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Ripping Wax/Cellophane
ugaskidawg
Posts: 882 ✭✭✭
What is the oldest wax or cellophane you remember opening that was current for the time? I've ripped a ton of 70s stuff, but I never did it in the 70s. I was born in 79.
The earliest I remember ripping was 1984 Topps. My parents bought a box of it and would give me a pack or two as part of my allowance. I still remember the smell of the gum and the box. As I got a little older, I went back and started ripping early 80s stuff. It wasn't until these last few years that I started ripping 70s material.
What about you?
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1980 Topps Football with my Dad all the time. We lived in San Diego in 1980-1981, and we both only cared about getting Chargers cards, with no care to centering, corners, etc. We just wanted one of every Charger...it was a care free time as a collector
TheClockworkAngelCollection
First opened a pack in 1982, Topps baseball. All I hoped for out of it at the time was Alan Trammell; no Tram but got a Jorge Bell that I still have to this day, and of course he is the guy who somehow was gifted the 1987 A.L. MVP award that Trammell should have won.
1980 Topps Empire Strikes Back, for sports 1985 Topps BB.
1975 was my first baseball card wax pack opened.
1977 was my first football rack pack opened.
1979 was my first wacky packs wax opened.
Never opened hockey or basketball as a kid....or even remember seeing those.
1972 pack was my first rip.
1988 Topps Baseball.
1974 Topps Baseball
1970 topps baseball.
1989 Topps Baseball
1955 Topps. I was 8.
For football it was 1971.
I do remember as a kid I had the 72 staubach rookie which I got from opening packs,
but at the time I didnt even know it was his rookie card. Probably would have ended
up grading psa 1 as I always put rubber bands around my cards, and counted and recounted
them numerous times.LOL.
I can remember as vividly as if it was yesterday opening a 1965 Baseball Wax and seeing Willie Mays looking back at me! I can also remember "pitching" all the cards I purchased from "Mac's Market" against a wall trying to knock down some dog eared common to win a stack of other dog eared cards. If I only knew. Curiously, I have no recollection of any other years...
I did bust open a GAI 1967 and it was obviously (to me) "re-assembled." Now I open about five packs a year with my 13 year old son ... (before you do the math - I'm 58 years old)
sjjs28@comcast.net
Collector of 1964 Topps Stand Ups, 1965 Embossed, 1968 Topps Game and 1969 Topps Decals
Registered Sets: 1964 Stand Ups, 1965 Embossed, 1968 Topps Game, 1969 Topps Decals
Forgot one .... My parents bought me a 1st series 1972 wax box to open during a sleep-over with my friends. I have no Idea where those cards got to ...
sjjs28@comcast.net
Collector of 1964 Topps Stand Ups, 1965 Embossed, 1968 Topps Game and 1969 Topps Decals
Registered Sets: 1964 Stand Ups, 1965 Embossed, 1968 Topps Game, 1969 Topps Decals
Started buying bb wax packs months before starting kindergarten. Would walk up to a nearby gas station in south suburbs of Chicago with the older guys (7 & 8) with a whole dollar. Packs were 10 cents, but with tax you could only get 9 packs and a couple pieces of candy. We figured out if we bought 5 packs first, the tax was negligible and we could go back in and buy 5 more. We'd walk home and open on someone's front porch looking only for Cubs. Wonder how many Mays' , Clemente's and Aaron's i traded for Kessinger, Beckert or Hundley. Miss those days of collecting for fun without regard for price guides, penny sleeves and top holders.
For me, the memory of the mid/late 70's "mall experience" was going to the toy store at the local two story town mall and making a beeline for the rack of rack packs. I have great memories of taking my allowance and buying the more expensive packs because I could pick the ones with Red Sox on the top. They were always ripped in the car on the way home or standing outside the store.
For my birthday in 1978, my Mom sent a check for $10+tax to Renata Galasso to buy my birthday present = 1000 1978 Topps Cards. When she gave it to me, I opened it to find a full box of 78 Topps racks. I was 11 and made short work of opening all of them.
Good times!
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I remember also receiving two vending boxes from renatta from 1977.
1977 Topps Star Wars
1978 Topps Mork and Mindy
1978 Topps Battlestar Galactica
We would get a pack of one of the above for being "good" in the store till we got to the checkout. It worked (mostly).
1980 Topps Football
We got the above in grocery racks from my mothers boss. She was a waitress at the time and when the restaurant was busy, my brother and I would help bus tables or wash potatos and cut them for french fries. The owner appreciated this and would give us football rack packs from time to time (along with a couple quarters for the pinball machine).
1986 Topps Baseball
1986 Donruss Baseball
A group of us used to stop at the local lottery / magazine / convenience type store and play video games in the back after school. While not playing games, we started buying baseball cards. Particularly when someone said "Hey, that Canseco is worth $100!". Gold rush!
The Doomsday Collection
Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor | All-Time Dallas Cowboys | Bob Lilly Master | Pro Football HOF Dallas Cowboys
1984 Donruss rack pack from k mart. I pulled a Mattingly and that was all I needed to get hooked.
I started in the early 80s with Empire Strikes Back and Topps football... by 83 it was ET and Topps baseball. That was just a few packs here in there. By 1986 I was buying GPK and baseball cards by the box. Shortly after, my sister's boyfriend (and future brother-in-law) gave me his childhood collection... which ranged from 74-80, and I just fell in love with those sets. Even used to save up and buy vintage packs from dealers in BBC Magazine back in the late 80s.
Can't remember the exact year. Probably 55 or 56. I remember getting a Willie Mays in one pack. Didn't save them until 1959 when I put them in numerical order. I had probably two thirds of the set. They somehow disappeared years later. My wife had custody of her niece in the 80s. When she married her husband gave me a stack of cards he had. I got the fever and started to collect again.
http://www.unisquare.com/store/brick/
Ralph
1980 Topps Baseball. Wax, cello, and rack. Damn that Garvey was hard to find!
1983 fleer packs my dad would surprise me with. Still have those cards and thanks to some great board members, have just finally completed the set.
1974 Topps Baseball. Could buy 10 packs for $1.00!!
It was 1980 and I started with baseball. But I also bought many packs of basketball that year as well and still have all of the basketball including the Bird/Magic rookies opened. I grew up just south of East Lansing and was actually searching for the Magic rookies as a kid.
1975 Topps baseball on my birthday. I didn't even know what baseball cards were then.
1976 Topps was the first football packs for me.
The first complete set I purchased was a 1977 Topps football set from Renata Galasso via mail order, purchased in '77.
I loved Star Wars and had what was probably a couple hundred cards, but don't really recall ripping them specifically. They're kinda lumped in with the whole SW phenomena for me. While I did also have some 78 BB and FB and some 79 BB it was no more than a few packs and I don't really remember opening them. My most vivid memories are of 79FB and 80BB racks at Toys R Us. I remember weeding through racks and choosing a handful, consulting with mom on how many I could get, then thinning the herd. They also had cellos at the registers, so sometimes I could even convince her for a late addition. I would hunt mostly Cowboys for FB and Dodgers and AllStar tops for BB. I loved being able to select cards I wanted, and Garvey was my guy. But all the AS cards were great. And even though I grew up in the Bay Area, Rickey wasn't on my radar yet as a 8-9yo. I'd have taken a McCovey top over Rickey every day without a second thought. LOL
By 1980 FB season, I was mobile (bike, allowance, and trust/freedom) and into cards. So while I'd still get some racks on the TRU trips, I was now spending most of my allowance on wax packs, candy, and video games.
1964 CFL
1964 Baseball
1965 NHL
1964 Beatles
Still have the cards.
Mine was 1970. The corner candy store in Brooklyn.
1974 Baseball...all wax, I had 17 Merv Rettenmund traded cards!
First time I remember seeing racks and cellos was 1975.
The best part about growing up in Brooklyn was visiting the Renata Galasso factory/storefront in 1977. My jaw hit the floor!
77 Topps Football cello. Bought at local 7/11 store. Seahawks team card on top. Zorn on back.
Thanks,
David (LD_Ferg)
1985 Topps Football (starting in psa 8) - #9 - started 05/21/06
1986 Topps baseball, football, Garbage Pail Kids, was my cup of coffee.
1987 was when I put it all together and won Rookie of the Year.
Arthur
I actually ripped my first wax pack (Topps BB) in 1969, but my real memory was going through 3 1970 series 4 cello boxes the following year (still have the empty green outer boxes from that in my possession 47 years later)
Dave
For football it was 1978 Topps. Baseball was 1981 Topps.
great thread...1975 for me. My family took the train from DC to Florida and parents bought my brother and me a wax box....I remember the boxes cost $5 each from the local drug store!
I was only 6 but we knew the Aaron 660 was the card to get. Don't remember if I got one, but did tape many of the cards into a composition notebook! Found the notebook in my parents attic a few years back and it was hysterical. Cards were OC, bent, tape marks on top and bottom. Wouldn't change a thing!
Steve
1980 Topps Baseball...I would run outside early and give my lunch money to the older kids that ran down to the corner store and bought packs...oh the memories...
1973 Topps Baseball
Just like DinoRez, the first packs I remember were 1980 Topps baseball. I wasn't old enough to go to the corner store so I would get older kids in the neighborhood to go for me when I happened to have $$. I still have those cards, all beat up and perfect. I remember dropping my Tim Foli card in a puddle and being very upset that it warped when it dried.
My first hockey pack was 1982-83 OPC. I got a Gretzky/Goulet league leader card and thought I was the luckiest kid on earth.
-Nathanael
These are awesome.
Dave, I think I would go ecstatic if I was able to rip cello boxes of 1970 Topps. It is my favorite set off all time, but never have ripped any. The closest I have come to that is ripping 74 Topps - and that was just last year. That will probably be the oldest I ever rip, with how expensive and limited vintage packs are becoming.
1969 Topps baseball and football are the main ones I remember. I was 12 years old. With my $1 allowance, I could get 20 packs of cards from the nearby Ben Franklin store. I was mainly looking for Cubs and Bears. Getting a Banks or Santo was a huge pull. For football, I remember the Gale Sayers card the most. I'm sure I ripped some before 1969 but the memory has long faded.
1978 Star wars wax packs
1978 Battlestar Galactica packs
Baseball cards were already pulled from the shelves when I started buying in 78
1979 BB wax packs at Circle K and wax pack trays at Raley's super market
I would get 60 cents for lunch everyday and when my mom left for work I would make my own lunch
for school and stop by the Circle K on my way home from school and buy 3 packs of 79 wax pack BB daily,
On the weekends I would go dumpster diving to collect cans and bottles and turn in to recycle and could usually come
up with 3 or 4 dollars and would take that straight to the store to get my wax packs BB
In 1979 I probably had 2 Topps baseball complete sets from all wax packs and wax pack trays, maybe a couple
rack packs too from Toy's R us but I did not have a Mariners team card, I thought it did not exist except I know it did
from the checklist. Finally one night my mom took me to Circle K and on the way home opening packs there it was
at first glance I thought it was the Blue Jays team card, but no to my surprise it was the Mariners team card finally!
And since that day I have been a True Mariners fan living in California, Jess why couldn't I have been missing the
Yankees team card instead, maybe then I would know what wining feels like.
I remember like yesterday Friday the 13 th of April 1980 I was 9 years old me and my friend walked into the
Circle K and there they were the 1980 Topps BB wax packs first day out I was so in awe when I opened the
first pack and saw Tom Paciorek with the new Mariners helmet and logo awesome day. !!
I remember 1974 getting Wacky Packages from the local TG&Y back in Bellevue, Nebraska. Loved the made up names for the products. Most of them got stuck to my headboard. Didn't collect sports cards til my 20's.
My first pack was actually a rack pack of 1976 Topps baseball cards. My dad got me 2 rack packs to open on the hospital bed after I had my tonsils taken out at 7 years old. He knew that the Mets were my favorite team and made sure each pack had a met showing on top. That great memory is as fresh today to me as it was back then.
My first pack was 1974 baseball. I remember opening right out in the parking lot of High's and got Dave Cash and Danny Ozark in the first pack. The weirdest opening I can remember was in 1976 when I found Topps Basketball (the tall boys) in a drugstore while visiting my grandmother way out in Western Maryland. I never found them anywhere else, so I thought this was really rare.
Check out this listing...This guy put together the whole 70's run of wax pack replicas. It looks pretty darn cool.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TOPPS-BASEBALL-WAX-PACK-1970-THRU-1979-PERFECT/254924868197?hash=item3b5ab4ca65:g:SbUAAOSwt5tgXgqC
I live what that guy did. It is a very cool piece and he is representing it honestly.