My Unopened Collection, Part 4: My Recent Orders Arrived

Yesterday a couple of eBay packages arrived, and I can finish my series on my unopened collection.  So this post is part 4 of 4.

6 unopened packs of 1984 Fun Food Buttons.

When I posted my 3 Fun Foods Buttons the other day, I said that there didn't appear to be unopened packs available on eBay.  I'm glad I searched again.  I don't know if I just didn't search well enough the first time, but there are a few lots of them available now.  So I bought some.  I ordered 5 packs, and the seller threw in one for free.  I considered opening one but decided against; I think these make a nice group in my collection as they are.

Pack back checklist #1-#45.

Pack back checklist #46-#90.

Pack back checklist #91-133.

There are three possible backs of the package, and I'm glad to have received all three.  They each give a partial checklist.  I don't know if the buttons inside come from the list on the back of the pack -- I think it's possible, since the three I have all are numbered over 100, which is consistent with falling in the third checklist, numbers 91 through 133.

A 1987 Topps wax box.

The 1987 Topps wax packs.

Everything else I ordered is much more conventional.  I wanted a 1987 Topps wax box.  I have about 3000 cards from 1987 Topps, so now I have even more.  I mostly got those 3000 cards one or two packs at a time, but I did buy one full wax box back in the day.  I can tell I had exactly one full wax box in part because I only have two of the cutout cards from the box back -- Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson.  There are four possible boxes, and on this box, I again got Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson.  Bad luck to have gotten a repeat, but at least I like both Rice and Henderson.

A 1987 Topps cello box.

The 1987 Topps cello packs.

I also bought a 1987 Topps cello box.  I have never bought a Topps cello box before.  I have a specific memory of a 1987 Topps cello pack, though.  A friend of mine was in the shop that was more or less my main card shop, Collectors Depot, and the owner asked my friend to call me.  He was trying to sell a 1989 Topps set, but they had just come out and he was missing a couple of cards, all commons, from one set.  He wanted to know if I had any of the mising cards.  I looked, and I did.  I remember one of the players was Dante Bichette.  While Bichette went on to be a four-time All-Star, I don't think anyone had heard of him yet, in our part of the country at least.  The next time my dad could take me, I dropped off the cards, and the owner asked what I wanted for them.  It was for something like 3 cards valued at .03 each.  I said, how about a 1987 Topps cello pack?  He said sure, it's worth $1.50, but whatever, I did him a favor.  Now, I have a whole box.

I might as well comment on the price.  The wax box and cello box were each $12 (plus shipping) from Baseball Card Exchange.  Circa 1990, these would probably have gone for, I'm guessing, about $25 for the wax and $35 for the cello, maybe more.  Prices have almost doubled since about 1990; so $12 today would be just a bit more than $6 back then.  This would have been unimaginable back then, since cards were only supposed to go up in value. 

2 1985 Donruss wax packs.

5 1987 Donruss wax packs.

I also got two 1985 Donruss wax packs.  I have a certain fascination with some of these sets, because they went by entirely without my noticing.  I was just a kid, and I had some cards from earlier in the 80s, and I collected seriously starting in 1987, but there's a gap of a few years.  I like how 1985 Donruss represents the 80s aesthetic, with a border that looks like some geometric pattern floating in space.  I also bought 5 1987 Donruss wax packs.  I have a specific memory of my grandmother driving me to her house, and us stopping at the drugstore; I think there was a Happy Harry's (a local drugstore of the time, since purchased by Walgreens) behind her house.  They had Donruss baseball cards there, and I bought a pack (or she bought me a pack).  She only lived about 10 miles away from us, but for some reason there were different cards available in her neighborhood.  (This was just the start of my collecting, so I am sure I hadn't been to a show yet, and maybe not even a card shop; I just bought the cards that were available in the stores I went to, and that had been Topps until that point.)  I have a 1987 Donruss Barry Bonds rookie card, which I expect (but have no way of confirming) that I pulled from the pack I bought that day.  So, now I have a few unopened packs of 1987 Donruss.

10 1988 Topps wax packs.

7 1989 Donruss cello packs.

While 1987 Topps was the most important set to me, the set that got me into collecting, I sure bought a lot of 1988 Topps, too.  I found the design a let-down after the 1987 wood grained cards, and honestly I still am disappointed in it.  But I considered buying a wax or cello box of 1988, too, before deciding that was too much.  I settled for a few packs, and decided 10 was a good number.  I might want to someday open some 1988 Topps, so now I have some.  And, I also got 7 1989 Donruss cello packs.  It's funny, because I feel like there's no way anyone needs any more 1989 Donruss than they already have.  But while I said that I never bought a Topps cello box before, I did open up a 1989 Donruss cello box back in the day.  I wanted a few packs to go along with that memory, and found a lot of 7 available on eBay that seemed to fit my goals.

I'm 42 years old now, and I expect these to sit unopened in my collection for a long time.  Maybe when I'm an old man, I'll feel nostalgic enough to open some of these.  Or maybe my son will want to when he gets a bit older.  In any case, if I have any urge to open packs, especially 1987 Topps, at any point in the future, I think I'm prepared.  Thanks for reading!