So I had to stop by my local Wal-Mart on the way home from work the other evening to pick up a few things...and of course my first stop is the section with the sports cards. Now there have not been any hockey cards at this Wal-Mart in many months (since September at least) so I was not optimistic that I would find anything...
But there in the top card pack holder (for a baseball product), I was delighted to find packs of UD Series One. As a bonus, they were not your standard 5 card retail packs either, but 8 card packs. I greedily snatched up 12 packs and continued on my way about the store to get the items I needed.
After checking out and heading out to the car, I sat in the front seat to see what treats awaited me in the packs...
RIP! Pack one was open...hum, only 7 cards in this pack...ok, no big deal, it happens...
I moved onto pack two...only 7 cards again...I found myself thinking this was odd, but I pressed on...
Pack three was the regular 8 cards...ok...on we go...
Packs four, five, and six all had only 7 cards in each...now I was starting to get annoyed. An inspection of the remaining packs revealed no obvious signs of tampering, but six packs with no hits and 5/6 with only 7 cards...something was starting to smell in the car, and I was certainly not coming from me...but just in case I checked anyway...
Now at this point I should have stopped and returned the unopened packs...but I didn't...I ripped on thinking that there was no way this trend would continue...
Pack seven was another with 8 base cards...eight, nine, ten, all 7 cards each...at this point I was pissed...I tore open the last two packs...eleven was 8 cards and twelve contained only 7...
Nothing...a big fat pile of nothing...I was LIVID!!! I had just pissed away $38 bucks of my hard earned cash on a pile of base cards (of which I am only missing six cards to complete the common 200 in the set to begin with). I felt like Brett Favre after having thrown that pass in the NFC Championship last year which ended the Vikings chances of making it to the Superbowl...angry at myself for being so stupid...the guilt of having bought the cards in the first place (given the wifey would have cut off my sac if she knew I had bought them, which I can typically overcome with a decent pull or two as justification for buying the packs...you know...the whole...I know that these packs set me back $50, but pulled an ultra cool jersey, and a RC which has got to be worth more than I spent on the packs...shoot, I could easily sell these cards and get my money back...UN-HUH...de-nile is not just a river in Egypt my friends...
I gathered up the packs, found the receipt and proceed back into the store to the returns desk...my anger was obvious, but I had to keep myself under control as pissing off the lady behind the counter would only spell doom for my chances of getting my money back...three people in line in front of my only added to my annoyance...
I arrived at the counter, presented the cashier with the 12 packs and began pleading my case...the words came easily, as I had rehearsed it in my head multiple times and once with the lady in front of me (who sensed that I was incensed about something) while waiting for my fellow consumers to complete their returns...serious collector, bought tons of these in the past and should have expected to receive at least 2 rcs, a few 20th anniversary cards, and a few other inserts...blah, blah, blah...to the cashiers credit, she let me blather on for a minute, even though I am positive she was as lost as a blind guy trying to catch firefly's on a warm summer night...whew...
I had plead my case...the ball was in her court...silence overtook the area for a few seconds (save for the usual noises found at the front of a busy Wal-Mart at the peak of the Christmas shopping season)...I waited...oh man this is taking way too long for her to process, I am going to lose my case and be stuck with these packs...as I opened my mouth to begin reasserting my case, she smiled, took the receipt, and told me she would take them back...
WHEW...I had won...I frankly never expected to get all of my money back on these...had the cashier been someone who was a collector or even knew the slightest bit about the hobby, I would have been screwed....
I thanked her, pocked my cash and proceed onto my next destination happy that I had narrowly escaped the retail-pack rip-off...
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