quick question on unopened...
begsu1013
Posts: 1,943 ✭✭
what's the consensus on better overall quality of cards: vending or wax?
monetary constraints aside, would you rather open a vending box or a wax box looking for 9's / 10's?
monetary constraints aside, would you rather open a vending box or a wax box looking for 9's / 10's?
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<< <i>what's the consensus on overall quality of cards: vending or wax?
monetary constraints aside, would you rather open a vending box or a wax box? >>
I don't have a lot of experience opening vending, but I prefer wax as I've had a better chance of pulling well centered cards.
Rack
Wax
Cello
Vending
With variations sprinkled in (I believe wax trays are well thought of).
Rack -- Looser packed than cellos, so better shot at sharp corners. No gum or wax stains. Only downside is that there is a chance somebody could search the rack by thumbing through rack or if somebody knows sequencing they can cherry pick the packs that may contain star cards. If you are familiar with proper sequencing (not necessarily what order cards come in) you can at least verify the legitimacy of a rack partially by looking at the 6 cards exposed and making sure that they all belong in each cell. This is an easy way to eliminate some racks from purchase.
Wax Trays -- Theoretically harder to reseal as there are a lot of parts. Resealers would probably just reseal a wax pack and be done with it rather than reseal wax packs and also get the additional materials to reseal an entire wax tray. Wax packs within trays are probably subject to less handling than a typical wax pack out of a box. Wax packs whether in trays or on their own tend to be packed less tightly than cellos so again less risk for corner damage. Downside is there are probably two ungradable cards per pack (the wax and gum cards).
Wax Packs -- See the explanation above within wax trays.
Cello Packs -- You typically lose two cards to the gum. Some cello packs are looser wrapped and some are tight. The tighter racks may tend to have higher risk for damaging the corners.
Vending Boxes -- Don't know if there is any scientific research behind it, but anecdotally, vending tends to be high risk due to centering issues. You could go through an entire box and be shut out because of poor centering. With quality control how it was in the past though, this could be the case with any form of unopened. Corners and edges do tend to be sharp from what I have seen come out of vending.
If you are ripping based on a value proposition, I believe an unsearched rack box/pack is far and away the best for a ripper. On a per card basis rack boxes tend to cost less than wax and cello boxes and this is before factoring in the two cards lost per pack in cello and wax packs. The potential quality of the cards are also better due to the looser wrapping. Then your next bet would be vending as the cost per card is so much less than wax, cello or rack. Cello and wax could be a wash. If you are buying a year with looser wrapped cellos I would say the value advantage goes to cellos as the corners should be ok and you are usually getting more cards per box at less cost than a wax (in the last couple years wax has far outpaced cello and rack boxes in price advances to the point where wax goes at a relative premium to cello boxes in lots of late 70's issues). If the cellos are tightly wrapped and you are hunting for high grade, then I would say wax beats cello, only because there is just a higher possibility of gradable cards with wax vs. cellos because of the corners.
Disclaimer: These are just my opinions.
Rack then has advantage of no gum and a lesser chance of corner damage due to looseness, making it the #1 choice for higher grade potential.
Vending has no gum, but depending in case placement and how overpacked, can get corner or other damage...and also tends to the most affordable on a per card basis.
Wax gives you pretty loose wrapping so corners tend to be OK...but you get a gum card and a wax card.
Cello tends to have tighter wrap jeopardizing corners, and while you avoid the wax, you get gum sandwiched between 2 cards.
If I was ripping I'd rate them as: Rack, Vending and Wax are tied (Vending more affordable, Wax more fun) with Cello last.
If for display, I go Wax Box by a landslide, followed by Wax Pack, followed by Cello Pack, then everything else.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
i only busted certain years and sports, and for the most part the boxes were either a spectacular success or monumental failure, with few results that might be classified as average.
'76 & '77 Topps Baseball, very nice overall, as well as '78 & '79 Topps Football. if i recall correctly, also some late 70s Topps Hockey didn't do too badly. some of the baseball boxes were loaded with gems. 2 of the '77 boxes came from a BBCE purchase, the first was a complete disaster, but the second was goldmine. go figure.
one horrible dud i remember was 1974 Topps Football, only one box was all it took and lesson learned. miscuts from hell.
most of this ripping experimentation was conducted between the years 2004 and 2009. over that same period and since, i've busted a variety of similar wax & cello products, and very few racks, none of which yielded the same profitable results as vending, however, no less fun and an opportunity to build or upgrade lots of raw sets.