Welcome to another football day at Bustin' Wax. Joining me on screen is Steven Bloedow, football price guide analyst for Tuff Stuff's Sports Collectors Monthly. We've got another product hot off the press, so let's roll.

Today's Feature: Donruss Classic 2008 Football

• 18 packs/ box ($90)
• 5 cards/pack

What are we looking for? Autos, game-used memorabilia cards - at least three in this box. This product also has some neat subsets, of which Donruss provides plenty to keep things interesting. Let's break it down.

• 1 Significant Signatures: Rookie Felix Jones (numbered to 125)
• 2 Sunday's Best: Patch and auto of Reggie Bush (numbered to 5) and Donald Driver (numbered to 250)
• 2 Membership: Marshawn Lynch (numbered to 1,000) and Dwayne Bowe (numbered to 250)
• 2 Saturday Stars: Matt Ryan (numbered to 1,000) and Brian Brohm (numbered to 250)
• 1 Classics Legend: Hank Stram (numbered to 999)
• 1 Monday Night Heroes: Derrick Mason (numbered to 1,000)
• 3 Timeless Tributes: Kellen Nelson rookie parallel (numbered to 250), Jordy Nelson rookie parallel (numbered to 250) and Fred Taylor parallel (numbered to 250)
• 2 Classic Singles: Jim Brown (numbered to 250) and Roger Staubach (numbered to 1,000)
• 1 Classic Triples: Merlin Olsen, Joe Greene and Jack Youngblood (numbered to 1,000)
• 2 School Colors: Kenny Phillips and Robert Killebrew (both numbered to 1,000)
• 2 Old School Colors: Lee Evans (numbered to 1,000) and Thurman Thomas patch (numbered to 100)

A nice pull of the Reggie Bush card (though it was pretty beat up coming out of the pack), and the Jones sig. would make anyone happy. There are a lot of little additions that keep this line busy and interesting, and we found a good variety. To get a glimpse of these cards, check out the video below:

Welcome to another segment of Bustin' Wax. This week we have Tuff Stuff's Sports Collectors Monthly Editor Scott Fragale as a guest opener, providing some good insight into the NFL rookie class we had hoped to uncover in this product. Let's get started.

Today's Feature: 2008 Topps Rookie Progression Football

• 5 cards/pack
• 20 packs/box ($75)

The cards themselves are of nice stock with decent action shots. There is a lot of text on the back with just the last year's stats. The product itself is intriguing because of the rookies, and we did get some good pulls. We got about what was expected in terms of auto and memorabilia cards, too.

Here is the breakdown:

• 1 Auto redemption: Glenn Dorsey single sig. bronze parallel
• 1 Rookie auto: Kevin Smith (numbered to 20)
• 1 Rookie Patch: Andre Woodson (numbered to 99)
• 1 Veteran Patch: Steven Jackson (numbered to 299)
• 5 "Veteran" cards: Braylon Edwards, Tony Romo, Terrell Owens, Willie Parker and Brandon Jacobs
• 3 "Legends" cards: Troy Aikman, Drew Brees and Terrell Owens
• 4 "Rookie" cards: Tom Zbikowski, Yvenson Bernard, Adarius Bowman (numbered to 399) and Eddie Royal (numbered to 299)
• 6 parallels: Derrick Ward (numbered to 389), Jerricho Cotchery (numbered to 99), Daunte Culpepper (numbered to 299), Greg Jennings (numbered to 199), DeSean Jackson (numbered to 389) and Ali Highsmith (numbered to 299)

Click on "play" below to check out the video of the break:

For this installment of Bustin' Wax, we went back to the archives a bit and busted open a a box of Donruss Classics 2007 Football. And we brought along the editor of Sports Collectors Digest, T.S. O'Connell. Check out the video, and we have the breakdown below.

Today's Feature: Donruss Classics 2007 Football

• 5 cards per pack
• 18 packs per box ($80 per box)

When you think classic cards, these fit right in, with a staid brown background and foil script. I like a few more stats on my cards, though the commentary on the back isn't bad. The subsets are all right. I liked the Classic Singles and Legend subsets, as did Mr. O'Connell, as you'll see.

Here's the breakdown:

• 2 rookie autos (Tim Shaw and H.B. Blades (both numbered to 999)
• 1 Sunday's Best jersey swatch, Andre Johnson (numbered to 250)
• 1 Sunday's Best base card, LaDainian Tomlinson (numbered to 250)
• 1 Daunte Culpepper parallel (numbered to 25)
• 2 limited rookie cards, Dwayne Jarrett and Adam Carriker (both numbered to 1,499)
• 1 Timeless Triples insert card, Romo, Owens and Glenn (numbered to 1,000)
• 1 Legend insert card, Ron Mix (numbered to 999)
• 1 Legendary Player insert card, Bill Bates (numbered to 100)
• 1 Classic Singles insert card, Mike Singletary (numbered to 1,000)
• 1 Monday Night Heroes insert card, Marc Bulger (numbered to 250)
• 1 Saturday Stars insert card, Reggie Bush (numbered to 1,000).

Here's the unveiling:



 

Well, now we've done it. Attached with this Bustin' Wax edition is some video to go along with the summary below. It's sort of a trial balloon of what we'd like to do on this site, so bear with the quirks (including the abrupt ending).

Today's Feature: 2008 Topps Co-Signers Baseball

• 6 cards per pack
• 12 packs per box ($120 per box)

The cards themselves are all right. I think the base cards could use some more color. I was a little thrown off by the additional name and silhouette player on some of the parallel cards, but I get it with the Co-Signers theme. We achieved the expected parallel count (12) and got three autographs (if you include the redemption card).

Here's the breakdown:

• 1 autograph redemption for Sam Fuld

•  1 dual auto card of Jeff Francis and Ubaldo Jimenez (no edition number noted)

•  1 auto card of boxer Shannon Briggs (no edition number noted)
•  3 red parallels - Prince Fielder, J.R. Towles and Joe Blanton (numbered to 400)
•  2 gold parallels - Richie Sexson and Vernon Wells (numbered to 150)
•  2 blue parallels - Daisuke Matsuzaka and Mike Lowell (numbered to 250)
•  2 bronze parallels - Bobby Abreu and Ken Griffey Jr. (numbered to 300)
•  1 green parallel - Jake Peavy (numbered to 200)
•  1 red super refractor - Vladimir Guerrero (numbered to 100)
•  1 blue super refractor - Hideki Matsui (numbered to 50).

To see these cards being opened, see below:

Welcome to another edition of Bustin' Wax. After a week at the Hawaii Trade Conference (in Phoenix?), I'm a little behind with this blog and I apologize.

Some initial feedback received thus far requests per pack and per box pricing, along with some scans of best pulls. The pricing will be taken care of no problem. As for the scans, I'll usually add them later because I like to post the findings quickly, and sometimes scanning takes a little bit to get finished. With that, let's roll.

Today's feature: Upper Deck 2008 Baseball Spectrum
-  5 cards per pack (about $7.50 at hobby outlets)
- 20 packs per box (about $135 per box)

My initial thoughts on opening this product is that the set definitely lives up to its name. Flashy colors dazzle in the light, so kids will like it. The parallels really stand out. Backside stats cover the last eight years, which is something I like (entire career listings are even better).

Here's what we found:

• 2 autographed cards: Rookie sigs of Bill White (Rangers) and Lance Broadway (White Sox). This lives up to the two autographs per box average.
• 7 Spectrum Swatches: Way more than the two memorabilia cards per box average. Pulls include:
• Jorge Posada (numbered to 20)
• Joba Chamberlain (numbered to 35)
• Jose Reyes (numbered to 50)
• Jerad Weaver (numbered to 75)
• Adrian Beltre  (numbered to 75)
• Chris Carpenter  (numbered to 75)
• Andruw Jones (numbered to 99)
• 6 Derek Jeter Retrospectrum cards (including a parallel numbered to 99)
• 5 orange parallels numbered to 399: Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Zito, Aramis Ramirez, David Wright and Victor Martinez.
• 5 Yankee Stadium Legacy cards
• 2 Spectrum of Stars (better than the one-per-box average): Autos of musicians Steven Sweet of Warrant and Miljenko Matijevic of Steelheart.

Wow, this was an action-packed box. I'm guessing not all boxes are like this, but it was fun opening. I don't know about anyone else, but I get a little excited seeing swatches with such low runs.

As for the musicians, well, I wasn't expecting that, and I'm not sure those two in particular added much to the box for me. but it's something different I guess.

Here are some pix:

Welcome to the latest Bustin' Wax feature. We're going to try and update more on this site, as suggested by some of you. There is a lot of product coming out, so we'll get it posted so you can share your thoughts on the product, too.

Today's Feature: 2008 Topps Finest Baseball
- 5 cards per pack
- 3 six-pack mini boxes per box (18 packs total)

First off, and this might be just me, but all of the cards are already curved straight out of the packaging. What happened to flat cards?


Here's what we found in this box:

• 3 autographed cards; Mark Ellis, Josh Anderson and Chris Seddon (living up to the one auto card per mini box promise). The Anderson auto is also a blue refractor numbered to 399.
• 4 Blue Refractors (numbered to 299): Vladimir Guerrero (Finest Moments), J.J. Hardy, Seth Smith and Chris Young.
• 2 Green Refrractors (numbered to 199): Tom Glavine and Noah Lowry.
• 1 Black Refractor (numbered to 99): Joba Chamberlain.
• 1 Gold Refractor (numbered to 50): Brian Bannister (Finest Moments).
• 1 Rookie Redemption Card (#5 of 10). Topps just announced the first one in the Redemption Set - Johnny Cueto. These will be mailed out after Aug. 30.

We also received nine other Finest Moments cards and six Topps Team Favorites cards. I don't mind the Team Favorites cards with the color team logos in the background. Younger audiences will really like that.

Overall this is a decent product. Nice, thick cards with good photography. The backs have a Finest Moment for the player from 2007, with the rookies having their "moment" in the minors.

These cards have a nice sheen, too, but don't look for patches and such. Now if we can get some of these cards without the curved features, all the better.

As a side note, I'll work on getting some photos up on here, too. But for the first batch, I just wanted to get the ball rolling.