Busting Wax

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To give you an idea of how I collect cards, I figured I’d put up a few posts about how I collect, what brands of cards I buy and what players/teams I am looking for. I’ll start out with which brands of cards I buy.

I started out like most collectors, buying almost exclusively Topps cards. I also started out initially only buying baseball cards, but, as my tastes in sports changed, so did my buying habits. In the beginning it was mostly Topps with a little Fleer thrown in for good measure.

When Upper Deck hit the scene, I was pretty enamored with its line of cards for a while. Even their football and basketball sets were nice. The early UD cards always felt sturdier, had sharper designs and featured better photography. Topps was nice but UD always had them beat. That’s about when I stopped collecting around 1992.

I got back into collecting in 2001 when, on a whim at the grocery store, I grabbed a couple packs of 2001 Topps Baseball and read that they were inserting classic Topps cards randomly into packs and I hit one in one of those first two packs. It was a nobody common from 1983, but seeing that pristine classic card in among the new ones was exhilarating. I was hooked. I bought countless packs and handful of retail and hobby boxes of 2001 Topps. I never hit anything extraordinary, but did hit a few minor stars from the 70s and 80s. For a while there, I was back in the game.

I’m not sure what stopped the flow of card buying for a while (may have been kids, a new house, wife said ‘no’) but I didn’t jump back in until recently. As it was in the beginning, I started with some Topps cards.

Back when I was knee deep in 2001 Topps, I also picked up a couple packs of SP Authentic. Up to that point, I had not heard of SP but when I learned they were from Upper Deck, I was sold. I really like the SP lines, even if they are on the pricey side. Most of the time I’d say they’re worth it. They usually have well designed cards (with exceptions, of course) and I love the textures they add from time to time. I especially like SP’s football lines.

I’d like to hit a broad range of brands and lines, but there’s just too many to hit them all. I’ll usually spend most of my wax busting on Topps, Bowman, UD, SP and the variations there of. Donruss, Fleer and Leaf come and go, but I’m not steady with any of them.

See also:
What I like to find
What I collect - Players