Operation: '98 Metal Universe (Box 1/Pack 2)

I want to apologize as it's been a few days since the last post. I was celebrating a birthday last weekend and, well, things got a little crazy. So I'm back with pack #2 of the amazingly B.A. Metal Universe box break. For the record, I can't wait to get my hands on some more of this stuff... it keeps me young.

Here we go...


74 Edgar Martinez (DH) with the Space Needle appropriately located in the background

193 Gary Sheffield rounding the bases, errr check that... enjoying the sights in the MIA

11 Bernie Williams with a flexed bat... on a FREAKING FRONT-LOADER! God, I love this stuff. Have I mentioned that yet?

87 Tony WHOA-mack... yeah, that's a Cessna in the background

22 Bobby Bonilla sans batting gloves accompanied by the Seven Mile Bridge

182 Alan Benes is literally out of this world

115 Jeff King and his epic mustache caught on the tracks

59 Tom Glavine's not out of the woods yet

Aside from the general awesomeness of this set, one of my favorite aspects can be seen when comparing the Edgar Martinez card to Glavine's card in this pack. Martinez is featured in front of a prominent Seattle landmark while Glavine looks like an 'Other' trying to defend the Dharma Initiative and its cause rather than pitching for Atlanta, a town not known for its natural landscapes. All the more reason to love this set.

Check back tomorrow for pack #3!

- J.C.F.

Operation: '98 Metal Universe (Box 1/Pack 1)

No, I haven't gone crazy. The title is correct. Yes, I am a 1998 Fleer Metal Universe fan and you can't stop me. I completely missed out on this set in '98, most likely because I was carried away at the time with Fleer Ultra. Anyway, a few weeks ago I was rummaging though the Colorado Rockies commons box at the local shop when I came across two cards that both made me laugh while inspiring me more than you could imagine. When I saw these beautiful pieces of work, I began to stop by the shop a little more frequently and take a look through other commons boxes of other teams for this newly discovered Metal Universe set.

Needless to say, there were only so many Metal Universe cards from the '98 series in the shop... and I came home with all of them (roughly 42). That, clearly, was not going to give me my fix. I decided to hop on the interwebs and start looking for unopened hobby boxes of the product (ok, maybe I am crazy)... and I found one for $25.99.

Yeah, I bought it and it will NOT be the last box I purchase. I was going to do a box break for ya, but I decided to break it up into individual pack-break posts so that you could savor the goodness. I'll give you some info on the set first, then get to the reviews.

According to the Sports Collectors Digest, 2008 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards (17th Edition):

"This 220-card single series release captured players over a foil etched, art background that related in some way to them or the city they played in. Metal Universe included a 15-card Hardball Galaxy subset..." "The set arrived with a parallel called Precious Metal Gems, and included the following insert sets: All-Galactic Team, Diamond Heroes, Platinum Portraits, Titanium and Universal Language."

I received the box on Tuesday, and it felt like the birthday I was to have the next day had come early. I grabbed the package from the mailbox, ran inside, and immediately started busting it with a house full of company. I digress, however...

In the box, we're looking at 24 packs with 8 cards per pack and the most absurdly amazing background shot on each card. Unfortunately, the metallic backgrounds on the cards are done no justice by the scanner.

To start, each pack comes with a 1998 Acclaim All-Star Baseball (N64) promo/official entry 'flyer' with none other than Larry Walker blessing the cover (as he did for the game as well). Unfortunatley, the deadline for all entries was September 30th, 1998.


Now that I've wasted enough of your day, I'll go ahead with the pack break (scan below):

146 Roberto Alomar swimmin' with the fishes
184 Tony 'The Tiger' Clark... I'll take the actual tiger in this footrace
37 Robin Ventura going for a chopper/fly ball on the Southside
45 Paul Molitor running away from/racing some sort of bullet train/mass transit that obviously does not exist in the Twin Cities

116 Matt Williams (displayed in an Indians uni... common theme in this set) playing third base on some scaffolding... no biggie

199 Derek Jeter with Lady Liberty to his back
52 Henry Blanco popping up on the surface of the moon, or similar
152 Mickey Morandini (Phils uni) throwing to first but playing somewhere other than Chicago



I really wish I could get a scan that would show the beautiful ridiculousness of these cards, but that technology doesn't exist (in my world) quite yet.

That's it for today, but expect some more hilarity in the future. Also, if anyone has any cards from this set and are willing to trade, shoot me an email and let me know what you'd like in return.

Completely obsessed...

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2007 Bowman Baseball

For a good review of the product, check out Chris' HTA break over at Stale Gum or Thorzul's hilarious [and historically accurate] pack break at A Pack A Day. I'll save most of the details and get right into it.

One pack of '07 Bowman Baseball, 10 (or sometimes 11...) cards/pack

Here we go...

36 Jorge Posada
180 Johnny Damon (is this a Yanks pack??)
20 Nick Markakis (maybe not... AL East much?)
37 Brian Bannister
211 Jerry Owens (RC)
158 Aramis Ramirez (finally, some NL action)

BC88 Duke Dardinha (1st BowChro)
BC45 John Otness (1st BowChro)

BP109 Ryan Mullins (Gold/1st Bowman)
BP79 Doug Deeds (1st Bowman)
BP96 Vincent Blue (1st Bowman)

Count it... 11 cards. Other than that, pretty standard. I must add that I picked up both this pack and the previously reviewed pack and snagged Rockies in both. I wish that happened every time. Maybe my luck could rub off on them and they could WIN A DAMN GAME.

... Outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2008 Topps Chrome

When I saw the local card shop selling hobby packs of this product for over $4, I thought I'd never touch this stuff. Well, it seems as though this price gouging was due to the early availability of Chrome as they had it on sale the day prior to official release.

Oops, should I have kept that to myself?

By now you should know the deal... If not, check it out here.

Here we go...



220 Brian Bass
38 Justin Upton
C200 Steve Pearce (Heritage Rookie Insert) [0918/1959]
185 Brad Hawpe (Gotta love a Rockies pull)

Topps '08 and I don't really get along, but Chrome wasn't half bad for the following reasons:

1) $3/pack
2) Shiny, Shiny, Shiny
3) Sweet inserts/parallels/refractors in every pack [or close to it]
4) Pulled a Rockie

The sad part is that I had planned on picking up a pack of something old school for cheap, but everything pre-2007 is outrageously priced at this joint due to the possibility of pulling ManRam, Jeter, or Jose friggin Reyes rookie cards. I guess that box of 1992 Bowman will remain completely stocked with the packs it left the factory with because $17/pack ain't gonna move any product.

I'm amazingly bitter all of a sudden.

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: '07 Bowman BDP&P Sesh #5

The store is officially sold out of BDPP, thanks to yours truly, but the last few packs have been pretty hot. I'll space them out, but check this first one:

BDP34 Matt Brown
BDP51 Kevin Slowey
BDPP92 Chin-Lung Hu



BDPP103 Jay Bruce



BDPP101 Johnny Whittleman (Chrome)
BDPP46 Josh Horton (Chrome Blue Refractor, #185/199)



BDPP97 Brent Lillibridge (Gold)

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Graphic Design Help?

Ok, so I'm thinking Wax Breaker needs a bit of a facelift. The cute 'check out the new blog' look has come and gone after four months of operation and now I would like to extend an invitation to the readers.

If anyone would be willing to put some time and effort into designing a header/banner for the site, Wax Breaker might be willing to return the favor in a somewhat generous fashion, whether we send out a box of cards or something similar to the reader who designs the best logo.

Details to come in the near future, but keep the thought in mind. I'll also be needing some help with my new collection blog, Iron Man Cards. Thank you all and happy collecting!

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: '07 Bowman DP&P Sesh #4

Busting two packs today:

Here we go...

Pack #1:

BDP7 Alejandro De Aza (Blue Parallel #149/399)... very nice!



BDP4 Chase Wright
BDPP11 Kyle Lotzkar
BDPP36 Craig Heyer
BDPP94 Greddy Sandoval (Chrome)
BDPP64 Matt LaPorta (Chrome)... FINALLY!



BDPP6 Ed Easley (Gold)

Pack #2:

BDP53 Yovani Gallardo
BDP42 Curtis Thigpen
BDPP17 Oliver Marmol
BDPP63 Jake Smolinksi



BDP26 Jarrod Saltalamacchia (Chrome)



BDPP57 John Tolisano (Chrome)
BDP46 Homer Bailey (Gold)

Not a bad day's work! I've been waiting on a LaPorta chrome since I started collecting this particular set. I've pulled seven various Evan Longoria prospect cards before a single LaPorta chrome. The scanner effect on the chrome cards is pretty dope too.

I love this series and only hope that they can continue to release it in the future. It reminds me of the essence of baseball and why we collect. Sure, a large portion of these players won't storm onto the scene in the Bigs, but it's fun to watch these guys at the local minor league ballpark and even when their names pop up on the ESPN ticker. Good work, Bowman... my favorite series of 2007-08.

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Birthday Wishes

I'm heading out of town for the weekend, but before I leave, I wanted to wish the Father of Wax Breaker a very happy birthday. Spud will be celebrating this weekend, though I regretfully won't be able to make it.

Happy Birthday, Brotha!

Rant: Brighthouse Networks, Jokes in the Booth, Stud Third Basemen

This has absolutely nothing to do with The Hobby, but now that I am living in Orlando, I'm seeing a fair amount of Tampa Bay Rays games on a weekly basis. Here are a few observations:

A) Brighthouse Networks, the local cable provider, is a joke. This company STILL does not carry the local FSN affiliate down here in Florida. Why is this the first point I'm making? Well, the Orlando Magic, the only franchise of the "Big 4" that Orlando is home to, plays the majority of their games on FSN. Just a short drive down I-4 you have the closest Major League baseball franchise that also plays the majority of their games on FSN. Here in Central Florida, we get a game, maybe two, each week that are aired on ION which has some of the worst feed quality I've ever seen. I'm currently watching the Rays on WGN vs. the Cubbies. One thing I hate is listening to the opposing team's broadcast.

... Which leads me to...

B) I almost took the broadcast duo of Drew Goodman and George Frazier on FSN-Rocky Mountain for granted. Those are two of the best in the game and I'm just glad I appreciated it while I had it. Sorry, Tampa... your guys are as big of jokes as Brighthouse.



C) Evan Longoria is ridiculous. It's nice to be able to watch another young infielder while Tulo is on the DL.



That is all.

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2008 Topps Opening Day

Big League had a monster sale over Father's Day weekend and along with killer discounts and a complimentary pack of '08 Topps Opening Day just for walking in the front door. I'm not a big modern-day Topps fan, but I'll take a free pack of cards any day of the week.

Here we go...

84 The ToddFather



36 Felix Hernandez
Matt Holliday mosaic puzzle piece thingamajig (anyone know the technical term for these? Pretty pumped to come up with some more 5280 love only 3 cards in)



168 Raul Ibanez (#658/2199)



Waste of time, money and natural resources



142 Bobby Crosby
71 Magglio Ordonez

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2008 Bowman Baseball Sesh #2

I figured I'd give this stuff another shot.

Here we go...

190 Derek Jeter



186 Aaron Hill
182 Brett "Boom... Outta Here" Myers





147 Zack Greinke
159 Gary Sheffield
BP6 Glenn Gibson
BP43 Luke Montz... sporting the Potomac Nationals gear



BCP43 Engel Beltre
BCP1 Max Sapp
37 Gil Meche (Gold)



I still can't figure out if I like '08 Bowman, but I'm lovin' me some Brett Myers and his poignant linguistic skills.

Boom... outta here.

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 1998 Bowman's Best Baseball

So, what are we looking at?

'98 Bowman's Best is a 200 card set with 100 prospects and 100 veterans. Vets have a gold background while the fresh meat have silver ones. From my experience, [on average] you pull 3 vets and 3 prospects in the 6 card packs. Of the two parallels in this set, refractors are found 1:20 on average and numbered to 400 while Atomic Refractors are found 1:82 on average and numbered to 100.

Here we go...

34 Fred McGriff



156 Jason Grilli
162 Chad Hermansen
44 Ryan Klesko



60 Greg Maddux
149 Mark Kotsay



Hmm... 4 Atlanta Braves of past and present (McGriff, Kelsko, Maddux, Kotsay)... what are the odds on that?

I've never been a big fan of the backgrounds used in this series, but the pulls weren't half bad in this pack.

What do you think?

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 1993 Bowman Baseball

I cleaned the shop out of '07 Bowman DP&P (pack breaks to come) so I was looking for some other cheap goodies to bust. Their 1992 Bowman stock is selling for over $12 a pack, most likely for the ManRam RC which is ABSURD. God knows how long that box has been sitting in the case... not a single pack has been sold. I decided to go after the '93 set for a mere $3 and change.

'93 Bowman is a 708 card set, 14 cards per pack, with 48 "special engraved foil card[s]", 1 randomly inserted in each pack (339-374 and 693-704). These cards feature "top prospects and rookie-of-the-year candidates" (per 2008 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, 17th Edition).

Here we go...



124 Andy Cook
165 Rick Helling
301 Bobby Witt
418 Oretes Destrade



577 Manny Alexander
366 Justin Thompson (Top Prospect)



402 Scott Bullett
180 Jeff Juden
439 Tony Pena
479 Kevin Reimer
626 Carlos Garcia
231 Ellis Burks



100 Larry Walker



381 Leo Gomez

I was a little disappointed until I hit two Rockies (at one point in time) back-to-back in Burks and Walker.

Would you guys like to see more '93 Bowman Baseball in the future? Drop a line and let me know.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Wax Breaker is Back Online!

Sorry about the delay, folks. I have a new hard drive and am back in business. I'll have a new post for ya tonight along with quite a few more in the near future. I've got a lot of new breaks to share.

Thanks for checking in!

- J.C.F.

---------------------------------------------------------------

6:45pm UPDATE:

Just waiting on some scanner software to finish installing... posts to come this evening.

On the DL...

Just when we got this thing going strong again, we cross another speed bump. The hard drive on my laptop went belly-up at the start of the week and I'm waiting on Apple to dial me up and let me know that the new one is ready to go. I've got 10-12 pack breaks ready to go, but I'm just waiting around to get some scans up.

Also, our local store is having a monster sale tomorrow with 40% off of all boxes, 20% off of all packs along with other assorted discounts around the store. Grant and I will be checking it out and are hoping to come home with some goodies.

I'm hoping to get the computer back tomorrow so check back in soon!

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Winner: 1,000th Hit Contest!

And the winner is...

John from Old School Box Breaks!

Answers:

1) 262 Hits
2) Ichiro Suzuki owns the record
3) Ryan Drese gave up hit no. 258 (previous record of 257 was set by George Sisler in 1920)

John has 24 hours to email me with his mailing address for the contest prizes. If no email is received within 24 hours, a new contest will be held with the same prizes up for grabs.

I'm currently having serious laptop issues and might be out of commission for the next couple of days, but I'll be able to check email at least twice a day.

Thanks to everyone who participated and we hope you continue to check in as we would like to begin a bi-monthly contest series in the near future. Thanks for supporting Wax Breaker and don't forget to visit our blogroll and see what our friends are up to!

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

1,000th Hit Contest!

Spud and I would like to thank you all for taking time out of your day to check out the site. Wax Breaker had it's 1,000th unique visitor stop by the site today which encourages us to improve our content and step up our game all around. We sincerely thank you all and we look forward to what will come of this little ol' blog.

To celebrate the 1000th hit, I've decided to host a trivia contest and do my best to give back to the readers. Up for grabs are two hobby packs of either '08 Upper Deck Series 2 or '08 Topps Series 2 (winner's preference), and an '07 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects B.J. Upton chrome parallel (if the bonus is correctly answered). The three part question is as follows:

1) What is the MLB record for most hits in a season?

2) Who holds this record?

3) Off of what pitcher was the record breaking hit knocked into play?

Bonus: What is BJ Upton's real/first name?

The first person to post the correct answer as a comment to this story for all three questions, four with the bonus, no later than 11:59pm EDT on Monday, June 9th will be announced the winner. Once the winner is announced, that person will need to shoot me an email at FooteMedia@gmail.com to confirm mailing address, etc.

You must get all parts of the question correct to qualify!

Only one response per reader will be allowed, so be wise with your answers! Best of luck and be sure to check back in on Tuesday for the winner of the 1,000th Hit Contest!

***EDIT***
The bonus prize will be an '07 Bowman DP&P chome parallel of JUSTIN Upton, not BJ. The bonus question will remain the same, though. I'm still looking for BJ Upton's real/first name.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: '07 Bowman BDP&P Sesh #3

Today it's a two-packer (sorry about the cockeyed scans):

Pack 1:
BDP54 Mark Reynolds


BDP23 Brandon Wood
BDPP97 Brent Lillibridge
BDPP52 Charlie Culberson


BDPP25 Dustin Biell (Chrome)
BDP31 Jesse Litsch (Chrome)
BDPP21 Austin Gallagher (Gold)

Pack 2:
BDP50 Ryan Braun


BDP6 John Danks
BDPP31 Scott Carroll
BDPP108 Carlos Gonzalez
BDPP103 Jay Bruce (Chrome)


BDP40 Jeremy Hefner (Chrome)
BDPP60 Gary Gattis (Gold)

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 1991 Topps Stadium Club Pack Break

I own a couple of Stadium Club cards from this and other sets, but this is officially my first break of the product. Big League has a ton of unopened product and I'm looking forward to some epic pulls.

Here we go...

282 Kevin Maas
200 Nolan Ryan



86 Howard "HoJo" Johnson (one of my favorite Mets of all time)



I find myself thinking this isn't too shabby so far...

19 Mike Scioscia



Topps Stadium Club Limited Time Membership Offer



60 Ron Darling
105 Benny Santiago
100 Doc Gooden
123 Ruben Sierra
24 Tom Henke
34 Dave West
193 Kelly Downs
10 Geno Petralli

Not bad for an extra $1 spent at the shop.

So, to all of you Stadium Club fans:





That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: '07 Bowman DP&P Sesh #2

Here we go...

Pack 1:
BDP7 Alejandro De Aza
BDP15 Alex Gordon
BDPP64 Matt LaPorta (dinged corner... Uggh!)



BDPP26 Julio Borbon (Chrome)
BDPP102 Gorkys Hernandez (Chrome)
BDP23 Brandon Wood (Gold)

I was forunate enough to watch LaPorta play at Florida and am really pulling for this guy. Yeah, a biased opinion from a Gator-in-law, but whatever. In '07, Matt had a .402 avg (in the SEC), slugged .817, amounted 52 steaks and crushed 20 homers in 52 games. The card also notes that he went yard twice in his first 3 games as a pro for the Helena edition of the Brew Crew.

I'm done touting, for now.

Pack 2:
BDP20 Matt DeSalvo
BDP25 Hunter Pence



BDPP9 Ryan Zink
BDPP109 Colby Rasmus
BDP19 Danny Putnam (Chrome)
BDPP17 Oliver Marmol (Chrome)
BDP41 Tyler Clippard

I also wanted to clear something up in my previous post. Technically, the base set of this series is a 54 card rookie collection (BDP1-BDP54) with a Barry Bonds waste-of-space 'base card' rounding out the set (BDP55). There are 110 cards in the insert set that feature prospects/draft picks (45 prospects, 65 draft picks).

As we all know, the RC, (RC), XRC, etc. situation has gotten out of control in the past few years and I still have trouble telling what is what. The card companies that are run by short-term visionaries and the MLBPA need to come to a conclusion that can help fix this mess. You're not fooling me with the MLB RC logo that is tainting the beauty of some great cards. Figure it out... the quicker, the better.

Here is a great post from Baseball Fever that displays a great explanation of the situation as well as the hard work done by a great collector.

**Post originally written 06/04/2008**
Grant and I will be checking out the '08 MLB First-Year Player Draft tomorrow at Disney's Wide World of Sports and we're hoping for some good things. Vinny Castilla will be there representing the Colorado Rockies along with current and future HOF-er's (Jim Palmer, Al Kaline, Dave Winfield, et al. I know we'll be lucky to see 3 draft picks in attendance, but it should be a good time. I'll fill you in tomorrow night.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft

Grant and I will be making an appearance this year as we're both Orlando residents once again. We'll be the two Rockies hooligans observing live from Disney's Wide World of Sports, so keep an eye out for us on ESPN2 (2pm Eastern/Noon Mountain). I'm hoping to get some live blogging done over on Tulo Trader while we're there if I can get a connection.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Pack Break: 2008 Bowman Baseball

I've done some serious work at the card shop over the past couple of weeks. I'll spread the love and scatter this week's pack breaks over the next few days.

I love BDP&P so much that I figured I might catch up with the times and finally pick up a pack of '08 Bowman Baseball.

Pack Info:

10 cards per pack

5 Base Cards (Vets)
2 Bowman Prospects (BP)
2 Bowman Chrome Prospects (BCP)
1 Gold Parallel (or mixed in goodies such as autos, scout autos, #ed parallels, etc)

The Pulls:

14 Carlos Zambrano
163 Eric Byrnes (nice haircut/slide into first/'07 playoff exit... and amazing start to '08, dammit)
174 Ryan Garko



110 Ryan Zimmerman
126 Dan Haren (Go back to the AL, will ya?)



BP5 Jacob Butler
BP63 Alex Liddi
BCP50 Austin Jackson



BCP20 Stephen Chapman



10 Erik Bedard (Gold Parallel)

There have been plenty of reviews on this product so I won't begin to waste your time, but here's your run-of-the-mill Bowman Baseball.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.

Box Break: 2008 Upper Deck Team USA Box Set

The Product:



2008 Upper Deck Team USA Box Set, courtesy of Big League Cards

The Info:

60 card complete set
* 25 National Team Player cards
* 1 National Team Coaches card
* 1 National Team card/team checklist
* 5 National Team 'Results' cards
* 20 Junior National Team Player cards
* 1 Junior National Team Coaches card
* 1 Junior National Team card/team checklist
* 6 Youth Junior National Team Player cards (3 players per card)

9 Guaranteed Hits
* 2 Gamers
* 7 Autos

The Set:

Assorted National Teamers:


21 - Cody Satterwhite


22 - Justin Smoak


32 - Japan Series Game 5 (USA 7 - Japan 3)


Assorted Junior Nationals:


34 - Mychal Givens


35 - Robbie Grossman


36 - Tyler Hibbs (wow... what a youngen)


Assorted Youth Junior Nationals:


58 - A.J. Cole, Nolan Fontana, Nick Franklin


The Hits:


JN-6 Testsuya Kokubo gamer


JN-13 Shota Oba gamer



77 Tyson Ross (Blue Ink Auto)


89 Garrison Lassiter Blue Ink Auto)



BWE-24 Brett Wallace 12/50 (Red Ink Auto)


UE-5 L.J. Hoes 72/75 (Blue Ink Autogamer)


UE-11 Harold Martinez 181/249 (Black Ink Auto)


YE-16 Max Stassi 202/295 (Black Ink Autogamer)


Q&A-BM1 Brian Matusz Q&A Auto


Thoughts:
I must admit, I'm a fan. Yeah, it's a little strange seeing high schoolers [and younger] on cards, but it doesn't bother me. Imagine being in high school or even college and having your own Upper Deck baseball card. It's ridiculous... and I love it.

I see it as a way to commemorate the accomplishments of these players on the field and I think it's a fun set. I'm not very opinionated on this collection aside from the fact that I am happy with how it came out and am immensely attracted to most things USA... if Old Glory's on it, chances are I want it.

Grant and I will be attending the draft tomorrow at Disney's Wide World of Sports here in O-town. The majority of the National teamers are projected to be top picks so I'll be watching a little more carefully this year. Apparently Disney is really strict on autographs at the event, so we'll see what comes out of it.

I'm hoping to get some live blogging done at the event on Tulo Trader, but we'll see.

That's all I got...

- J.C.F.