Bad Wax Review – Leaf 2005 Baseball

I knew this pack would come up at some point.  It’s another from the dollar bin at my hobby shop.  A side note, I went down to my shop today and no 2008 Topps or Upper Deck, what’s up with that? I am not usually a big fan of Leaf (or Donruss for that matter), but I am willing to give this a shot.  It is bad wax after all and I know this will be some bad wax, so it works right?  If you never got a chance to see what a pack of these look like, here you go:

After looking at the back of the pack, this set is absolutely loaded with inserts.  I have no idea how many cards are in the master set, but it’s got to be Topps base set huge.  Beckett didn’t have much info on the set or rookies in the set.  So in some respect, it’s going to be fun, because I have no idea what to expect from this pack! Let’s rip into it shall we?

1. Craig Biggio – OF – Astros – 87 – This is a red parallel card, not too bad an insert right off the bat.  I am glad it was a star like Biggio and not some scrub.  I had a chance to watch Biggio in his first game.  I always had an eye on his stats because of that.  I think everyone has a Biggio story, which is why I can’t wait for him to be Hall eligable since you know he is a first ballot guy.

2. Steve Finley – OF – Dodgers – 105 – Steve was released from the Rockies last year, I doubt anyone is going to pick him up since he is 43 and clearly can’t keep up with the pitchers who are 15 years his junior.  He was a 19 year vet and was a very consistent hitter. So what if he killed my Yanks in the World Series.  He is one of those players that I’m OK with even though he’s a Yankee killer.

3. JD Drew – OF – Braves -  17 – Here is a little known fact about JD Drew the (@#$%head).  He actually played on the same team as his brother Tim in 2004.  I didn’t know his brother Tim was in the league or that he had a brother Tim in the first place.  Talk about not getting any pub.  I guess Tim is the Cooper Manning of the family.  Steve is a solid hitter, JD is acceptable, Tim must have sucked, but then again what do I know?

4. Adrian Beltre – 3B – Dodgers – 285 – A short printed checklist for the Dodgers? How lame is that, why in the world would you make a checklist a short print card.  Imagine if you needed that to finish your set and someone on eBay can sell it to you for a couple of bucks because its a short print.  I’d feel like a tool if I had to actually pay for a checklist.

5. Harmon Killebrew – Sportscaster – 18 – Sweet! This is a very cool insert card, very unique.  The card is posted below, but basically they took this idea from a set of 1980s cards that National Geographic put out.  Still a very unique way of presenting a card.  This one is probably one of the lowest serial numbered cards I have ever gotten, and is easily the best insert I have ever gotten (16/35).

6.  Andruw Jones – OF – Braves - Well he finally got his big payday.  Who would have thought that there would be so little interest in him.  Maybe people feel that there is already a lot of mileage on that body and he isn’t getting younger.  His speed from early in his career is gone. He is no longer hitting 0.275 which was acceptable, he’s now in the 0.260 region (0.222 last year).  Which means he is clearly past his peak yeaks and should gradually put up lower numbers.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t make it through his contract with LA.

7. Lyle Overbay – 1B – Brewers – I never understood why he was involved in two big deals one from the Diamondbacks and one from the Brewers.  At 30 He should be at the apex of his prime years.  Last year he had some injuries, but there is no reason to believe that this year he can’t get back hitting 0.285 and 20 homers.  Definitely a bottom tier 1st baseman, but still a gamer.

8. Jeff Fassero – P – Giants – Who says 28 year old rookies can’t stick in the majors?  He did and didn’t retire until he was 43.  That’s 16 major league season!  16 years of absolute mediocrity.  Finding his name among these cards is about as exciting as seeing: Teddy Higuera, Rick Honeycutt, Greg Swindell, or Terry Mulholland.  Just doesn’t get the juices running through your veins. By the way, Jeff’s stats are similar to all those guys (if you were wondering).

So overall, I like what I got.  I still am not impressed with the set, but if you want a pack of cards to buy, where you’ll basically get an insert in almost every pack, then 2005 Leaf is for you. In an 8 card pack I got two inserts, one very rare one and one parallel set.  I looked it up on ebay and a hobby box of this will set you back $75.  That is a little steep.  Lately I’ve been trying to figure out why dealers are asking top dollar for older wax boxes. Several times I have tried to get older boxes of wax with the best offer function on eBay and get it rejected with no counter offer.  Someday this stuff is going tobe impossible to sell, why wouldn’t you sell to someone who wants it. Here are my ratings on the pack.

Price of Pack – $2.99 – 2.5 stars – I am on the fence about this, if I didn’t know what was in the pack, I would have given it under 2 stars, but since you are going to get an insert in every pack, this might not be so bad.

Cards in Pack – 8 – 3.0 stars – Went well above my 5 card rule, which worked out well since I got a couple of inserts.  I bumped the rating to 3 because of the inserts.

Stars in Pack – 3 – 2.5 stars – I went with Biggio, Killebrew and Jones as stars.  I suppose I could have thrown Beltre and possible Drew in there, but let’s not beg for stars shall we?

Value of Pack – $5 + – 4.5 stars – Biggio is worth a buck and the Killebrew is worth around $5, it commands a higher rating than the norm.

Card Design – 2.0 stars – Come on, you knew I was goign to slam it here.  It’s just a boring style, that has been used over and over again.  Why can’t companies come up with some unusual designs (like UD Ionix, or Topps 07).  Those were cool and I’d like to see some more creativity.  How many sets do you have that the front is a photo with some foil on it. In the immortal words of Homer J Simpson, “Boring!”  The look fo the card is below:

In short, the pack rated very well at 2.9 stars. It almost makes me want to go out and get another pack or three.  I saw when I was at the hobby shop, they had at least 3 more packs.  If you get a chance to pick one of these up you’ll have to let me know if you get inserts like I did.  I’m keeping the Killebrew, but everything else is up for grabs, just email me superbadwax@yahoo.com.