A couple of weeks ago, I did a live box break on Twitch of a sealed wax box of 1991 Classic/Best Minor League baseball cards. As with a lot of sets from the junk wax era, there were some interesting quirks to be found.
One pattern that became apparent pretty quickly was that each pack of twelve cards actually included three randomly selected cards from each hundred series. Always in the same order (000, 100, 200, 300), with random rotations scattered throughout. It’s also worth noting that the white cellophane wrapper is sufficiently translucent to easily determine the first card in each pack. I couldn’t discern any particular insert pattern where that would really help someone cherry-pick a particular “good” pack, but it’s interesting, at the very least.
Each box contains 36 packs. 12 cards per pack yields a total of 432 cards, theoretically enough to complete a base set. In reality, the box yielded 360 non-duplicate cards, or roughly 91% of a complete set. Not counting the 1 in 8000 packs Mike Schmidt autographed card, the other high cards in the set are of future all-stars such as Pedro Martinez, which Beckett gives a high-book value of $3. That’s not great, but it’s not difficult to turn a profit on paper from a box when they can be had for less than $30 on ebay.
Of course, successfully unloading that pile of $0.15 commons to actually turn a profit is another matter entirely.
One of the most fun things with this set is seeing all the great minor league team names. Sure, most of the time it’s the [CITY NAME] [PARENT TEAM NAME], but sometimes you get gems like the High Desert Mavericks or the Everett Aqua Sox. Plus the back of the card helpfully shows the parent organization.
An odd quirk of the set is that out of 450 cards in the full set, only the first 396 are available in packs. The other 54 were, as near as I can tell, only available in the factory set. Plus, of course, the elusive Mike Schmidt auto, which will set you back somewhere between $40 – $75.
I don’t think I’ll be buying another box. Given that I only need 36 cards out of the base set, it’ll make more sense to pick up a factory set off eBay at some point.
Just the Numbers:
Cards per pack – 12
Packs per box – 36
Total cards in box – 432
Percentage of set complete – 91%
Possible Inserts: Mike Schmidt autograph, inserted 1 in 8000 packs, or 1 in 250
boxes.