2008 Stadium Club choices: Martin, Chamberlain, Johnson, Ichiro, Granderson, Martin.

night owl:The best is #5 Russ Martin. The reasons: 1. Martin is the king of great 2008 cards (post upcoming on Night Owl Cards!). He cannot have a card that is anything less than excellent. He’s incapable of it. 2. It’s a play at the plate, the most dr…

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We can be singleminded where this particular baseball player is concerned. Our kid likes him best. In an unusual bout of reasonableness, we’re willing to hear what YOUR favorite 2008 Stadium Club card is, but the argument you make for your choice must…

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In 2008, it’s not incredibly hard to find or even pull a Hank Aaron certified autograph from a pack of cards. Most recently, Donruss slapped a few stickers on their game-used Hank Aaron cards from ‘08 Prime Cuts and added to the gluttony of Aaron autographs on eBay.
Unfortunately, “Hammerin’ Hank” will be 75 years old [...]

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By late 2008 I thought I was familiar with every single card-related blog in our community. Trust me when I tell you that as of now there is one blog out there for every single type of collector. Unfortunately, ‘A Cardboard Problem’ had somehow managed to completely slip past my radar until Steve of White [...]

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That may not always be the case.
An eBay auction for a signed Jose Canseco 1986 Donruss Rated Rookie did not sell for the $1,000,000 million dollars that eBay user “gijoe$eller” attempted to get. There was however over 20 offers made on the item, which you can view HERE.
Now, to those who mock us few who [...]

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Yes, I realize these are Dodgers. We’re trying to get Dodger Happy because we now have their Triple A affiliate in New Mexico and we intend to be enthusiastic. Soon we may graduate to current Dodgers. But isn’t there something perfect about the compos…

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Much like Fone Bone on his journey of discovery, we card collectors usually get the hope knocked out of us by Topps and Upper Deck, who can’t seem to help themselves as they often make the decision to do the wrong thing.Read Cardboard Junkie’s cartoons…

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When I returned to the Hobby in mid-2007 I couldn’t be more amazed by game-used relics. One day I even threw a fit when a box of Topps Heritage yielded none. After all, for $100+ you would expect to retrieve one or two relics, right? Well, just how often is that box with two relics [...]

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Gimmick: Certified autograph, Short print
Card: 1996 Leaf Signature Extended
Player: Ken Caminiti
Before 1996, Ken Caminiti had played nine seasons in “The Show” never once reaching 30 home runs or 100 R.B.I. During Spring Training of ‘96 Ken came in looking like a body builder. As it turns out, that was the year he began using Steroids [...]

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10. We can’t read Want Lists. The numbers and letters float around before our eyes. But neither can we create accurate want lists.* Our ANTI WANT LIST approach: when you receive cards from us, they may not be one your want list and possibly some may r…

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In 1997, every company was doing their part to revolutionize the Hobby. Donruss continued with their one per pack autograph brand, while Upper Deck’s “game-used” relic made its debut. Fleer was all about “Showcase” and the one of one and Pinnacle, well let’s just say they were not ones to sit around and rest on [...]

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…why he was left in the glove compartment for two months. I found him while I wondered why Lucy’s guitar lesson was taking so long. The Other Parental Unit stayed with her as the strings plunked and plunked. I finished my Beatles book and out of Xtr…

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If by some chance you’re not already familiar with Alex and Frank Hipolito, then try this: search ‘baseball ttm’ in Google. The first links you find will be to the Hipolito Designs website. We have learned through trial and error that there is no bette…

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this awesome Ken Griffey Jr. insert!
Six months ago a reader by the name of Paul D. sent me a surprise box of 1990 Fleer Jumbo. As a kid, most of my collection consisted of ‘90 & ‘91 Fleer so as you can imagine I had a blast (link). Unfortunately, the most desired card in the [...]

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Look, I know all about hero worship. As an eleven year old kid I thought Jose Canseco could walk on water if he wanted to. Apparently, I wasn’t alone. In 1991 a company called “Kalifornia Kards” released an oddball set which featured a Jose Canseco card with a rather curious quote. Rather than type it [...]

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2008 may be remembered as the year of thewhen investors and flippers and lenders made a sizable in everyone’sby being too to take a thus leaving us in the.It’s like aat the door.Many who used toribeye steaks now prefer a bowl ofor maybe some.People use…

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We couldn’t start off the year on a sour note, could we? Thanks to Wax Heaven’s “Man on the Street”, Submarine Shane, we won’t. He has kindly donated three 2008 Allen & Ginter relics of the game’s biggest stars and today you the Wax Heaven reader gets to benefit from it.
Only the first 33 readers [...]

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No, it’s not what you think. I couldn’t care less what the boys in Texas are up to or what new “gimmick” the card companies are working on for 2009. As you can see, Wax Heaven is kicking it old school and it’s going to stay that way. What I would like to do is [...]

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When I look back at my Hobby youth I can remember Fleer’s return, Donruss’ debut, and Upper Deck’s megalomaniac-like rise to fame. For better or worse all this competition took a major bite out of Topps Company and forever changed trading cards. My questions is a simple one: what took so long?
Can you imagine being [...]

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When all is said and done, Michael Jordan will go down as one of the greatest athletes of all-time. He may be a known adulterer and gambling degenerate but when Michael was on his game no one could touch him. Of course, many will remember his disastrous time playing in the Minor Leagues of baseball [...]

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I have to agree with Dave of Fielder’s Choice: 2007 Upper Deck Sweet Spot was a great product. From the few videos I have seen of the ‘08 release I can clearly see lightning did not strike twice. For one, the mini-helmets are gone. Of course, today you could probably buy two tins of ‘07 [...]

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When the news came out that Donruss had secured rights to release game-used relics once used by “Shoeless” Joe Jackson the Hobby was genuinely excited. Not only about the possibility of pulling one of the rare relics but because it appeared that Donruss was about to make a serious splash once again, years after losing [...]

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The revealing and often riveting responses to our New Year’s questions have been a source of great fun up here in the absolutely frozen solid high desert. We appreciate your insights; Lucy has read every single response–in many cases more than once–…

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Ever since 2007 Sport Kings released a Pete Rose certified autograph it seems the “in” thing to do in the Hobby is to continue on that trend. Lately, both Donruss and Razor have come out with their own overpriced, Pete Rose certified autographs but it seems that many have forgotten about the 1985 Topps certified [...]

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Reading through some of the comments left about Classic Baseball cards in the last few days I am somewhat surprised by how little respect certain “oddball” brands receive in the Hobby. Sure, the greatest 1989 Oddball Ken Griffey Jr. will never replace his Upper Deck debut but how often is that the case?
Today while surfing [...]

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In case you have missed it or haven’t been to Ben Henry’s Baseball Card blog <link> in a while, he is shutting down shop as of 1/1/09. Ben has inspired many of us out there to write baseball and sports card blogs. If it wasn’t for Chris at Stale Gum, Mario from Wax [...]

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It’s funny but to me in the late-80’s and early-90’s Classic Baseball was a “high-end” product. I know it sounds crazy but during that era in the Hobby it seemed the only place to find these cards were on the Home Shopping Network. I searched the card shops and trade shows but it wasn’t until [...]

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It doesn’t matter if you are a collector or the furthest thing from it, if you love baseball odds are you would do anything for a signature of George Herman “Babe” Ruth. I’d trade in every single Jose Canseco autograph simply for a chance to touch a baseball signed by “The Bambino”. Thankfully, I won’t [...]

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Today, one of the most desired accomplishments in collecting is completing a “Rainbow” of all the parallels of one particular base card. While this may seem simple at first, when you look at a checklist you realize it would be easier to pull a “1 of 1″.
As an example, look at the 2007 Finest set [...]

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It’s 9 degrees here tonight! After escaping the Arctic Tundra long enough to run errands earlier today, our family did several relaxing things like help Lucy watch a few dozen times okay it was only three or four times the video on YouTube of Miley Cyr…

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I saw this day coming about two months ago. The day that the love of trading cards would leave my life once more. I guess I didn’t expect it to hit so soon but thanks to last week’s fiasco the process has been pushed up. Over the last year I have been busting my ass [...]

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Last week we at Wax Heaven introduced the ‘Man on the Street’ feature for collectors who have become weary of the competition’s loaded boxes. With this feature you the collector will get to see just what these “high end” products really yield when they come from a Hobby shop and not the trunk of Brian [...]

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Love and hate. That’s how I feel about Florida Marlins pitcher, Chris Volstad. You see, with so many games attended in 2008 we had a chance to meet lots of Marlins players. Some of them were overly nice (Andrew Miller, Alfredo Amazaga) others had their moments (Josh Willingham, Dallas McPherson) but very few were just [...]

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As a thank-you to the readers of Wax Heaven for a great 2008 year of blogging there will be a contest on January 1st, 2009 featuring Allen & Ginter relics of Ichiro Suzuki, Albert Pujols, and Chipper Jones. This contest will be limited to the first 33 readers who leave a comment in the contest [...]

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By the late-90’s when Mark McGwire finished his transformation from a scrawny looking kid into a Hulk-like monster with a goatee and Ruthian power there was a mad dash for his baseball cards. For those who couldn’t afford his 1985 Topps (I bought two for $30 in ‘97), there was a 1987 Donruss Rated Rookie [...]

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