How Do Grading Companies Evaluate Unopened Packs?

 I've been struggling to find unopened packs at affordable prices.  I accumulated a bunch of extras but since I haven't had any luck trading, I've decided to try to sell some of the extra ones on ebay and maybe buy a few that I need. 

So far, so good.  I picked up one 1971 Football unopened pack.  Of course, that is one set that I will not likely ever complete since every pack with cost more than $20.  

I plan to keep the cards in the wrappers, even if the wrappers are not perfect.  

Does anyone know what criteria are used to grade a pack?  Do they look at the card at all or just the pack - color, borders, etc.?

What would make it worth it to grade a pack?  I cannot imagine that there would be a lot of interest in a common player in the pack, even if it graded as a 10.  

With higher grading prices the last few years, will any of these cards get graded other than the big $ ones?

Where are the Unopened Kellogg's Packs Hiding?

 

Like everyone else my age, when I dug through the box I grabbed the card and ripped it out of the package.  Somehow, not everyone did so.

Once COVID hit, lots more cards came to market.  Collections hidden in basements for years were sorted and sold.  This didn't seem to help me with Kellogg's cards.  I haven't made a dent in my unopened cards in a long time.

1975 Unopened packs?  I have only three of them.  

I am still working on 1971 and 1979 master sets, but I haven't put much effort into that lately.  

I am working on upgraded some cracked cards, since I tend to see the same cards that are more likely to be cracked.  

2025 National Updates From Friday

 I spent about five hours at the show on Friday.  I am sure I missed items, but here are some things that I did see. I bought three cards including a 1975 Kellogg's Johnny Bench.

Many of the tables had display cases of cards only, so it was easy to pass by those after a quick look.  It was disappointing how few tables had oddball and other cards.  

Sets - I saw a graded 1971 Kellogg's baseball set for sale, no factory sets of any kind and a few curled sets.  

Packs - I saw two of the 1970 six-card packs, one with Bench on top.  Both were expensive and badly curled.

One-card packs - I saw three of these at one table.  The guy said he had sold one earlier.

Individual cards were around, but only a few had bulk.  Most of the stacks I saw were at tables with the standard high prices, so I didn't look closely at them.

There are Still Kellogg's Cards That I Haven't Seen - Here is Something

 

This showed up today.  Kellogg's distributed this basketball set of five cards in Canada during the 1995-96 season.  I have four of the cards in their individual packs.  This is the first time I've seen a pack that contains all five cards.  

I am not surprised about the pack with the entire set since the hockey packs with Lemieux and Hull were also distributed individually and as a set.  

Still Trying to Complete Unopened Kellogg's Sets

 

I haven't had too much luck with getting unopened Kellogg's cards since COVID either.  The Kellogg's cards shot up in price and the packs even more so.  I am not really working on the 1970-71 sets since those are out of reach.  Maybe when I get the other ones done I will look into this.

Card collectors will probably respond that the expensive ones will just get more expensive if I wait.  I get that, but I am not concerned about that since I am close to having all of the 1970-71 cards that have been opened.  I am mostly just looking for 1971 variations and 1970 shorter prints / stars at this point.

I have lots of extra unopened to trade.  Here are the ones that I need.

1972 - Seaver, Rose

1973 - Ryan, Seaver

1974 - I need more than half of the set

1976 - Washington (I can trade Gullett) Carroll, Luzinski, Carew, Simmons

1977 Bostock, Cey, Fidrych, Lezcano, Koosman

Surprisingly, I have all of the 1975s.  Since those never show up, I bought them as a set.  I probably have only gotten three or four 1975s unopened ever before buying the set.  They just don't seem to exist.

I also have some extra unopened 1994 Clementes and a few different Japanese Kellogg's cards from 2025-10 that I'd be willing to trade for packs that I need.

Impossible dream collection - I was trying to get a 1970 unopened pack with each player showing on the top.  When packs were under $50 I was getting some of these.

Denny's 3-D Cards

 It looks like Denny's issued cards from 1991-1997.   I didn't do a lot of research, but TCDB.com showed that.  I have some cards from some of the sets, but I don't know where they are.

I picked up a set of the 1996 cards because they are 3-D cards.  I will need to check which other ones are 3-D.  

The cards fronts and backs don't match well in my opinion.  The fronts look amazing.  They seem quite advanced for 1996. The back remind me of all of the over-produced cards from the 1990s.  Pinnacle produced these cards in 1996 and 1997 and the backs are quite a disappointment after seeing the front.

I will check out the player selection from other years in the future.  The 1996 player selection is quite good.  The 28-card set includes -

Greg Maddux, Cal Ripken Jr., Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Ryne Sandberg, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Mark McGwire and more.  Eight of the top 13 home run hitters from 1995 are included, so the set doesn't have many pitchers.  Home run leaders not included were - Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Larry Walker, Jim Edmonds and Gary Gaetti. 

I am going to see what other years I might have.  If I like them I will try to get the sets.

These sets seem to be cheap, so they must be over-produced like other 1990s sets.

Still Collecting Kellogg's Cards - I've Not Been Getting Much Lately

I haven't learned too much new about Kellogg's cards in a long time.  To make things worse, I haven't purchased too much lately either since prices are high on the stuff that I want.

I am still struggling to finish my unopened sets from 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1977.   I did finish the 1979 set recently.  

I didn't get to the National this year.  I hope to have time to go next year since it is near my house.

I did pick up a few Roberto Clemente Leyendas cards from 1991.  I would be willing to trade them if I can get things from my wantlist.

I am not having much luck with the Japanese Kellogg's cards.  Is anyone finding these?

Has anyone seen more of the Benanti Collection, like the proof above, show up anywhere?

I would love to add more cereal boxes, but they are also a bit out of my price range.

It seems like the 1990s hockey set featuring Lemieux and Hull is easy to find.  I can still pick them up easily and affordably.