Stonefish said:
Did it look like it had been opened prior to you buying the pack of hooks?
Could have been a pack someone returned and got thrown back up on the peg.
SF
Oof, I have no recollection of where or when I bought it. Sometime in the last 4 months, I guess.
I don't see how a return would explain it. They are all the same hooks, just some barbless. If someone bought them and found the problem, they wouldn't have been back on the shelf. Unless you think someone bought a pack of barbed and a pack of barbless, put them in a cereal bowl together, then decided to return them and didn't bother sorting them...
I think more like a factory f-up, maybe changeover from one product to another on the same packaging line.