Resealed junk wax packs? What were they thinking?
digicat
Posts: 8,551 ✭✭
Sometimes, I've gotta wonder what people were thinking.
A while back, I bought 3 boxes of 1986 Topps (I wonder what I was thinking... ) and opened them up, and started finding the tell-tale signs of resealed packs, namely, wax stained cards in the middle of the pack, or SEVERAL wax stained cards per pack. Considering that I had won the boxes on Ebay for a total of $15 (including shipping), I figured that I wasn't going to bother with a refund, and just sent the guy who sold them to me an email letting him know of the tainted merchandise. I couldn't really figure out what the searchers they were looking for. All 3 boxes yielded a very nice assortment of stars in great condition, including 6 Clemens and 5 Ryan cards. The only star cards that I couldn't find in those boxes were Cal Ripken and Steve Carlton.
It reminded me of another time... in 1990, I was at a kid’s house trading cards, and his dad walks in and starts pulling wax boxes of 1990 Donruss out of a cabinet, trying to get me to trade off a 1990 Leaf and two 1989 Upper Deck Jose Canseco cards. He ended up slapping down 4 wax boxes (yes, 4 wax boxes for three Canseco cards, it was a different era back then). I'd have settled for 1 box, but I knew how to drive a hard bargain. :-) Well, I got the boxes home and, yup, they had been searched. Wax stained cards in the middle of packs, wrappers falling off, the obvious pattern of the underside of an iron on a few packs. However, the only card they seemed to be looking for was Griffey's (and this was his 2nd year). They left in all the popular rookies of that year (Gonzalez errors, Zele, McDonnald, Vaughn, Belle, Anthony, Olerud, etc). I stuck most of those in my trade binder and traded them off to get pretty much anything I wanted. I had more of the 1990 stuff than anyone else in school. Back then, if you had the current year issue right when it came out, you had gold, since kids are impatient and want the latest/greatest stuff now. Amazing to think today that at one time, 1990 Donruss was a hot item! Well, back in 1998, I went back and looked at the cards again and pulled a bunch of Sosas. Since no one collected Sosa back in the early years of the 90s, I didn’t notice that I had any.
Moral of the stories? I dunno. Why would anyone waste time resealing junk? I thought this was a fun story, and figured I’d share. :-)
A while back, I bought 3 boxes of 1986 Topps (I wonder what I was thinking... ) and opened them up, and started finding the tell-tale signs of resealed packs, namely, wax stained cards in the middle of the pack, or SEVERAL wax stained cards per pack. Considering that I had won the boxes on Ebay for a total of $15 (including shipping), I figured that I wasn't going to bother with a refund, and just sent the guy who sold them to me an email letting him know of the tainted merchandise. I couldn't really figure out what the searchers they were looking for. All 3 boxes yielded a very nice assortment of stars in great condition, including 6 Clemens and 5 Ryan cards. The only star cards that I couldn't find in those boxes were Cal Ripken and Steve Carlton.
It reminded me of another time... in 1990, I was at a kid’s house trading cards, and his dad walks in and starts pulling wax boxes of 1990 Donruss out of a cabinet, trying to get me to trade off a 1990 Leaf and two 1989 Upper Deck Jose Canseco cards. He ended up slapping down 4 wax boxes (yes, 4 wax boxes for three Canseco cards, it was a different era back then). I'd have settled for 1 box, but I knew how to drive a hard bargain. :-) Well, I got the boxes home and, yup, they had been searched. Wax stained cards in the middle of packs, wrappers falling off, the obvious pattern of the underside of an iron on a few packs. However, the only card they seemed to be looking for was Griffey's (and this was his 2nd year). They left in all the popular rookies of that year (Gonzalez errors, Zele, McDonnald, Vaughn, Belle, Anthony, Olerud, etc). I stuck most of those in my trade binder and traded them off to get pretty much anything I wanted. I had more of the 1990 stuff than anyone else in school. Back then, if you had the current year issue right when it came out, you had gold, since kids are impatient and want the latest/greatest stuff now. Amazing to think today that at one time, 1990 Donruss was a hot item! Well, back in 1998, I went back and looked at the cards again and pulled a bunch of Sosas. Since no one collected Sosa back in the early years of the 90s, I didn’t notice that I had any.
Moral of the stories? I dunno. Why would anyone waste time resealing junk? I thought this was a fun story, and figured I’d share. :-)
0
Comments
cool story, but..
1988 Donruss ruled.. i had a couple wax boxes of it before anybody else i knew..
WAR GREG JEFFRIES! and Mark Grace!
61 Topps (100%) 7.96
62 Parkhurst (100%) 8.70
63 Topps (100%) 7.96
63 York WB's (50%) 8.52
68 Topps (39%) 8.54
69 Topps (3%) 9.00
69 OPC (83%) 8.21
71 Topps (100%) 9.21 #1 A.T.F.
72 Topps (100%) 9.39
73 Topps (13%) 9.35
74 OPC WHA (95%) 8.57
75 Topps (50%) 9.23
77 OPC WHA (86%) 8.62 #1 A.T.F.
88 Topps (5%) 10.00
Good story. Orlando should higher you to write in the SMR.
That stuff can still be fun to open - it's cheap and the cards are cool.
Just be careful who you buy from. Here, the concensus for more modern would be BBCExchange - they're web is down but when it opens, you an contact them here.
And altho, not having much modern, BBCKid is good - his web is also down with no link.
Junk wax is always entertaining IMO!
mike
Hey Mike, do you remember when 86 Fleer Basketball was junk wax?
I can remember the local card shop having cases of it lined up on the floor. The owner used to trip over them then kick them and curse the crap he got stuck with. I believe Star basketball was hot at the time. Who knew!?
61 Topps (100%) 7.96
62 Parkhurst (100%) 8.70
63 Topps (100%) 7.96
63 York WB's (50%) 8.52
68 Topps (39%) 8.54
69 Topps (3%) 9.00
69 OPC (83%) 8.21
71 Topps (100%) 9.21 #1 A.T.F.
72 Topps (100%) 9.39
73 Topps (13%) 9.35
74 OPC WHA (95%) 8.57
75 Topps (50%) 9.23
77 OPC WHA (86%) 8.62 #1 A.T.F.
88 Topps (5%) 10.00
<< <i><< Junk wax is always entertaining IMO! >>
Hey Mike, do you remember when 86 Fleer Basketball was junk wax?
I can remember the local card shop having cases of it lined up on the floor. The owner used to trip over them then kick them and curse the crap he got stuck with. I believe Star basketball was hot at the time. Who knew!?
Yes, as a matter of fact.
I was stationed in St. Louis, downtown and there was a candy distributor that had a mess of them in the back - he had them X'ed out for some reason and was blowing them out. My neighbor picked up a few boxes - I didn't collect basketball at all back then.
I have a good trade story but it's too embarassing at this point.
mike