Yesterday's scorcher becomes today's box-filler (for a reason)

Times have changed a ton when it comes to collecting -- even in the last 10 years -- but a new mailday that just arrived included something I hadn't seen before in years of collecting

Sealed packs -- specifically some old mis-wraps of an old premium brand -- as box filler instead of packing peanuts.

Now, that might be common here and there in small instances -- especially for some especially unworthy-of-opening years like 1991 Fleer -- but this time? Well, it was just a little different.

I got mis-wraps -- packs where the number of cards might be way off like the bottom pack above that probably has four or five cards in it instead of 12, or packs where they are so obviously botched the brand logos can't be seen. (There's also a chance that some packs might have extra cards, too.)

Again, not that big of a deal -- these things happened and botched packs from early in packaging runs used to be sold off in bulk by card companies -- but this time around my pack-filler haul was 1991 Topps Stadium Club Series 1. Specifically, 56 packs -- 56! -- of that year's packs that filled the gaps in the box that weren't filled by some cheap three-decade old factory sets that on their own cost me 14 cents apiece. A 56-pack haul is more than a box from that year, though I'm sure the card volume isn't there as there are a lot of skinny packs in there.

The cost per card for my sets? Far, far below a half-penny apiece. More like 10 for a penny ... well, except for shipping. Maybe my Stadium Club packs will make up for that? (Not likely, but I'm all about getting a few cards in that set slabbed ... the tuxedos, Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas, specifically. All big cards back in the day.)

Why would Stadium Club potentially be used as filler packs? Well, in some instances, it's a brand that, back in that year, there were issues due to the gloss. Serious issues. You can open plenty of boxes with no problems and then some will have issues where the card gloss caused every card to stick together. You'll get either paper damage on every card or snow. Those ultimately will hit the garbage can and are probably why they turned into packing peanuts here.

The first pack I opened, though? Zero issues. Not a single card stuck together ... and I even pulled a Hall of Famer.

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