Busting Wax

A Piece of Artifacts?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Dear Lazy Web,

Could you clear something up for me? I am confused about this year’s Upper Deck Artifacts line. I’ve purchased a couple blasters of 2008 UD Artifacts at the big boxes already, but just last week I was in one of the local Hobby stores that was hocking boxes and packs of 2008 UD A Piece of History. I was confused. They appear to be the same card. Are they? Have Artifacts gone the way of the dodo? Is “A Piece of History = Artifacts” the new math?

I’d investigate this further on Upper Deck’s website, but it’s so woefully unusable that I’d rather eat a handful of mulch than look for anything useful there. I’m counting on you, my smart, intelligent readers to clear things up. I haven’t been following this very closely, so I may have missed a glaringly obvious announcement. Any help is appreciated.

Posted in Baseball, Collecting | No Comments »

This is going too far

Besides being an avid card collector, I also spend a lot of my free time playing video games. Not surprisingly, the two hobbies have some overlap — there’s a group of people who collect video games. There are rare versions of Nintendo games worth thousands of dollars. A mint copy of Final Fantasy III for the Super Nintendo (unopened, of course!) will fetch a pretty penny on eBay.

I, myself, don’t really collect games. I’ve got a couple old games I’ve held on to for nostalgia’s sake, but they’re not worth much. I don’t see the purpose of buying a game I don’t intend on playing.

But today, over at Joystiq, I saw a collision of two of my hobbies I’m not exactly comfortable with — graded video games:

I personally don’t mind graded cards. They have a place in our hobby, especially with vintage cards, for archival purposes. But graded games? That doesn’t jive with me.

Do. Not. Want.

Posted in Collecting | 1 Comment »

What to post, what to post.

I’m having a dilemma at the moment. I’m not really sure what I should be posting here. I understand that this is my site and I can post whatever I darn well please, but I also realize that people come to a site because it’s something they enjoy reading, as well. So I’m trying to figure out which way to go with the site.

When I first imagined this blog, I envisioned posting each and every one of my pack breaks. I thought it was a genius idea (little did I know there were already so many card blogs out there!). Then I thought I’d differentiate myself by posting a picture of each card from each pack, but that is turning out to be a lot of work! Especially with Jumbo packs or packs with 20+ cards in them. And quite honestly, I don’t know how exciting it is to see everything I pull. No offense to the Pack a Day guys, because what they’re doing is great, but I’m just not sure everyone is interested in every pack I break. So the debate goes on.

I of course would like to blog other topics than just my wax busts. I have a bunch of ideas and some cool topics on my mind, but I’m still working my way through my recent pack breaks before I delve into other subjects. This site is called “Busting Wax” afterall, and hopefully you’ve come here to see some wax busted.

As it stands now, I think I’m just going to post pack breaks that result in something “cool.” Something that makes me say “suh-weet” when I come across it. You know the feeling. I’m thinking that any time I hit a numbered/relic/autograph card, the pack break will get posted. I don’t want to bore you with my 34th Mantle HR insert from Topps.

I would also like to hear from the few readers I have what they would like to see. It will definitely factor into the decision. Or at least let me know that they like the idea of posting the “good packs”. I’m trying to do the majority of my wax purchases at hobby stores, so that already increases the chances of good hits and I occasionally will plunk down the extra money for “guaranteed” hits, so it shouldn’t affect my posting too much, but I’d really just like to gauge the reader’s interest and go from there.

Thanks for indulging me with this little mini brain dump. Things are becoming clearer.

Posted in Collecting, Site News | 2 Comments »

A Rare Find

I don’t remember who said it, but a fellow card blogger mentioned he was sticking strictly to Hobby Packs (Update: It was Mario at Wax Heaven). After a string of some really horrible retail busts, I’m agreeing with him. It’s just not worth it. If I’m going to put down my hard earned cash, I want the odds tipped (however slightly) in my favor.

My resolve has already been tested and I have already given in to temptation. While doing some fatherly shopping (picking up diapers) at the local Meijer (a Midwest Walmart Clone), I came across this:

Huh? I was immediately attracted to the recognizable “SP” logo and the Upper Deck logo all over the outer plastic wrapper, but something didn’t seem right. I had never seen a box of “SP” before. No “SP Authentic” or “SPx”, just “SP”. I was intrigued, so I threw one in the cart and kept shopping. Since I want all the chances at getting some LeBron James cards, Upper Deck is my only chance. You’ve got to go with what you’ve got.

When I got home, I checked Upper Deck’s site, which was most unhelpful. No mention of a “SP”. The Checklist site was even worse. As far as I could tell, Upper Deck doesn’t claim ownership to this line. Very strange.

Finally, after a little more sleuthing and searching, I came across 2007 Basic SP. This is a SP Authentic parallel, it appears. Having been out of the hobby for a while, I’m still a little fuzzy on what that means, but I’ve now got 8 Basic SP packs to break. I’ll probably jump the queue to post one or two of these soon. They cards don’t look bad, but they’re certainly not on the level of SPx or Authentic. A poor-man’s version, I guess.

Posted in 2007-08 SP Basic Basketball, Collecting | 4 Comments »

What I collect - Players

What’s the point of collecting if you’re not actively, you know, collecting something? So even though I live for the thrill of the bust, I do enjoy hunting the elusive cards of certain players.

I am first and foremost an Ohio State Buckeye fan, in all their sports forms. Football first, obviously, with basketball a distant second. Ohio State isn’t exactly known for its prowess on the baseball diamond, but there are a few Buckeye ball players enjoying success in the major leagues (Nick Swisher comes immediately to mind. And… no one else). But the field is rich for football and, to a lesser extent, basketball, players to collect.

In addition to seeking out OSU-alums, I’m also a big fan of the Cleveland teams (Indians, Browns, Cavs) so I’m always on the prowl for any local stars. It doesn’t hurt that the greatest basketball player of the 21st century plays in Cleveland. I love me some LeBron cards. Pretty much, if they play for my team and don’t make my stomach turn, I have a collection of them.

Which brings up another point — it’s hard to be a die-hard fan of a local professional team when they draft a player from the enemy, which is exactly what the Browns have been doing lately. First they took Kellen Winslow Jr. a few years ago, when I couldn’t stand him. The next year they drafted Braylon Edwards from the loathsome Michigan Wolverines. Both drafts were hard to swallow but I’ve warmed up to them (and they’re really good ball players) so I figure out ways to deal with it.

In addition, I often find an affinity to a player that isn’t a member of a team of mine. The most prominent player I readlly liked was Rickey Henderson (I got a kick when someone linked the Rickey Henderson Collectibles blog). I have hundreds of different Henderson cards. Trading a stack of great cards for his 1980 Topps Rookie card was a highlight of my early collecting adventures. Other players, such as Walter Payton and Dirk Nowitzki have stolen my fancy at different points.

So I’m not a set builder (usually). I’m just after fun pulls. One of these days I should try to build an actual set.

See also:
What I collect - Brands
What I collect - What I’m looking for

Posted in Collecting | 6 Comments »

What I collect - What I’m looking for

I collect cards as a hobby, but I can’t ignore that they can also be seen as an investment, however risky or fleeting it may be. I am a sports fan and I do collect cards of my favorite players, but if I stumble across a valuable card of a player of little value to me (say, an autograph of Reggie Bush) then I have no problem flipping that card for a little money. It will just go into buying more cards and hoping I get a valuable card of someone I enjoy as a fan (say, an autograph of LeBron James).

So what I’m looking for is actually pretty obvious — I look for cards that are worth more than the pack they came in. If I don’t get any of those, I hope to get a card of someone I actually care about (see here). In the end, I’m just looking for a little rush opening a new pack and a little something-something from the pack to tide me over to the next pack.

Along with that, I really get a rush finding a numbered card in a pack. There’s a little part of my brain that receives pleasure whenever I see that little metallic stamp of XXXX/YYYY. Can’t get enough of those. Throw that little numbering on an autograph or memorabilia card and I’m pretty much a puppy with two peters. I’m not totally down with all the terminology or slang, but I pretend that I am. I love parallels and anything else numbered. If I can’t get anything from the first two groups (valuable cards, players I collect), a numbered parallel is always good to me.

So, to recap:
Valuable/rare cards > cards of players I like > numbered cards > kicks in the nads (AKA a pack full of junk).

That about sums it up!

See also:
What I collect - Brands
What I collect - Players

Posted in Collecting | 2 Comments »

What I collect - Brands

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

Posted in Collecting | 3 Comments »