Junk Wax Dig

If you follow this blog, you know I love some cheap cards. I especially finding cheap cards in the wild. A few months ago I stumbled upon a shoe box full of '80s, '90s and a handful of vintage cards. Read about that here . Ever since that day, I've made a trip to Goodwill pretty much any time I am alone near one. The wife isn't a big fan of me spending cash on cards, so I try to not bring her into my dirty habit. I have stumbled upon a few bobbleheads but not many cards. A few weeks ago, I did see a few boxes, but they were all mid-90s football that had already been leafed through. But last week, while dropping off a few items, I went into a local store and found SIX boxes of cards. They were all neatly packed in 800-count boxes. Leafing through, most had early '90s stuff. But not this box. For $10, I couldn't resist (make that $11 by rounding up for Goodwill). Once I dug into it a bit, I realized it wasn't a Storage Wars-esque money maker, but it stil

I am sure many collectors out there have their Bucket List of cards they would like to collect. While I have never taken the time to do so, I do believe I just gathered two cards from said list in the last month. Growing up in the junk wax era, there were many cards we thought would hold a lot of value, but sadly most of them did not. That didn't stop me from coveting two of said junk wax treasures as a child - and now into middle age. If you're 41 like me (or at least near that age), you remember vividly how the Bash Brothers, well, bashed baseballs. I certainly did, and I grew up a huge Jose Canseco fan - and, to a lesser extent, a Mark McGwire fan. Having not started collecting until 1987, I was never lucky enough to pull one of their respective rookie cards from a wax pack. McGwire's 1985 USA Baseball card was issued a year before I even bought my first pack. Canseco's Donruss and Fleer rookies were something I knew nothing about having only collected Topps in 198

Summers aren't supposed to be this busy It's July and, being a teacher, I don't go to work any day of the week. Thankfully, I am in a position where I don't have to pick up a summer job - a benefit many of my teaching brethren do not share. But, for some reason, I cannot get on to blog or even get enough time to sort my cards. Why? 1. Master's Degree This is my own fault, and I am the first to admit to that. I decided a few months ago to pursue my Master's Degree in elementary education. Having finished an online program from an accredited college to obtain my license, it is a three-class continuation. So, I have a total of three classes to take by the end of the year and I will have a Master's Degree. This won't guarantee me an immediate pay bump, but it is relieving me of 45 hours of professional development. 2. Married Life Many of us in the hobby are in this boat. We are middle-aged and have a wife at home. I have an amazing wife who does ma

Jaime Cocanower? We all have that card that got us into collecting. For some, it was their favorite player. In my childhood, guys like Don Mattingly, Kirby Puckett, Mike Schmidt and, in Milwaukee, Robin Yount. Robin Yount was a big part of my collecting days. Growing up in Wisconsin (Milwaukee since I was 4), the Brewers were kings. Robin Yount, Paul Molitor and Jim Gantner were a trio those of us in our 40s remember most.  But one player - one little-known player - holds one of my dearest collecting memories: Jaime Cocanower. I can already hear a resounding round of "who?" echoing through the Internet. To save you the hassle, here's his Baseball Reference page. For those of you who don't want to click over, here's a recap of his career: 79 games (47 starts), 16-25 record, 3.99 ERA and 139 strikeouts in four Major League seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers (1983-86). So, I am sure the next questions is, "Why him?" Well, let me tell you

Let's start sorting! Ok, so school let out last week, and as of Thursday I am a free man (minus the million home and family things on my plate). But that gave me time to go to the basement and start a good sorting of my chaotic basement stash. While there were many places I could start, I dipped into my Goodwill find from a few weeks ago and sorted through the 1988 Topps. I forgot how fun/cumbersome sorting can be. So many names from my childhood popped up, but so many cards to sort.  I don't know how many of you sort, but here's my plan: 1. Sort them all into piles of 100s (i.e. cards 1-99, 100-199, 200-299, etc.) 2. Then go through each pile and sort by 10s (1-10, 11-20, etc.) 3. Sort them in order  It takes time. It is 792 cards to sort this way. I muddled through it and came about 250 cards short of a set. But ... I am fairly certain those are in my large pile of childhood cards. But, before I get I to those 88s, I need to sort through all my st

What a find! As I began this blog, my intention was to share my findings as I dug through the thousands of mid-80s to early-90s junk wax I collected during my childhood. I had little to no intention of adding more junk wax - and more work - to my collection. That is, until I stopped at Goodwill last week. Being a teacher, I had months to clean my basement. With that came countless trips to Goodwill to unload our old stuff (I lost count after 15). I would often stop in and look for bobbleheads or other diamonds in the rough. Well, I had to make another trip recently and thought I'd stop in. What I found was a $10 bag containing a shoebox full of junk wax and some spilling out. A quick inspection saw some fun-looking items, so for $10 it was well worth it. Here's a look at what I found. I am still sorting through some of the stuff, but here are some highlights. It felt like an episode of Storage Wars. I could only see so much without actually getting into the bag. But

Here we go! I am a longtime sports writer who got out a couple years ago to teach. I love the switch but miss writing. So ... why not use the stuff laying in my basement as inspiration? This summer will be a deep excursion into the dark depths of my south central Wisconsin basement. While cleaning out said basement last summer, I unearthed thousands of cardboard treasures. Baseball cards! Football cards! Basketball cards! Hockey cards! Batman cards? Desert Storm cards? To say I was addicted to card collecting in my youth would be an understatement. The mid-1980s saw a boom in sports cards, and I was right in the midst of it. I started bugging my mom to buy those wax packs in 1986, and I'll always remember Topps' black-top cards of that year. I'm not sure why, but Milwaukee pitcher Jaime Cocanower was a card that always stood out. It was 1987 that saw my love for card collecting explode. We all know 1987. That wood-grain look of the Topps set - perhaps the grea