Bad Wax Review – 2004 Skybox Autographics Baseball

It’s about 1:10 in the afternoon and I’m sitting at the Palm Beach International Airport.  I have a couple of hours before my flight is going to board so I figured that I would squeeze in a review.  I reach into my bag and low and behold, I pull yet another Fleer product.  This one is Skybox Autographics from 2004.  I think it’s strange seeing Skybox brand name and baseball.  It’s just that I always associate Skybox with Basketball.  Maybe it’s just me, in case you don’t remember what the box looks like and I know you don’t remember here it is:

Something wild about this box, the sports authority is selling it for $160, which is about $140 more than it’s worth.  Inside this pack I can hope to find 5 cards.  The pack is so thick I would have thought you whould have found more than five cards.  Since it’s Fleer, I bet there are some fake out thick card board inserts, that really bother me.  Don’t you hate opening the pack, seeing a thick card in the center and it turning out to be a promotional card.  It really irritates me.  Makes me think, hey I finally nailed a good card, then I read what it says and I feel like I’ve been duped.  Anywyas sorry for that little diatribe, let’s get to ripping this bad boy open!

1. Ken Griffey Jr. – Reds – OF – 9 – Wow, this card is super annoying, I don’t mind the company putting it’s name on the front of the card, but does it have to take up a third of the card?  Griffey has always been one of my favorite players.  I hope it never comes out that he did steroids.  He always seems so jovial but now it’s tough to call him the kid since he is now a grown up.  So do we call him the man?  I guess we can just call him Junior . . . well NASCAR people might have some trouble with that. I guess maybe it is the kid then.

2. Lance Berkman – 1B – Astros – 56 – It seems like the Astros always have some great first basemen.  If you go back to the mid 80s, Glenn Davis was a solid player, then Bagwell filled the spot very well for the late 80s, 90s and some of the 00s.  Now we have Berkman and he seems every bit as good as Bagwell, if not even a little better.  The problem is he plays in a small market and he’ll never get the publicity he needs to be a superstar.

3. Sammy Sosa – OF – Cubs – 30 – This has got to be my 5th Sammy Sosa card.  I’m running out of things to say.  I think I should start keeping track of how many cards of each player I get.  It’s sad that Sammy is retiring.  I think he still has one good no steroids year left in him.  I’m glad he didn’t retire after being accused of taking steroids.  Do you think though, that the cubs knew there was a problem and shipped him off as quick as they could.  I mean his stats weren’t too bad that last year in Chicago, but boy did he fall apart after that trade.

4. Randy Johnson – P – Diamondbacks – 49 – How crappy is it that I keep getting his card too.  Actually I think this is the second pack I got Sosa and Johnsons in the same pack.  I know this set, and a lot of the sets I review are small, but those are some freakish odds.  I hope Randy is done, maybe he could come out and pitch from his traction machine.  How many years can you collect from a major league team with a bum back?  I guess many since he’s been doing to for the past 5 years.

5. Jose Reyes – SS – Mets – 11 – Reyes confuses me, is he a 5 tool player or was his power in 2006 a fluke?  Kind of like when Ichiro hit 15 in 2005.  I think that it was a fluke for now and that he is built for speed.  His steals have increased every year for the past 4 years.  He now has 78 steals as his higest in a season.  Do you think he can hit 100?  That seems to be a magical threshold.  I think if he is going to do it, it’s going to be this year or next, just as he hits his prime years.  I hope he can do it, I always liked the art of stealing.

Lot’s of stars in this pack, but the base set is so small I think we are looking at the best of the best anyways.  One thing that did annoy me is that the cards in the pack were bent.  I know it wasn’t me that did it, since I kept my packs in an area where they wouldn’t get disturbed.   I won’t let this affect my ratings though. Here we go:

Cost of pack – $2.99 – 1.5 stars -  sucks! How can Fleer justify this price?  For a Skybox set?  I mean I understand there are quite a few autographs in the set, but my god, the production for this is probably ridiculous.  Getting a signed card would be really tough.

Cards in Pack – 5 – 2.0 stars -  With 5 cards you automatically get a 2 star rating, with the psyche out card in full effect, I decided not to rate this any higher.

Stars in Pack – 5 – 5.0 stars - Every card in the pack was of a star, so I have to give it max rating.

Value of Pack – worthless – 0.0 stars -  This is another one of those sets that are not priced out in Beckett other than the autographs which are unattainable thanks to the pack searchers.

Card Design – 0.0 stars – I actually feel that this is the ugliest card I have ever reviewed.  The name Sky box takes up a third of the front of the card (just in case you couldn’t remember) and although the photo on front is nice, the back is very sparse, just one line (the best game of his career).  They could have done more with the back, but I guess they knew this was going to be a throw away set.  Here is what the card looks like:

Over all score was 1.7 stars,which sounds about right for this pack.  I don’t even know if it’s worth bringing home with me.  The cards are all bent right through the middle and the cards are worthless.  Maybe I should just throw it away.  On further reflection though, I don’t want to be one of those guys, who throw aways the base set and only keep the inserts.  So I guess I will keep it.  If you want any of these cards for whatever reason, email me at superbadwax@yahoo.com.