NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� The anticipation. The chase. The powdery, sugar-coated board of gum! For generations of baseball card fans, there was nothing like scrounging up some change and sprinting to the store to buy a wax pack.
Some tore the slightly tacky paper wrapper open and flipped through the cards in an insatiable instant (hence the popular phrase 鈥渞ipping wax鈥� for opening card packs even today, about 35 years since use of actual wax wrappers ceased). Others did the slow reveal: one card at a time, peeking out of a corner of the pack, or maybe upside down and reversed. However you did it, it was the right way.
鈥淭here is something inherently magic about peeling away the paper of the wax pack. There鈥檚 something visceral about it, taking the pack to your face and smelling it,鈥� says Brian Pirrip, owner of collectible business M1NT. 鈥淚t鈥檚 something about the mix of all these scents 鈥� the wax, the gum, the cardboard 鈥� that transports you back to a different time.鈥�
Collecting and trading cards has been part of the baseball ecosystem since the 1860s. But the wax pack emerged as the delivery method in 1951 by Topps.
Opening a pack was thrilling. Who were you going to pull? Whether it was Hall-of-Famer-to-be or Sixto Lezcano, a 鈥渃ommon鈥� card, the feeling was the same: 鈥渁n innocent joy,鈥� Pirrip says. You鈥檇 then scale them or flip 鈥檈m, turn that pack of 15 cards into 20 through some clever trades. The cards went with you everywhere.
Fueled by history, statistics and mythmaking, baseball card collecting rode the nostalgia craze of the 1980s into big business and overproduction of cards. While saturation of the market brought down prices, the abundance of fan favorites has driven a resurgence of interest in opening wax packs.
Sure, you can open modern foil wrappers and chase high-value autos, refractors or other gimmicky cards, But there’s nothing like tearing open a wax pack and chomping on the thin pink rectangle.
Pirrip has taken his love of collecting to 47 states. He has seen countless faces light up when a favorite card surfaces.
On a recent night at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets, Pirrip pulled out a box of 1987 Topps cards and had guests rip some wax. Nolan Ryan, Don Mattingly, Roger Clemens and Kirby Puckett drew gasps. But it was all smiles, even for names not uttered in years.
鈥淚t instantly transports people to a happier time,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 get that with anything else.鈥�
___
Part of a recurring series, 鈥淎merican Objects,鈥� marking the 250th anniversary of the United States. For more American objects, click . For more stories on the anniversary, click .
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
