Annual Junk Wax Box Break 2018

This time of year, usually during the National convention, I have developed a tradition to find a couple really cheap boxes of some junk wax set that appeals to me and see if I can build the set in under a week.  Since I basically skipped over the junk wax era when it happened, there are still lots of sets to choose from, several of which I will probably never try, but a few remain that I'd like to delve into.  As long as it doesn't cost too much.

This year, I selected 1991 Fleer.  Yep, in those bright yellow frames.  I had a decent stack of star cards in my tradeables for a long time.  Critics of the set voice their disdain at the intensity of the color, but it doesn't bother me.  It actually makes the photos pop a little better.  And there are a few good photos.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to snag two wax boxes for $5 each at the House Of Cards, and the update set for $4 in Potomac.  I tried to document each step of the break and sort.  Let's see how it came out.

Broke both boxes and separated the logo stickers and the ProVision inserts.  Not sure if I'll actually unseal the Update set.  Look at all that buttery goodness!  Anyone save wax wrappers?  I kept them for some reason.

Sorted them into 100's piles.  Set ends at 720, so the last pile is short, and mostly checklists and dual player cards.

Then took each 100's pile and broke it down into 10's.  Stacked them in order for my set and the dupes pile (on the left).  Wrote down the missing ones along the way.

Found a couple stragglers out of order, and then incorporated my extras from before into the mix.  Want list wasn't too long.

Combined the ProVisions I got with the ones I already had.  Ended up one short.  Eric Davis #10.

Sorted the stickers from each box separately.  They duplicated every sticker except five in each box.  So I have almost a whole 2nd set minus ten.  The down side of the stickers is that there are variations on almost all of them.  Lots of different croppings, outlines and TM mark changes.  Mine are all the wide border versions etc.

Only ended up with a third Brewers logo at the end.  They were all even otherwise.

Put my set in a box and the dupes in my extras monster.

I printed a list of all the variations and checked those off too.  I will definitely chase them all, since they're mostly stat line groupings and other very obvious differences.

Who needs some bright yellow Fleer? ☺