Wax Heaven (retired)

As you are no doubt aware, Mario Alejandro has decided to close up Wax Heaven after a two-year run. As a tribute, here is Mario's very first non-Jose Canseco post to what was then known as "The Canseco Completist."

After 10 long years of collecting baseball cards I quit cold turkey as a 17 year-old. To me pursuing girls and having a vehicle was just way more interesting to me than trying to afford a pack of SP Leaf Limited or whatever the fuck was big then. Packs of baseball cards had gone up from an average of .99 cents /$2.00 a pack to 8,9, or even 10 dollars a pack by then. I just could not keep up with the big boys.

Well, it’s 2007 and I have a well-paying job so I decided to jump back in. Today’s cards have autographs, pieces of jerseys, and even bats right on them! It’s amazing. I started out with a hot product called Topps Co-Signers hoping to snatch up a then very hot Daisuke Matsuzaka rookie card. Instead I ended up pulling a Michael Bourn autograph. Maybe if this guy was an actual prospect I would have been satisfied but from the looks of it all this guy can do is run the bases. At best he is a career .270 hitter with 20-30 stolen bases for his first five years and then he’s a utility guy.

It wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed the thrill of opening up the box so since then I have bought at least 10 other Hobby boxes, some for as high as $180 and I have pulled no card higher than $50. It’s not about the price cause I remember buying Big Mac’s USA Topps card for $30 and watching it go all the way up to almost $300 in less than a year and never thought once of selling it, but damn it feels good to have a card that is wanted by the people. The problem is that today I am stuck with SIX, yes six Michael Bourn autographs. This guy shouldn’t have six cards period, let alone 6 autograph cards. I am sick of him. Please, if there is such a thing as a baseball card God, please stop sending Mr. Bourn my way. How about a good prospect for once? Please?