Cheap Wax Wednesday Box Breaks: 1997 Fleer Circa Baseball Retail
1997 Fleer Circa Baseball consists of a 400-card base set. If you are a Rookie Card collector, this one is not going to be for you. Only four of the 400 base cards are RCs: Felix Heredia, Tony Womack, Brian Giles and Mike Holtz.
While this set does lack rookies, it makes up for it with an in-your-face ’90s design. This product was geared towards younger collectors, but has become an all-ages favorite. Hobby-exclusive Rave parallels can still fetch a significant amount.
I really do try to stay away from the trimmed-down retail boxes to feature here. However, some hobby boxes are way above the $50 maximum “cheap wax” price ceiling. This is one of them.
Warning: If you are sensitive to surface damage, you may want to cover your eyes now. Unfortunately, as is a risk with older products, this rip did feature a lot of cards sticking together, causing quite a bit of “snowing” on the card surfaces.
1997 Fleer Circa Baseball Retail Box Break:
Cards per pack: 8
Packs per box: 13
Price paid: $40
Shop for 1997 Fleer Circa Baseball boxes on eBay.
Pack 1 highlights:
Jay Buhner, Omar Vizquel & Joe Girardi
Buhner put up three straight 40 home run seasons between 1995 and 1997.
Pack 2:
Greg Maddux CL & Bernie Williams Boss (1:6 packs)
Pack 3:
Randy Johnson & Brady Anderson
Speaking of home runs, Anderson blasted a career-high 50 long balls in 1996. His second highest single season total? 24 in 1999.
Pack 4:
Hideo Nomo, Jack McDowell & a miscut Cecil Fielder
Pack 5:
A couple of Juniors, Cal Ripken Jr. & Ken Griffey Jr.
Griffey won a Gold Glove award every season of the 1990s.
Pack 6:
Craig Biggio, Barry Bonds, Jason Isringhausen & Jim Thome
Pack 7:
Otis Nixon, Andres Galarraga & Alex Rodriguez Limited Access (1:18 packs)
The Limited Access inserts fold open to show a landscape view of the player’s home ballpark.
Pack 8:
Sandy Alomar, Mariano Rivera & Todd Hollandsworth Fast Track (1:24 packs)
Pack 9:
Tim Salmon & Derek Jeter
Both of these guys won AL Rookie of the Year awards.
Pack 10:
Jose Mesa, Cliff Floyd & Tom “Flash” Gordon
Pack 11:
Tom Glavine & Juan Gonzalez Boss (1:6 packs)
Juan-Gone was definitely a Boss during the 1990s. After hitting just four home runs in 1990, he hit 335 long balls over the next nine seasons.
Pack 12:
John Valentin, Jason Giambi & John Franco
Pack 13:
Paul O’Neill & Edgar Renteria
Though Renteria played just six seasons in St. Louis, he is currently on the fan ballot for the Cardinals Hall of Fame.
Below all of the packs was a bonus Tony Gwynn Limited Access insert!
Lastly, the O’Neill card back. They went with a unique age/OBP graph on the card backs.
This is definitely a fun rip! A hobby box at current prices would certainly be a gamble when you see how much damage these cards endured while opening this one. $200+ is a lot to risk. However, as I mentioned above, the Rave parallels sell hundreds of dollars. That alone may make the risk worthwhile. I am, however, glad I was able to find a retail box at least so I could feature this collector-favorite.
Shop for 1997 Fleer Circa Baseball cards on:
Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.
I don’t know where you find these “cheap” boxes. Even 1990’s boxes are ridiculous now.