For those of us who (like myself) were curious...
The OP opened the box a couple of weeks later. Inside were 144 unused and uncancelled blue Bee Caesar's branded playing cards, each sealed with a plain white sticker. AoS date code says they were manufactured in 1973. He then went back to the eBay seller who he had purchased the case from, asking about more cards. The seller was representing a retired Caesar's employee who also had about 30 red decks (from a case the retiree had himself opened and given decks out to friends) from the same time period. OP made a deal to purchase those as well, then sold several sets of the red/blue combinations back on his poker forum at $45 a pop.
All in all, quite a find and quite a story!