The Sealed Report is a bi-monthly overview of the market for unopened sports packs and boxes. Long-time industry pro Leighton Sheldon of Vintage Breaks and Just Collect will provide insight on what’s hot and what’s not, highlight recent sales of unopened product and tips on participating in one of the hobby’s hottest and most popular realms.
In the last edition of The Sealed Report, I teased you about a hot product that was coming, and I’m beyond excited to bring it you in this edition of The Sealed Report. We’re going to take a look at The Captain, Derek Jeter, for your hot wax…while steering clear of some recent basketball releases.
HOT PRODUCT
1993 Topps Baseball. Most anything from the late 1980s through much of the 90s is something we all tend to avoid as collectors; just wax galore. However, products from 1993 are not only a cheap buy but are trending up in the hobby thanks to the presence of Derek Jeter rookie cards.
Topps put out a massive set in ’93 – there are 825 cards split between two series. Series 1 has 396 cards, and Series 2 has 429 cards. Series 2, while filled with nostalgia, has little to no value. However, Series 1 holds #98, the Jeter rookie.
A series 1 box has 36 packs, and each pack has 15 cards. While the base card of Jeter nice, it’s the GOLD version that’s the chase here. Each pack has 1 gold card per pack, with Topps piggybacking off of their gold cards from the 1992 Topps wax boxes that saw just one gold card per box. The PSA Population Report has 402 PSA 10 Jeter gold rookies. The cheapest PSA 10 on eBay right now is $4,150, which is way up from $2,300 sale in July.
A full Series 1 box can be had for right around $200 after shipping, and single packs retail for about $7.00. Pre-pandemic, dealers were selling full boxes for around $100. I’d expect prices to climb in the coming days after Jeter gets inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. They’re certainly a much cheaper option than the Upper Deck SP boxes, one of which recently sold for $4,800.
Don’t forget that In 2022, an ESPN Documentary is set to release. If this doc is even half of a catalyst as The Lance Dance was for Michael Jordan cards, a Series 1 1993 Topps wax box could wind up being a good deal at current prices. This is a product readily available and affordable.
COLD PRODUCT
Modern NBA wax still seems to be trending on the cold side. I’ve mentioned on the very first Sealed Report that with the NBA season being over, and the 2020-21 rookie class not being as good as the 2019-20 class, the retail prices for this year’s sealed wax has been way down. The cold product this month is a brand new one – 2020-21 Panini Select.
Select was just released on July 30. This product does not have any of the newly-drafted rookies, so the checklist holds players from the season that ended weeks ago. Sure, there is plenty of time for the rookies like LaMelo Ball to catch up to the 2019-20 Zion and Ja class but the prices don’t lie. A 20-21 Select Blaster Box can be purchased for about $50 with free shipping. You couldn’t touch a blaster box for $60 the previous season.
On August 20, Panini released 2021 Spectra, pushing Select aside. Select was released in the off-season, with a rookie class drafted over a year ago, and then got shadowed by the next release just three weeks later.
AUCTION RESULTS
Some unopened sales from recent auctions:
- 2020-21 Panini National Treasures 4-box case $16,200
- 1974 Topps Baseball box (36 packs) $15,600
- 1975 Topps Mini box (36 packs) $8,700
- 1983 Topps Baseball rack pack case $6,600
- 1996-97 Topps Finest Series 1 ($5,400 ) and Series 2 boxes ($5,100)
- 1981-82 Topps Basketball wax box (36 packs) $4,800
- 1980 Topps Baseball wax box (36 packs) $3,900
DID YOU KNOW?
I own a PSA-graded, sealed 1952 Bowman baseball pack? PSA has only graded 11 of these packs.
The 1952 Bowman set has 252 total cards. The 5-cent wax pack has 6 cards inside. The 2.5% chance or so that Mickey Mantle is in the pack has me itching to open this bad boy like I did the 1955 Bowman pack at the National a few years ago in the Pack Heard Round The World.
On the next edition of The Sealed Report, we’re going to back in time and look at hot vintage football. With the start of the NFL season about to kickoff, I’m ready for the gridiron wax.
