Let me tell you a little story. I bought 2 "Factory Sealed" UK case of HP POAU cards, at a bargain price. (Ah, yes, the proverbial bargain price.) As luck (?) would have it neither of the cases had case topper cards. .......Ummmm,I wonder why? (Indeed) I wrote the seller and he informed me that he had bought them form a dealer in the UK who was in need of some $$$; he said he got them for a "bargain price" and was happy to pass on the savings. To make a long story short, my seller did send me two case topper cards. All is well that ends well. ....Ummmm, or is it.
I opened the cases and begain to break down the boxes. The box breakdown was pathetic. In the two cases I got 3 autograph cards and very few other premium cards. Now, we have all broken down boxes from cases and we know that 3 autos in two cases is terrible.
One could leap to some dark conclusions here.
Let me paint you mine. (Hindsight is always 20-20, right?)
Let's say for discusions sake that, in this case, UK dealer X
(Not to single out any particular country, it could have just as well have been USA dealer Z.
), buys 100 cases of POAU cards. He opens the cases and after a few he determines that there seems to be a certain, more or less, predictable pattern in the way cards appear in the box layout in the case.
Of course, all of the case toppers are carefully set aside. After a few dozen cases he has set aside the boxes he feels less likely to contain autographs, props, filmcards and costumes. To be sure, the pattrern is not totally perdictable. Anyway the dealer puts 50 or 60 boxes back into cases and reseals them without putting in a case topper. Ooops
He calls his distributor and says....oh for example :'( :'( , "Hello, Dick, say, I've bought a few more cases of POAU than I needed. Do you suppose we might work out a refund or credit on my next purchase...." Well, the deal is made.
And before you can say, "Bob's your uncle." , here I am spinning dark sceanarios....Just call me older and wiser.
The question arises, who is at fault? Answer, Me...."stupid is as stupid does". those who do not profit from history are doomed to repeat it. I never buy re-imported cases of cards (from anywhere).
