Anyway, the lot (129 cards) arrived in the mail the other day in a Japan Post Yupack mailer (like a cardboard envelope) and when I opened it up, out poured 129 1984 Calbee cards in stacks, each with a rubber band wrapped around it. No protection of any sort to, you know, try to keep the condition of a bunch of vintage cards I had just paid a fair bit of money for in presentable condition or anything like that.
This is not an unusual experience here. I've bought thousands of cards over the past decade on Yahoo Auctions, mostly vintage, but I could count on one hand the number of those which came packed in a rigid card holder. At best maybe 1/5 of the time they'll come in penny sleeves. But most of the time they come in some version of the above - loose and without much care being taken to protect them from damage (and sometimes with packing - like rubber bands - that itself might damage them).
I guess this doesn't happen too much in the US on Ebay since so many collectors are so insanely sensitive about condition there. I've read posts on various forums where people express outrage about being sent a card that came enclosed in a solid PSA holder that was "only" packed in a single bubble wrapped envelope and I just laugh out loud at that stuff.
While I do appreciate the dealers here who do go to some effort to protect the cards I buy from them, I also love the fact that I still get so many experiences like this - opening envelopes and having raw old cards wrapped in rubber bands fall into my hands. Its just so laid back that its hard not to like it.
Anyway, with this lot my 1984 Calbee set has made some progress, I'm actually a bit over half-way there to the 713 cards in it. This is a bit of an overstatement though as there are a couple of hundred expensive short printed cards in the set and I only have 6 of them, so I've basically just gotten the low hanging fruit so far (including this lot - 129 cards and only 1 of them was a short print).
Can't say I've ever received an eBay purchase where the seller used rubber bands around cards. Depending on the value of the cards... I'd either chuckle or cry.
ReplyDeleteIts pretty common here. In fact I bought a second 10 card lot from a different seller this week that arrived a couple days after the one in this post and it also came wrapped in rubber bands.
DeleteI can only imagine the outrage on Twitter if someone here received an eBay purchase like this. In a way, I can sort of get with this, especially if it's the normal way of doing things. It definitely harkens back to a time when condition wasn't the most important factor when collecting.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think the last time this would have been OK with American collectors would have been the 1970s!
ReplyDeleteI get all sorts of weird packing experiences from Japanese sellers so not surprised. Glad you made a dent in your set!
ReplyDeleteMe too! And thanks!
DeleteMy BBM 1st Version set this year was shipped as loose cards in a box. Not sure if that's worse than rubber bands or not.
ReplyDeleteThat is weird. Its one thing when its some random person selling some old cards they found lying around the house, its another when its a dealer selling this year's new set and shipping them like that!
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