What's your favorite junk wax?

[D. Bergin]

Lately I've been reminiscing about my childhood collecting days. I was always a bit of an oddball myself so I was more attracted to the oddball baseball card releases when they found their way to my local convenience store or card shop. Never thought I'd revisit those days, but recently I've found myself drawn back to the early 80's and often catch myself scanning the bargain blowouts at Krukcards for an inordinate amount of time. Can't believe how cheap some of this stuff still is (or became), so I decided to have a little fun and pick up a bunch of bulk on the cheap.

This is my absolute favorite. Reminds me a bit of the '77 Topps Cloth stickers which is another oddball favorite of mine from the 70's.

1981 Fleer Star Stickers. I remember being blown away by them as a kid. Full size card stickers, not those stupid team stickers or tiny Topps stickers. Thick stock, more attractive and far harder to find then the regular Fleer cards.........at least in my area anyways. Absolutely loaded with stars (and they came with gum). I had them plastered all over my walls and mirror. Boy, did my mom hate that.

Decided to pick up a few boxes, just for the hell of it. Can't believe these are nearly 30 years old now.




Another favorite of mine was the Giant Donruss Action All-Stars. What's not to like about them? Attractive, giant photo cards WITH Stats on the back, and came with a decent amount of them per pack. Also, as the box states, the unbelievably rare Mickey "Mantel" puzzle pieces.







Anybody else have any favorite Junk Wax?

[JasonL]

I agree on the Donruss All Stars, circa 1985.
And my fave version of the Fleer Star Stickers are the 1986, I think - (the burgundy bordered ones)

other than that, I loved the 1984-87 Fleer boxes...

[mintacular]

I love Kruk cards and some of the huge junk wax lots they sell...I bought a case load worth of '89 Donruss at a show at something like .25/pack and was planning on reselling it. When that didn't work, I decided to bust the packs out of boredome and loved every minute of it. Got a few nice Griffeys Shillings Johnsons Greg Vaughn (remember him?) Sheffields Smoltz etc. That was the heart of my childhood/teen collecting period and I always loved that card design and still do

[4815162342]

For some reason I've always liked 1984 topps.

[teetwoohsix]

This one's for you Pat Got it from a local card shop in a "mystery box",,usually filled with junk,but he throws a couple of decent things in there too........

[HRBAKER]

Hey it's John Kruk before he looked like Meatloaf.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by mintacular

I love Kruk cards and some of the huge junk wax lots they sell...I bought a case load worth of '89 Donruss at a show at something like .25/pack and was planning on reselling it. When that didn't work, I decided to bust the packs out of boredome and loved every minute of it. Got a few nice Griffeys Shillings Johnsons Greg Vaughn (remember him?) Sheffields Smoltz etc. That was the heart of my childhood/teen collecting period and I always loved that card design and still do

HaHa!! They made sooooo many of the 88' and 89' Donruss. You can still pick up a case for almost nothing. I remember during a move in the late 1990's I ended up throwing out monster box after monster box of them.

Kept my stack of 100 Mike Campbell Rookies though.

[ArizonaGoat]

Originally Posted by mintacular

I love Kruk cards and some of the huge junk wax lots they sell...I bought a case load worth of '89 Donruss at a show at something like .25/pack and was planning on reselling it. When that didn't work, I decided to bust the packs out of boredome and loved every minute of it. Got a few nice Griffeys Shillings Johnsons Greg Vaughn (remember him?) Sheffields Smoltz etc. That was the heart of my childhood/teen collecting period and I always loved that card design and still do

I've been buying junk 80's-90's stuff a lot lately. I just bought a bunch of 89 Donruss boxes - I opened 2 of them so far and haven't gotten a single card from 300-400. lol, the mixer must have broke on that case.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by JasonL

I agree on the Donruss All Stars, circa 1985.
And my fave version of the Fleer Star Stickers are the 1986, I think - (the burgundy bordered ones)

other than that, I loved the 1984-87 Fleer boxes...

I think I had grown out of the "sticker" phase by '86, but yeah..........the Fleers of that era, '83 to around '89, had always been my favorite regular issue. The designs just seemed to be cleaner.

[JasonL]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I think I had grown out of the "sticker" phase by '86, but yeah..........the Fleers of that era, '83 to around '89, had always been my favorite regular issue. The designs just seemed to be cleaner.

Yeah, you know, I never really bought the stickers at the time, either. But the 86 Star Stickers with the (Ron) Burgundy borders are my favorite. Particularly the Ozzie Smith. I have just about every one of Ozzie's cards, and it is 1986 Fleer Star sticker that is my all-time favorite of his issues!

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by JasonL

Yeah, you know, I never really bought the stickers at the time, either. But the 86 Star Stickers with the (Ron) Burgundy borders are my favorite. Particularly the Ozzie Smith. I have just about every one of Ozzie's cards, and it is 1986 Fleer Star sticker that is my all-time favorite of his issues!

Fleer made tiny stickers one year to. 84' or 85' I think. I even liked those. They were on much thicker stock then the flimsy Topps stickers of the period.

Actually looking it up, they made them 83' through 85'. I don't even remember the 1983's or the 1985's. Just the browish bordered '84's. They seem to be a lot less common then the larger sized Star Sticker Cards.

[GrayGhost]

I support this thread. fun stuff.

[JasonL]

My box of 1986 Fleer Star Stickers arrived on Friday, just in time to have some fun ripping open some packs! Of course, my sons (ages 4 and 8)caught me in the act and immediately demanded (in a nice way) in on the fun....so I had to hop on the Bay and order 2 more boxes because I was ticked that my 8 year old pulled all of my favorites from that year (pictured here), while I was stuck pulling doubles on folks that you wouldn't even think would make it into a "Star Stickers" set...players like Scott Garrelts and Damaso Garcia!! ugh.
Here are some of my faves...along with a Pre-war tie-in (the team stickers have pre-war era trivia on the reverse)...

Happy Memorial Day!

[slidekellyslide]

Good stuff! But don't rip on Damaso...he played a heckuva second base for about a 5 or 6 year stretch in the 80s.

My son and I ripped open a 1993 Ted Williams box yesterday...we put together two near sets...only missing Rocky Colavito (#33) in one set and missing 6 out of a second set. Today we ripped open a box of 1994 Topps Series 2 and got 45 Gold cards...one Black Gold winner redemption, and a Todd Van Poppel Topps Finest insert. My kid pulled both of the "biggies."

[GoldenAge50s]

I've go a #33 for you if you want it. What are the other 6 #'s--maybe I have them also.

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by GoldenAge50s

I've go a #33 for you if you want it. What are the other 6 #'s--maybe I have them also.

Hey Fred, thanks for the offer. We only "need" the one Rocky Colavito card. We don't need two sets. I already told my son he could disperse the doubles as he sees fit amongst his friends. There are a lot of "vintage" superstars in that set.

[JasonL]

and a very nice guy as well. One of my good friends was family friends with the Reuschels and I got to tag along to Wrigley with them on a day when Rick was going to start for the Giants...Rick led us into the park at 8:30am through the front office entrance, where he stopped to say hi to the staff (having been a longtime Cub, he knew everyone), and we got to sit in the visitors dugout and watch warmups, etc. After the game, we hung out well past all the fans were allowed to stay, and while walking out, we passed Ryne Sandberg in street clothes on his way out...All I could muster was a simple "Hi"...and it was funny, because I think he appreciated the normalcy and lack of drooling admiration. I got a practice ball signed by Brett Butler and Candy Maldonado. Rick was easily the most down-to-earth MLB player I could possibly imagine...still to this day. Another reason I guess it seems funny tro me that he would be in an All Star card set!

[JasonL]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Good stuff! But don't rip on Damaso...he played a heckuva second base for about a 5 or 6 year stretch in the 80s.

Yeah, I suppose you're right...after all, Rick Reuschel is in the set too!

[D. Bergin]

Nice. Makes me want to pick up a box or two of those now. When I was a kid I used to stockpile 81' Topps Damaso Garcia rookies. Always the oddball, I never went after the obvious guys. It was always the guys I thought I could pick up cheap and was flying under everybody else's radar. It rarely ever worked out for me, LOL!!!

[jb217676]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Nice. Makes me want to pick up a box or two of those now. When I was a kid I used to stockpile 81' Topps Damaso Garcia rookies. Always the oddball, I never went after the obvious guys. It was always the guys I thought I could pick up cheap and was flying under everybody else's radar. It rarely ever worked out for me, LOL!!!

Hey, at least you didn't invest in his successor's RC cards (legendary Blue Jays 2nd baseman Nelson Liriano)

[slidekellyslide]

Originally Posted by JasonL

Yeah, I suppose you're right...after all, Rick Reuschel is in the set too!

Rick Reuschel was a great hitter.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by slidekellyslide

Good stuff! But don't rip on Damaso...he played a heckuva second base for about a 5 or 6 year stretch in the 80s.

My son and I ripped open a 1993 Ted Williams box yesterday...we put together two near sets...only missing Rocky Colavito (#33) in one set and missing 6 out of a second set. Today we ripped open a box of 1994 Topps Series 2 and got 45 Gold cards...one Black Gold winner redemption, and a Todd Van Poppel Topps Finest insert. My kid pulled both of the "biggies."

HaHa! Todd Van Strasburg?

[FUBAR]

Mine would be the Conlon Collection. Ive only ever seen series 1, but it still remains one of my fav sets today and the main reason i got into vintage collecting

[nationalchicle]

Originally Posted by FUBAR

Mine would be the Conlon Collection. Ive only ever seen series 1, but it still remains one of my fav sets today and the main reason i got into vintage collecting

I agree, the Conlon Collection is my favorite also and it was probably the first time I realized there WERE vintage cards. I still bang my head against the wall for spending all that money on Pro Set and Score cards (all I could afford back in the day) when I could have been buying vintage for cheap.