Even if you are not consumed by unopened packs the way I am, this mystery is still intriguing.
Define an unopened pack to be a combination of a series and a wrapper. So for example, one unopened pack is the 9th series pack with the 85-fold green ID Bracelet wrapper.
The blue packs are the first packs to present mysteries, because there are 4 possible packs for each series using the blue wrapper, the 21 or 85 fold, and the presence or lack of the wall poster ad. Not every one of these possible packs exists.
Here is how the 4 blue wrappers occur for each series from 5 through 8:
The 21-fold wrapper with no ad was used for series 5 and 6. I don't believe it was used after that (although there are many GAI graded packs with this wrapper that are misidentified as 7ths though they are really 6ths).
The 21-fold wrapper with the wall poster ad was used for series 6 and 7, and no other series.
The 85-fold wrapper with no ad was used for series 5, 6 and 7.
Here's the interesting part: the 85-fold wrapper with the wall poster ad was used for series 5,6 and 8 (the only blue wrapper used for the 8th series) for sure. Looking at the above, it seems logical that it would have also been used for the 7th series.
Yet, notwithstanding a scan on Greg's page that may or may not be a legitimate pack, I have never seen such a pack after looking for over 5 years.
The wildcard in all this is the 7th gumless packs, which are also 85-fold. I believe the 85-fold and 21-fold packs were produced at different facilities, using different machines. Is it possible that the production of the gumless packs somehow replaced the similar packs with the wall poster ad? That might also explain why there were leftover wrappers of this type to use for 8th series packs.
The sad part is we will probably never know. I sure would love to know whether or not the 85-fold 7th series pack with wall poster ad really exists.
