Most of them weren't from the unopened packs either.

If you buy one of their re-packs and you aren't happy, go against your instincts and buy 2 more! You will be happy in the end. If not, you should just stick to buying hobby boxes. ;)

I might have to give them a try.  I was at Target the other day picking up some Series 2 Baseball value packs (which proved to have relics inside) and noticed some boxes with a bunch of mixed packs inside and was not sure what they were and if they were worthwhile.  I might have to look at prices next time.

 

I get them from Target everyonce in a while. I like them especially the ones that have actual packs in them, not just the random 100, or 200 count, but the ones with bonus packs, or better yet the ones with 20 packs. Those usually have 4 or 5 brands per box.

I've got some cool stuff from the wrestling boxes with 12 packs for $10 or whatever. Helped me fill in the years I wasn't collecting. I remember those acrylic cubes full of singles in the late 80s or early 90s. My uncle would always buy one because he was trying to finish the Boardwalk And Baseball set, and those cubes always had one card, which he couldn't see. Not sure if he ever finished that set.

 I commented on this a few weeks back .  I questioned where they got their cards from as one, I believe it was a 1988 topps was autographed and should not have been.