Allen loved collecting baseball cards as a kid. Every Saturday morning, he would ride his bike to the corner store and spend his allowance on packs of cards. His goal was to collect as many different players as possible to build up his collection.

This particular Saturday, Allen had $10 to spend, which was his usual budget. As he walked through the store, he eyed the candy and snacks but stayed focused on the baseball cards. He knew if he spent any of his money elsewhere, he wouldn’t be able to buy as many packs.

When he got to the card aisle, he scanned the shelves looking for the best deals. Some packs were more expensive than others depending on the brand and year. Allen wanted to stretch his dollars as far as possible so he could increase his chances of getting new players.

That’s when he noticed the store had packs of cards from the previous season on sale for only 50 cents each. Normally they were a dollar, so this was a great deal. Doing some quick math in his head, Allen realized with his $10 he could buy 20 packs instead of his usual 10. His eyes lit up thinking about all the potential new players he could add to his collection.

Allen grabbed 20 packs and brought them to the counter. The clerk rung them up and Allen paid with the ten wrinkled dollar bills he had saved. He thanked the clerk and stuffed the packs in his pocket, eager to get home and start opening them.

As soon as Allen got home, he dumped the packs out on his bedroom floor and got to work. His excitement grew with each rip of the plastic wrapping. The first few packs held mostly common players he already had multiples of. But on the fifth pack, he found a star rookie card he had been hoping to add to his collection.

Allen carefully slipped the shiny new card into a protective sleeve to store in his binder. Finding one hit in the first few packs was a great sign. He kept tearing into packs, sorting the new cards from the duplicates as he went. Slowly, his pile of new additions was growing while the duplicates started to tower up.

By the 15th pack, Allen had found 3 more star players to add to his binder. He was thrilled about the progress. At this rate, it seemed like buying the larger quantity of discounted packs was really paying off. All the quick math he did at the store was proving correct.

As Allen approached the last few packs, his luck seemed to run out. The final 5 packs were all mostly filled with common duplicates. But he wasn’t too disappointed, as the first 3/4 of the packs had provided some valuable additions to his collection. In total, he ended up with 12 new cards out of the 20 packs.

Allen was satisfied with the results of his shopping trip. Thanks to the sale, he was able to get more than double the number of packs he normally could with the same $10. And while the end packs weren’t as fruitful, the bulk of them added significantly to his collection. He decided the discounted bulk pack strategy was definitely worth using again if he saw similar deals in the future.

After organizing his new cards in protective sleeves and adding them to his binder in alphabetical order, Allen sat back admiring his growing collection. His love for the hobby was as strong as ever, and days like this where he found great deals and added new players just fueled that passion more. Allen couldn’t wait for next Saturday to see what other baseball card treasures he might uncover.