Prize Inside

 

Another #CrackinWaxMailDay from @CrackinWax features some oldies and goodies. 

 

The 2000's (sometimes known as the noughties, but I've had a really hard time embracing that word) were a breeding ground for card companies reviving retro brands and releasing retro-inspired sets to the world. Upper Deck had some faux "Vintage" sets with mixed success. Fleer churned out numerous classy looking sets featuring retired players. But Topps likely made the biggest mark with their Heritage, Turkey Red and Allen & Ginter brands. And that's not to mention Topps Archives or some of their other pre-war tribute offerings like 2002 Topps 206. Topps also had a two year run with the retro-inspired Cracker Jack sets in 2004 and 2005. Along with some other older box breaks, Crackin' Wax had slots in a 2005 Cracker Jack break on offer, and I picked up a couple of them.

The Mariners are usually a solid choice in this decade thanks to the legendary Ichiro. I've never been an Ichiro collector myself, but I know there are a number of fans of his cards out there.

Of course, the Cardinals cards are going to be the big draw for me, and I did fairly well in that regard. Each pack has a mini card inside as well as a individually wrapped "special prize" which, as it turns out, is another mini. These three are the red background (most common variety) mini parallels, all of which I needed. The Edgar Renteria card actually comes in two flavors, so I was fortunate that the Red Sox version wasn't the one that was pulled.

These minis look the same, but they are actually stickers. There's a complete parallel run of both non-sticker and sticker minis, so there's a lot to collect in this set if you're a team collector. (And that's not to mention the rarer numbered parallels, of course.)

I have a hard to passing on a good Heritage break, even though my chances of landing the last coveted card I need from the High Numbers portion of the set (Tatis) were fairly slim. My consolation prize was this Trevor Story short print from the regular set.

Last up was a box of 2000 Bowman's Best, which I had definitely never opened or seen opened before. I didn't end up with any cards I needed for my collection, but I did get a pretty cool trade bait piece here in this on-card Vernon Wells autograph. As with any Bowman product, there are a lot of autographs of prospects who never panned out, so I was pretty happy with this.