Four Packs of 2013 Upper Deck Football

I made my first visit to the closest LCS to me.  I had been meaning to go there for a long time but I never really felt the need to since I could buy my cards online and have them shipped to me.  But one day I found myself in the area so I popped into the LCS to have a gander. 

The LCS was a nice little shop, stuffed to the brim with cards.  You would think that the place was a mess because it was so full of stuff but it was actually very well organized and neat. 

I wanted to pick up some 2014 NFL products but the shop was all sold out of its stock of 2014 Upper Deck Football.  I was disappointed.  That's all I really wanted to buy.  It felt wrong to leave the store without buying something since it was my first time to this LCS so I bought four 2013 Upper Deck Football packs.  They were $5.50 each.  That seemed a little expensive to me but having not done any research to compare prices I didn't know any better.  I wish I could say that I got something good out of those four packs but I really didn't.

Star Rookies
Brandon Ford
DeVonte Holloman
D.J. Swearinger
Justin Hunter
Le'Veon Bell
Logan Ryan
Margus Hunt
Terrance Williams

Premiere Prospects
Denard Robinson

Oh, and I got four really nice decoy cards too.  I was hoping for a hit, but I knew that I might not get one.  2013 Upper Deck Football has three hits per box and 20 packs per box.  Whenever you're picking packs from an already-opened hobby box, you're always running the risk of picking packs which don't have a hit in them.  It's very possible that these packs are the leftovers from a hobby box which already had its hits bought by another customer.  I knew this, but what can I say?  I have self-control issues.  I knew I shouldn't have bought any packs. 

At least the base card photography is nice.

And just to demonstrate how it's not worth it to buy loose packs from a hobby box, let's do some more mathematics. 

Right now on Steel City Collectibles, a hobby box of 2013 Upper Deck Football costs $79.95.  We'll just call it $80 even.  If you bought yourself a hobby box, after tax, the total would likely be around $85 to $87 depending on the tax.  Using the $87 box price, that comes out to $4.35 per pack.  Basically, by buying individual packs of cards I ended up paying $1.15 more per pack of cards than had I just bought myself a hobby box. 

What really punches me in the gut even more right now though, is that the price of $79.95 for a box of 2013 Upper Deck Football is its MSRP price.  Boxes for this product can be found and bought for as little as $40 to $50.  Even at the price of $50, that's a per-pack price of $2.50 and a lot less than $5.50 per pack. 

Moral of the story: Buying by the whole hobby box is much more efficient than buying by the pack.