Cheap Wax Wednesday Box Breaks: 2000 Upper Deck Ionix Baseball
Upper Deck debuted a new baseball brand, UD Ionix, in 1999 after finding success with it during the 1998-99 NBA basketball season. Ionix was a premium, chrome-style brand that carried a $4 per four-card pack price tag on release. Unfortunately, for anyone that loved the brand, the baseball version of Ionix lasted just two years, disappearing after 2000.
2000 UD Ionix Baseball features a 90-card base set and a multitude of subsets and inserts. Reciprocal parallels are a Refractor-style card with 1:4 packs odds.
Futuristics, technically base cards, feature up-and-coming stars (at the time) and are once in every 4 packs. The best names of the 30 Futuristics cards were Josh Beckett, Rick Ankiel, Eric Gagne, Alfonso Soriano, Pat Burrell & Lance Berkman. Reciprocal Futuristics parallels carry 1:11 pack odds.
The 15-card Shockwave are 1:4 packs while Atomic, another 15-card insert set, is twice as tough at 1:8 packs. Other inserts include BIOrythm (1:11), Awesome Powers, a ’70s-style insert playing off the Austin Powers movies (1:23), and Pyrotechnics (1:72) If those weren’t tough enough, Warp Zone inserts are found just once in every 12-box case.
Also featured in 2000 UD Ionix was a 13-card autograph set, UD Authentics. Overall the odds of finding a UD Authentics Autograph is 1:144 packs, with three of them (Ben Davis, Derek Jeter and Manny Ramirez) being redemptions.
Upper Deck released a multi-brand relic and autograph chase set featuring players in the 3,000 Hit Club. A Piece of History 3000 Hit Club was spread out across all of Upper Deck’s baseball releases, with one or two players found in each product. UD Ionix features cards of Roberto Clemente, who happened to finish his career with exactly 3,000 hits. Randomly inserted into 2000 UD Ionix Baseball were 350 Clemente bat relic cards, four cut autographs, and five cut autograph/bat relic combo cards.
2000 UD Ionix Baseball Box Break
Cards per pack: 4
Packs per box: 24
Price paid: $38
Shop for 2000 UD Ionix Baseball boxes on eBay.
Pack 1 highlights:
Albert Belle, Bernie Williams, Ken Griffey, Jr. & Barry Bonds Shockwave (1:4 packs)
Also inserted into each pack was an Upper Deck Collection Sweepstakes entry card. I actually like these cards because they feature a photo of an actual prize on the front. The backs could be filled out and mailed in to Upper Deck with a prize winner being drawn each month. The prize list was impressive to say the least. I wouldn’t mind winning any one of those!
Pack 2:
Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez & Ed Yarnall Futuristics (1:4 packs)
Pack 3:
Frank Thomas & Fred McGriff Reciprocal (1:4 packs)
Pack 4:
Bernie Williams & Mo Vaughn Shockwave (1:4 packs)
Pack 5:
Mike Piazza, J.D. Drew, Albert Belle & Tim Hudson
Pack 6:
Roger Clemens, Andruw Jones & Rob Ramsay Futuristics (1:4 packs)
Pack 7:
Carlos Delgado, Barry Bonds BIOrhythm (1:11 packs) & Mike Piazza Atomic (1:8 packs)
Pack 8:
Curt Schilling, Jason Giambi & Gary Sheffield Reciprocal (1:4 packs)
Pack 9:
Pedro Martinez, Kenny Lofton & Jason LaRue Futuristics (1:4 packs)
Pack 10:
Fred McGriff, Nomar Garciaparra & Tony Gwynn Atomic (1:8 packs)
Pack 11:
Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Gary Sheffield & Adam Kennedy Futuristics (1:4 packs)
Pack 12:
Troy Glaus, Carlos Delgado & Jeff Bagwell Shockwave (1:4 packs)
Pack 13:
Sammy Sosa Shockwave (1:4 packs), Ed Yarnall Futuristics Reciprocal (1:11 packs) & Pedro Martinez Pyrotechnics (1:72 packs). With well over 1,700 unique Pedro cards, it is not often I am able to pull a new addition from a pack!
Pack 14:
Jose Canseco, Derek Jeter & Scott Rolen
Pack 15:
Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez & Vladimir Guerrero Shockwave (1:4 packs)
Pack 16:
Frank Thomas & Jason LaRue Futuristics Reciprocal (1:11 packs)
Pack 17:
Albert Belle & Rick Ankiel Futuristics (1:4 packs)
Pack 18:
Andruw Jones & Greg Maddux Atomic (1:8 packs)
Pack 19:
Mike Piazza & Alex Rodriguez Shockwave (1:4 packs)
Pack 20:
Roger Clemens, Carlos Delgado & Gabe Kapler Reciprocal (1:4 packs)
Pack 21:
Jeff Bagwell, Larry Walker & Matt Williams Shockwave (1:4 packs)
Pack 22:
Vladimir Guerrero & Jason Giambi Reciprocal (1:4 packs)
Pack 23:
Cal Ripken Jr., Randy Johnson, Alfonso Soriano Futuristics (1:4 packs) & Derek Jeter BIOrhythm (1:11 packs)
Pack 24:
Craig Biggio, Roberto Alomar, Tony Gwynn & Jeff Bagwell Reciprocal (1:4 packs)
Lastly, the Tony Gwynn card back. Upper Deck chose to go with a full picture rather than a full career stat line. It definitely works on these cards. By the way, how good was Tony Gwynn?
I definitely missed out on some things in this box:
Awesome Powers (1:23 packs)
UD Authentics (1:144 packs)
Warp Zone (1:288 packs)
Unfortunately I didn’t hit any of the Clemente Piece of History relics or autographs.
This is still a fun product. It’s loaded with different levels of inserts.
It’s always great for me personally to find a new Pedro Martinez card, especially when it’s an insert found just once in every three boxes. I have always liked Ionix and it is a shame that it only lasted for two baseball releases. I would certainly buy another box at this price. You never know, maybe there are still some Clemente relics and autographs still hiding.
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Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.
I came across a big break of this in a dime bin at a show last year. Finished off my base set (I was down to three Futuristics) and got about 2/3rd of the Reciprocal set. I already had most of the easy inserts but that Pyrotechnics is a neat card. I’ve never seen one before.