Hotpacks or boxes - please tell me your experiences

[Guest]

[Claystang]

I have heard of hot packs and boxes for all of the Harry Potter trading cards. Is this true that you could get all prop,costume, etc...in one box???Or 2 costumes in a pack.
I bought a box of Prisoner of Azkaban Update (1st box ever of Harry Potter) and received Film Cell, Auto and Costume. Then the next box I didn't get ANYTHING!! That truly sucked!! I will be buying 2 cases of GOF soon and just wondered if the myth of the hot box or pack is true.
I love this website by the way....Great job on it....

[EmmasOneandOnly]

Hotboxes do exist But only in the Prisoner of Azkaban sets which costume over a 100 dollars for a box now-a-days. Artbox has never done, or will ever do (from what I've gathered) Hotboxes again for a set. I've asked about SS, and GOF and they've say "no" to Hotboxes bother times so There are alot of auctions on Ebay for guaranteed boxes and packs but I cant tell you much about those because I don't trust them

[kbmum]

A hot pack contains some sort of memorabilia card (costume, prop, auto, filmcard).  When you see them for sale on eBay, it usually means that the seller "cherry picked" a box somewhere -- there are several ways to determine which packs have the special inserts.  Most collectors frown on cherry picking because it is unfair to unsuspecting buyers who pay full price for a random pack hoping to get an insert.

If there are packs with more than one insert, it's pretty much a mistake when the cards were inserted in the pack.  They definitely aren't the norm. 

A hot box (also called an archive box) has most or all of the special inserts inside the box.  Some companies mark the box so a distributor or dealer knows which ones are hot boxes.

Artbox had hot boxes only for the POA release, reportedly just 20.  They were not marked, although people who received them said that the boxes were bulging.  I sincerely doubt that there are any left at this point.  Artbox has not produced hot boxes since.

You did very well with your first POAU box, and like many others, you also had a dud box (no costumes, props, autos, or filmcards).  Artbox has done a much better job with collation for subsequent releases.  There weren't many reports of dud boxes for SS or GOF.

[Claystang]

Thanks for all of the information.  kbmum what you said about the dealers having marked boxes brings me to my next question. Do some dealers already know what's in there unopened cases? Probably a hard one to answer, I'm sure it's not broadcasted by the dealers. I guess they deserve something if they buy so many cases but, it sucks for the little guy.
I would love to go to Artbox and watch how all the cards get packaged. They definetly have to know which box numbers hold the triple auto of Harry, Hermione, and Ron..

[kbmum]

I don't think there's any way to know what's inside a sealed case, or only dealers would pull the rare cards.  The case incentives are the dealers' incentives to buy more cases.  For instance, GOFU has four levels of incentives for the cards: 2-case, 5-case, 10-case, and 25-case.  There are also case incentives for the binders.

I could be wrong, but Artbox doesn't know which boxes have the rare cards.  They would know which packs have an auto or a costume or a prop or a filmcard.  That's the only way they can state odds for pulling each type of card.  But once the cards are sealed in the packs, I don't think they know what specific card is inside.

[rns91294]

I actually did get a pack in my PoA box that had Hermione's robe and George Weasley's auto in the same pack.  It was rather excitng, but very rare. Like kbmum said, it is more of an insertion error, but still exciting to open

[number_one]

I got 3 autos in the same pack. It was in a H.P. Poau box. The 3 autos was Crabbe, Filch and the triple auograph!!