I absolutely love Opening Day cards. From the iconic mascot cards to the inserts they put in, I really look forward to this set each year. The price point for the boxes is perfect as well, since I am the embodiment of a low end collector.

Collectors or Gamblers Rant

With the Phillies playoff run in 2022 with them making it all the way to the World Series for the first time since 2009, and each series was so full of magic, I turned to cards to keep that connection to the magic going. I was heavy into collecting about 10 years prior, and prior to that I had been collecting through the late 80s to the late 90s. Even 10 years ago I was primarily collecting from Knuckleball Sports Cards in Horsham PA. What I see now online is a world full of breakers, eBay price charts, investors, influensters, Facebook groups galore all doing one thing: chasing the latest fad, player, or numbered rare super short print. If you go on the various Facebook groups it would give you the impression that everyone is out here buying a metric ton of product just looking for the cardboard sized lottery ticket so they can change their lives.

So many of the same people ripping tons of products, a new trend is ripping them in the car like addicted scratch off tickets just trying to see if they had any “hits”. A hit is any card of significant value, and typically this is a limited edition card with a stamped number on it 12/50 or an autographed, or a relic card that has a jersey or bat piece on the card. This is the new crack. Even more rare are the 1/1 cards that are made. There is only one single card produced and people LOVE these, and with good reason. Scarcity is always better, but where I am coming from is a collector’s standpoint and not someone who is looking to “flip” the cards for profit.

Too many gamblers in the hobby and it looks like the card companies are catering to these trends. Topps Diamond Icons is a hobby box that is $4,000 and it contains 10 cards. The big appeal here is on-card autographs and relic patches on the same card with “genuine diamonds” according to Topps. I watched a break of this here from Jabs Family on YouTube. As a Phillies fan I couldn’t imagine paying that much and ending up with a John Smoltz card. I still hate the Braves. The cards were cool, but $400 a card cool?! I didn’t see myself ever gambling on a hobby box for what I saw. Then again, if that was a Bryce Harper card…. nah I couldn’t do it.

On Christmas break I was watching card breaks and I pull up LaytonSportsCards as they are opening a case. New to breaks myself I lookup the value of this product I never heard of before – Bowman Transcendent. A whopping $22,999.95 for this case of cards. But this is no ordinary case. It is a fire engine red briefcase that contains 84 cards, an invitation to a special event from Topps for Transcendent owners only, and a jumbo auto 1/1. It is a very impressive set of cards, full details here on what is in the briefcase from Cardboard Connection. The cards they pulled were cool looking, but I would have never known they were so expensive just by looking at them. Everything super low numbered in print, and then the jumbo auto reveal was Abraham Lincoln.

So when this happened I thought to myself, is this even baseball cards at this point? What am I actually watching here? As huge as this was and fun to watch I kept wondering where the industry is headed. I guess an Abraham Lincoln or Charles Dickens autograph is worth justifying $23K purchase in baseball cards, but what are we even doing anymore? The product sells out each year as does the $4,000 Diamond Icons boxes. Breakers are just virtual card dealers at the casino, where the odds are never in your favor of hitting the jackpot.

I stay in my bargain basement lane, looking at the cards, appreciating the photos, putting them in order, or if they make it to the binders, and have a good time talking cards with friends. For me it’s the chase of a good deal, and then chasing the Phillies in each pack, not trying to chase lost money or invest in cards as a business. I’ve seen that before in the last bubble burst in cards. This feels familiar. Cards to me will always be a hobby I have fun with, as the greater card culture spirals to levels I’ll never touch.

So give me the junk wax, the base cards, and your common inserts. This is Phillies Junk Wax, and 1991 Topps means more to me than any rookie of the moment, any 1/1 and any Superfractor that I could ever chase. The fun is in the journey, and this is my story.

Opening Day 2022

As a bargain hunting junk wax collector, a lot of my thrill comes in finding the cards for the lowest price available. This is why Opening Day speaks to my heart. New players, new pictures, updated rosters, and a price that doesn’t break the bank.

Now, I will say the last box of Opening Day I had was some time ago and I was a bit taken aback on how paper thin these cards were. The box itself was very small compared to the older boxes I have. Overall though very satisfied with Opening Day, and I want the hobby box to last awhile so I’m going to rip five packs today and see what we get.

First notable cards we pulled were St. Louis Cardinals rookie Lars Nootbaar and Yadier Molina. Until this year whenever I heard or saw Cardinals players a feeling of distain would come over me over remembering the disastrous 2011 NLDS. It was the end of an era for the Phillies, and 2022’s redemption tour’s first stop was in St. Louis. What a series! The fans LEFT EARLY in “baseball heaven” in a close playoff game. No heart in those fans, and the Phillies tore them up, and turnabout is fair play because their aging core was eliminated early from the playoffs, and 11 years later the Phillies got revenge.

One of the biggest draws to me about Opening Day is they have Mascot cards! There are even Mascot autographs in prior years, never got my hands on one however. Out of five packs pulled I managed to get 2 mascot cards, Sluggerrr and Mrs. Met. I didn’t even know there was a Mrs. Met.

We all know the mascot I’m trying to pull, and I have yet to pull the Phillie Phanatic from an Opening Day box, but this is all part of the chase. Sure, I could pull up the listing on eBay and get all the cards that way, but imagine pulling that Phanatic card out of the pack! That would be a legendary fun time to phinally hit that card.

I was stoked to pull this card, and a bit bummed he wasn’t in the Phillies uniform. See the Opening Day cards release early spring, and I saw one site post a checklist on March 8th 2022. Kyle Schwarber didn’t sign with the Phillies until March 20th 2022. So while he wasn’t in the Phillies uniform I still threw this card into the binder to be placed with the 2022 Opening Day roster.

These were awesome cards to pull. Wasn’t expecting the Bomb Squad, so to pull two stars like this, especially Juan “I can’t find the ball in right field” Soto from the Phillies NLCS was super fun. Granted he is in the Nationals uniform here, and not the Padres. We haven’t pulled a single Phillies card yet and I’m getting anxious.

I’ve gone through a lot of junk wax over the last few months that had the Phillies cards pulled out, and that feeling was returning here. Would I find any Ohillies cards at all?

I had to laugh when I pulled this because I had a box of cards from a shop I bought blind. That box had a bunch of cards from different eras, but the guy who owned it bought nearly every card of certain players. One of those players wax Andrew McCutchen. I could tell he was “investing” in players and the box I had was him most likely leaving the hobby. Every card has a story, and so does every collector. At least we finally found a Phillies card!

Now I don’t know if it was the last pack or the next to last pack but then…

WHAT A CARD!!! Wow! Bryce Harper coming in with a Bomb Squad card to finish up the night!

To me this was a great time, some great cards, great players, fantastic memories of a post-season run full of a lifetime of action packed nights of baseball I’ll not soon forget. That is what cards are to people like me, the collectors. They are a conduit to a game, a pastime, a memory shared with those you love. A connection to a time without troubles. I feel like I have to defend the reason I collect Opening Day cards because they represent the love of baseball itself. At the end of the day that is what this should be all about.

Go Phillies!

-PJW