Mike D's Adventures in Wax

[tonyo]

Hi Mike and welcome,

I had to google "chicken math" and yep that definitely applies to a few things in my world, including card collecting....

Also, I'm very surprised you got two complete 124 card sets out of 288 cards. I don't buy boxes and open them though, so maybe it's more common than I think.

Looking forward to hearing how you do selling the two sets on ebay. I've been trying to sell alot of my low hanging fruit, and am lucky if some of my smaller sets net me more than a couple dollars.

Have a great weekend!

[steve B]

Sounds like fun!

And tell us more about tractor cards. I haven't heard of them but they sound cool.

[AGuinness]

Welcome to the board! Wax can be fun, although my impression is that if it were easy to break even, more people would do it and the prices would likely increase (thereby making it a scenario where you could no longer break even). Good luck!
I've got two boys, 6 and 9, and we've been opening a box of cards on Opening Day for years. It took them a little while, but they are both totally hooked on baseball cards now!

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by steve B

Sounds like fun!

And tell us more about tractor cards. I haven't heard of them but they sound cool.

My son has liked antique tractors since he was, well, an infant (my dad has half dozen or so old Farmall tractors). A number of companies made tractor trading cards in the 80' s and 90's - Goodyear, Ertl, and John Deere among them.

Not too many different sets were made, and they all seem to cost more than they should, but I've bought a bunch for my son, who loves 'em.

He's not that into baseball, as I mentioned above, but he does love opening packs and sorting them.

[Mike D.]

Thanks for the welcomes, all.

There's only one other person selling the Cramer set on eBay, and they are selling (and have sold) a few for like $44 each.

I listed both sets and the empty wax box for $74.99 plus shipping. If nobody bites, I have plenty of wiggle room to lower the price and still make my money back.

I've already sold a couple dups in lots, about $8 worth to date.

[Mike D.]

We picked up a couple wax boxes of 1991 Line Drive AA Pre-Rookie cards.

The two boxes were $13 delivered, so they were CHEAP.

We pulled a couple of each of most of the "major" cards in set...including two Ivan Rodriguez, two Jim Thome, two Bret Boone, etc.

Still, the set is way to big and too cheap to even bother with trying to complete.

I'll probably sell of the better cards to try to recoup the modest investment here, and I guess I could try to sell off team lots or something, but I"m not sure that'd be worth it.

So, a few lessons:

• Opening packs, even if the contents aren't anything special, is fun.
• Big sets aren't the way to go......small is beautful.
• The paper shredder and the compost pile may be busy from this pack busting project

[AGuinness]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

• Opening packs, even if the contents aren't anything special, is fun.
• The paper shredder and the compost pile may be busy from this pack busting project

There is definitely some value in busting open packs, even if the monetary value of the cards doesn't add up to the box's purchase price.
Composting is a good way to keep surplus down - there are places to donate and some other ideas in this thread: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=263135

[tulsaboy]

My kids and I are opening boxes of 1987 Topps right now just for fun, and putting together a set the old fashioned way- from packs. They are, however, now used to the idea that dad "magically" comes up with a whole box of packs at a time, instead of how I had to do it- in stacks of 3 or 4 packs at a time. They think this opening packs of cards thing is neat. And every time they find a card from one of their favorite teams, they are excited. The couldn't care less about the McGwire or Canseco or Mattingly or Clemens cards...
kevin

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by AGuinness

Composting is a good way to keep surplus down - there are places to donate and some other ideas in this thread: http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=263135

That thread was actually the very first one on this forum I read and posted in.