This guide was viewed well over 500 times and only TWELVE people voted that it was helpful to them?!?  If you find this guide helpful, just click on the "YES" button below!! This way I don't feel like I wasted my time trying to help you to avoid getting ripped off!!  Thank you!!

Another thing that bugs the heck out of me (in addition to the fake 1/1's) is when dishonest card "collectors" (and I use the term "collectors" very loosely) molest the single sports card packs at your local variety stores (Target, Wal-Mart, Super-K, etc...) trying to find the jersey, event used, or autographed card!!  Most of these punks are not even card collectors.  They are greedy scumbags that are trying to make a quick buck by selling the insert cards.  Every time that I go into one of the previously named stores, I always see a different person either bending the packs or opening each pack at the top to look inside of the pack.  Forget about telling the store personnel about these jerks!!  The stores could care less about this problem being that the packs are a "vendor item" and the store gets credit on the packs that they can't sell anyways.  I can't tell you how many times that I've gone into a store and saw a box that said "FIND TWO JERSEYS OR AUTOGRAPHS PER BOX".  I'll count the packs and almost 100% of the time, exactly TWO packs are missing out of the box!!  Hmmm... I wonder why?  Even though the card manufacturers are aware of this problem by putting "dummy" thick cards (or thick parallel cards) into the packs to try to fool these cherry-pickers, thumbers, feelers, etc... they're still able to tell the difference and leave the dummy packs behind!!  Sometimes I wish that I can drop a bowling ball onto their hands!!  Your best bet when buying cards at the retail stores is when the cards first arrive.  That is the only way that you'll ever stand a chance of getting a premium insert card!!  Your other option is buying a prepackaged card box.  (I've gotten some pretty decent cards at retail stores when purchasing a "prepackaged" box of card packs.)  Buying packs of cards at your local hobby shop is much better than buying single packs at the retail level.  But there is a risk there as well!!  If the card shop owner lets his customers "feel" each pack when choosing which pack to buy, then it's just as bad as buying packs at a regular store if you're the next one to buy packs out of that same box!!  There is only a few card stores that I know of that do not let any of their customers handle any of the packs before buying them!!  If you want a particular pack of cards, the employee will reach into the box and pull out about five or six packs.  They'll fan the packs out in their hands in front of you and you will then have the opportunity to pull the pack that you want out of their hands.  Now that's really being fair to everybody!!  I wish that all card stores did that!!  If you really want to guarantee youself of getting something decent out of a box of cards, I'd recommend buying a factory sealed box of cards!!  It is definately more expensive buying a whole box of cards versus single packs but at least that way, you don't have to worry about not getting any worthwhile insert cards!!