[GoStros]

One other thing I just thought about is that the Internet didn't start becoming a place to go to for cards until the 1990s. By the 2000s it was one of the most common places to go to for cards. Thus finding one a particular Bowman autograph was just a simple eBay search away. Before that, people relied on card shops, shows, and mail order to get cards. I can only imagine how much value would've been placed on the cards back then, especially if they were limited and serial numbered. I could imagine that you might not even see a card for a year at a time. I remember when the Elite cards came out in Donruss, and how insane it was when a local shop or dealer got one in.

Back in 1992, when I had a shop, I pulled a 1992 Donruss Elite Cal Ripken Auto. It was limited to /5000. But back then you would have thought I won the lottery. I sold it about 3 weeks later for $500. That was the most I ever sold a single card for, and by far will be the most profit margin I will ever get. Oh how I miss those days.

[Hofcollector]

Back in 1992, when I had a shop, I pulled a 1992 Donruss Elite Cal Ripken Auto. It was limited to /5000. But back then you would have thought I won the lottery. I sold it about 3 weeks later for $500. That was the most I ever sold a single card for, and by far will be the most profit margin I will ever get. Oh how I miss those days.

Such a nice card.

[Nintari]

Back in 1992, when I had a shop, I pulled a 1992 Donruss Elite Cal Ripken Auto. It was limited to /5000. But back then you would have thought I won the lottery. I sold it about 3 weeks later for $500. That was the most I ever sold a single card for, and by far will be the most profit margin I will ever get. Oh how I miss those days.

Too many dealers were scamming us back then. I can't even count how many boxes of Donruss I bought or had given to me back then and NEVER pulled an Elite card. And I know damn well that I exceeded the odds lol. Box after box after box, like Veruca Salt's dad looking for a golden ticket... NOTHING.

Recently, after all those years later, and getting back into the hobby, I read online about dealers using metal detectors and I was like "FFFFUUUUU..." lol

I knew it haha

[GoStros]

WOW, if I had only known about metal detectors and cards. I do however remember pulling 1992 Fleer and Upper Deck inserts by holding the pack on the front side and back side firmly with your index finger and thumb. Then pushing hard with your thumb. If there was an insert the stack would move the direction you pused from the top to about midway down. Back then the regular cards had a very light gloss, whereas the inserts were high gloss. This made the inserts slippery with less friction.

[djohn]

Too many dealers were scamming us back then. I can't even count how many boxes of Donruss I bought or had given to me back then and NEVER pulled an Elite card. And I know damn well that I exceeded the odds lol. Box after box after box, like Veruca Salt's dad looking for a golden ticket... NOTHING.

Recently, after all those years later, and getting back into the hobby, I read online about dealers using metal detectors and I was like "FFFFUUUUU..." lol

I knew it haha

I never heard of people using metal detectors to search for the Elite cards, but it wouldn't surprise me. If I remember the odds correctly they were inserted 1 in 5 cases (i.e. greater than one in 100 boxes, or 1 in 3600 packs). I know people opened a lot of boxes and never hit one, but I also know some people that opened just a few packs and got lucky enough to find one.

[Nintari]

WOW, if I had only known about metal detectors and cards. I do however remember pulling 1992 Fleer and Upper Deck inserts by holding the pack on the front side and back side firmly with your index finger and thumb. Then pushing hard with your thumb. If there was an insert the stack would move the direction you pused from the top to about midway down. Back then the regular cards had a very light gloss, whereas the inserts were high gloss. This made the inserts slippery with less friction.

That's some clever wizardry there my friend lol. I remember doing something similar with 1992 Topps. Do you remember those little scratch off inserts? We figured out that you could put a flash light behind them and see which one had what one them. Can't tell you how many packs of gold parallels we won doing that lol.

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I never heard of people using metal detectors to search for the Elite cards, but it wouldn't surprise me. If I remember the odds correctly they were inserted 1 in 5 cases (i.e. greater than one in 100 boxes, or 1 in 3600 packs). I know people opened a lot of boxes and never hit one, but I also know some people that opened just a few packs and got lucky enough to find one.

Yeah, there's entire articles dedicated to it (metal detectors). When you think about it, it totally makes sense because 1991 Donruss cards were ALL standard cardboard. The only cards that had any metal on them were the elites so dealers would use metal detectors on every case they bought. If the machine picked something up, they'd check every box until they narrowed it down. Then, they'd open the box, pull the elite and sell it in store.

My dad at the time worked in a place where he got lots of boxes of 91 Donruss and I would get a few boxes every week. When you add that up on top of the boxes I'd buy for myself and or would get from birthdays/easters/christmases etc. I KNOW that I should have gotten at least one elite card.

Maybe I was just really unlucky but when I read about the metal detectors, everything made sense lol

[GoStros]

That's some clever wizardry there my friend lol. I remember doing something similar with 1992 Topps. Do you remember those little scratch off inserts? We figured out that you could put a flash light behind them and see which one had what one them. Can't tell you how many packs of gold parallels we won doing that lol.

---

Yeah, there's entire articles dedicated to it (metal detectors). When you think about it, it totally makes sense because 1991 Donruss cards were ALL standard cardboard. The only cards that had any metal on them were the elites so dealers would use metal detectors on every case they bought. If the machine picked something up, they'd check every box until they narrowed it down. Then, they'd open the box, pull the elite and sell it in store.

My dad at the time worked in a place where he got lots of boxes of 91 Donruss and I would get a few boxes every week. When you add that up on top of the boxes I'd buy for myself and or would get from birthdays/easters/christmases etc. I KNOW that I should have gotten at least one elite card.

Maybe I was just really unlucky but when I read about the metal detectors, everything made sense lol

+1000 those were the days