It must have been January or February in 2019. I had been resisting an unexpected, powerful urge to buy some packs of baseball and hockey cards for several weeks. “It’s a waste of money,” I told myself. “You’ll be over the urge soon,” I argued. But it would not go away. I was staring down age 40 coming up later in 2019, and that must have had something to do with the impulse to reconnect to the simple joys cards provided in my childhood.
I located a card shop not too far away, and the reviews were promising—it sounded like they carried new releases plus had a huge, cheap selection of “junk wax” era packs from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, cards that absolutely burst with nostalgia for me from my previous collecting heyday. So I finally gave in and headed over to Ultimate Collectibles in Hopkins, Minnesota for the first time. The selection of unopened packs from the days of my childhood was indeed massive and budget friendly. I grabbed an assorted stack of hockey from the early ‘90s. Unfortunately for my bank account, my curiosity also extended to new cards, and I added a hobby box of the newly released 2019 Topps baseball. A box of the newest O-Pee-Chee hockey set also caught my eye, and I added that one in on a whim.
I somehow had the self-control to spread out opening all those cards over several weeks, opening just three to five packs per day and soaking in every single card. (That patience with new packs has since vanished.) They were all a joy to open, but that box of 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee really nailed a sweet spot with both a nostalgic fix and the thrill of the new. I loved the base cards, I loved the inserts, and I especially loved the “retro” variation cards that featured a new but retro-inspired design and fell one per pack. (That first box also happened to be a “hot box” that, in addition to the regular white bordered retros, contained one black-bordered version serial numbered to 100 in every pack. At the time, I figured that was how all the boxes were configured—not quite! It is still the only O-Pee-Chee hot box I have hit, and I believe they make up under 1% of all boxes.)
I was hooked. I especially wanted boxes from all the modern O-Pee-Chee releases that include a one-per-pack retro variation, which is every set since 2008-09. As a New York Rangers fan, I focused on collecting all the 230-ish Rangers retros from that stretch, and that checklist filled up quicker than I expected. Lately my main collecting focus has been on all Henrik Lundqvist O-Pee-Chee cards.
Though the huge O-Pee-Chee releases are considered the ultimate for set-builders, I am generally not a completist. My love for opening the cards combined with not needing to hang on to most of them makes me an ideal seller, trader, and organizer of group breaks, and I have been dipping my toes into all those areas. Lately I have gotten more serious about it, having listed my fairly substantial stockpile for sale on SportLots and now with the launch of this website. My goal is to establish what Mike Sommer at Wax Pack Hero has dubbed a “self-sustaining hobby”—to earn enough from sales and flips to at least cover the cost of the cards I want in my own collection, and to have fun doing it. I hope you will follow along and join in the fun!
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