While I’m not exactly thrilled to be walking away from Wax Heaven, I have to say I am somewhat relieved that I won’t be able to do my End of the Year special, titled ‘The Waxxies’. It’s just a lot of work.
Rather than focus on the best of 2009 I figured it would be good to write about the best product of all-time, in my humble opinion. While it would be hard not to give the award to Pinnacle Brands for their many great releases, I’ve decided to think outside the (wax) box.
I believe the best brand ever to be released came from Fleer / Skybox. The first release came in 1995 and was simply titled ‘Emotion’. The following year it was ‘Emotion-XL’ but it was in 1997 that they really came into their own as E-X 2000.
To this day, I have never seen a trading card quite like it. It truly is one of the greatest, most artistic releases to come out of The Hobby and although Upper Deck now owns the name, I don’t think they will ever be done “right” again.
You can check out a box break of 1997 E-X 2000 HERE. You can also more coverage here. E-X returned in 1998 with a design that was way over the top and not quite as great as the years before. Although the magic was clearly gone, parallels from the 1998 release make a killing on eBay.
Below is a sample gallery featuring the ‘Emotion’ brand. Each year is represented and today you can find unopened boxes hovering for around $40 dollars on eBay and sometimes even less at card shows. If you love great photography and truly unique card designs, any of these four issues are sure to please.
The Baseball Card Blog 