The DHC Podcast
Ever wondered what it’s like to be truly involved in sports? Wonder no more!
On this podcast, I’ll sit down with players, GMs, owners, and passionate fans like you to uncover how they fell in love with sports. We’ll dive into their unique journeys, explore the business side of the game, and discuss the endless possibilities that the sport offers.
From behind-the-scenes stories to deep conversations about the sport, I’m here to explore it all—while having a ton of fun along the way!
The Dad Hat:
Twitter: https://x.com/thedadhat216
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedadhat216/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thedadhat216
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPk7lmGqgfNZNS4IM-M8XVw
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedadhat216?lang=en
The DHC Podcast
Junk Wax Queen: How Cards Became a Pandemic Passion Project PT1
Ashley, known as Junk Wax Queen on social media, shares how she transformed from card collecting novice to passionate enthusiast after her husband introduced her to the hobby during COVID lockdowns. What began as a way to pass time together became a serious pursuit with organized binders, display walls, and dedicated collecting strategies.
• Started collecting during COVID when her husband suggested opening packs together
• Prefers older cards while her husband collects modern releases
• Created a "junk wax" wall display after joking about worthless cards being turned into wallpaper
• Organizes collection meticulously with separate binders by sport in alphabetical order
• Maintains a dedicated Vince Carter collection with one treasured card on a necklace chain
• Travels up to five hours to attend card shows, focusing on affordable "dollar boxes"
• Sets a specific budget for card purchases by allocating money to a dedicated account
• Enjoys sharing duplicate cards with other collectors who are completing sets
• Balancing collecting with family needs, especially accommodating her autistic son at events
Follow us on all social media platforms for updates, and catch Ed's DHC Sports Show Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 PM Eastern on YouTube. Make sure to share this episode with at least one other person!
Make sure to follow the Dad Hat Chronicles: https://linktr.ee/TheDadHatChronicles
I guess I'm still learning. Maybe that's why it's so exciting, but I think if I started earlier I'd just have a whole lot more cards.
Speaker 2:Way too many, just too many for the both of you, I know.
Speaker 1:You see anybody there.
Speaker 2:All right, all right. Well, welcome everybody to yet another episode of the DadHack Chronicles. My name is Ed, also known as the DadHack, With me, as always, my co-host, my good friend Val Stadium Food Girl. What's going on, girl?
Speaker 3:Hi, nothing much. I'm so excited. It's another Monday but I get to talk to a new guest, and that's always exciting.
Speaker 2:I know right, this one is a new one. It's going to be a new one for us, so we're excited for this one. But before we get started, I want to make sure that everybody that is tuning in tonight or whenever you are listening to this wonderful podcast, make sure you guys are following us on all social medias and make sure you also catch us. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 PM Eastern time, that I go sports show, which is on YouTube, and Val maybe show may. She may show up one day. You know now that baseball season is really getting started, she might definitely show up and talk some conspiracy theories with us. What do you think about?
Speaker 3:So so cringe. Yes, I'll be ready.
Speaker 2:It'll be extra tinfoil this season, extra tinfoil this year. Okay, sounds good. I like it All right, so with us good tonight. Well, on the show we have someone who is a collector. We met through this wonderful world of social media, through Twitter. Ashley, your handle is junk wax queen. Um well, first of all, welcome to the data chronicles podcast thank you, glad to be here love it.
Speaker 1:I was just listening to y'all show going to pick up dinner, did you? Yeah, like just like 15 minutes ago I was like, oh, they're really good. I'm very nervous. No, we're not, they're really good.
Speaker 2:I'm very nervous. No, we're not. We're not good, we're just a bunch of fans that love we love sports. Definitely. You know, love our sports. And if you follow Val she is the listen when it comes to food items and all things food related for baseball or any sports you need to follow her. That's the one right there. So me, I just, I just like sports. That's it. I love sports. My wife would think that I like it a little too much, but you know, it is what. It is what are you going to do.
Speaker 2:So we, what we want to do is we want to first get started, we want to get to know a little bit about you. And then my very first question to you, if you don't mind, what got you into card collecting?
Speaker 1:So my husband was the one that got me into it. You know, when COVID hit, we went from kind of seeing each other a few minutes a day to all of a sudden being in the house with each other for months, and that was new. We had to find something to to do and he's been collecting since he was a kid and he was just kind of like hey, you know, do you want to rip some packs with me?
Speaker 1:check it out. I'm like, yeah, sure, and it just it just so happened to be a lot of fun. It was something we got to bond over and, okay, I think it kind of kept us from like you know killing each other yeah, yeah, yeah I'm with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, so. So that's I like that, that you know the both of you bonded over that. No, your husband also has a pretty big collection of uh, sports cards as well he does.
Speaker 1:He's um, he's kind of taking a pause on it lately, kind of trying to reel him back in by buying him some stuff here and there, like, oh look what I found for you. But he's kind of switched gears on me a little bit.
Speaker 2:Well, he's been collecting since once, since he was a little kid, right. So he was like maybe I'll take a little bit of a break. Yeah, let me ask you, if you were to put a number on his collection, not yours on his collection, what would be that?
Speaker 1:I don't even know, because it's like I'm very organized with mine and so I kind of tried to do that with his and it was like just when I thought I was making some kind of progress, oh I found another box, or his mom would pull a box out of the attic and I'm just like I just gave up. It never stopped. So I really don't know.
Speaker 3:Wow, I'm looking at your wall and I was laughing when Ed asked that because I knew it had to be a scary number just off of looking at your wall of he's the one that got you into it. I can only imagine your collection, but thinking about the one that got you into it, what that number could be.
Speaker 1:But it's funny though, because we collect different things. He's more into the um, the modern stuff. I mean he has like his older guys that he collects, like andrew jones, and that sort of thing. But I collect the older stuff and he's kind of still in the newer side interesting, I see.
Speaker 2:Interesting, I see. So you fell in love with the older cards, mm-hmm. Okay, I like that.
Speaker 3:That's pretty cool. When you're opening up a pack, what makes you decide where to display? I'm sure you have one of those binders right, Like with card holders? What makes you decide what to put in there? What goes in which binder? What goes on the wall? What's a card that you reference to every day?
Speaker 1:um, so the wall was just um. So the wall was just like it started out, kind of like a joke, like a you know, everyone says that junk wax is useless, not useless, worthless. They're like it's worthless. You might as well turn it into wallpaper, and I'm like that's a good idea.
Speaker 1:I had boxes and boxes and boxes of it laying around and I just slapped it up there and for the wall. It was just kind of like my favorite favorite cards, as in like cards I wouldn't miss if I had to leave it behind, and but as far as like my collection, like I have a separate binder for just my Vince Carter cards and then everything else is divided by sport in alphabetical order.
Speaker 2:Oh my God. So you were like you. It's like, let me ask you this Do you have a spreadsheet on it?
Speaker 1:Not yet. I've started working on it just because I got really tired of coming home and being like oh crap, I already have this one, but it's have this one, but it's it's a lot to. It's a lot to try to get it. You know all in one place that's it.
Speaker 2:I can just imagine you're just like yep, I'm just gonna start a spreadsheet, I'm all, I'm all for this now, I don't know too much about cards.
Speaker 3:I know that there's different brands. Is there like the gold mine, like I know tops, obviously? But then there's also like the card giveaways at stadiums and arenas, like I'm sure those probably don't have like a Paul Skeen's rookie card type. I don't know if they are actually, but like is like do is there like the gold mine of like when it comes to brands for cards?
Speaker 1:That depends on who you ask. I don't open a lot of modern product anymore Like I'll grab like the flagship baseball every now and then, like when it comes out, just because it's hard. It just depends on what you collect. Like, if you ask the people who collect football, they're going to say panini products, and if you ask the people who collect baseball, they'll they'll say tops.
Speaker 2:but yeah, it just just really depends so each sport has their own like favorite brand that they everybody follows more or less.
Speaker 1:That really just has to do with which company has the license for what product and what era you want to collect and that kind of thing interesting.
Speaker 3:What's yours for the four major sports basketball, baseball, football and hockey?
Speaker 1:That's tough, because the ones that I like for basketball, they don't make cards anymore. If I had to choose, I'd say Topps for all of them. Now, the older cards Topps did. They did some impressive stuff, I think. But and like, for every time I get a like, a nice looking tops card from you know the early 90s, my husband's always like can you believe? This was like junk back in the day. It was so cheap.
Speaker 2:And I'm like I know, tell me about it, but do you wish you you would have picked up card collecting young when you were?
Speaker 1:younger.
Speaker 2:Um, well, would you? And if you didn't like, do you think what you would appreciate it more? Like you appreciate it more now than you did if you would have, you know, started it when you were younger don't really know um, because it's funny, because the way my husband describes it is his relationship with cards.
Speaker 1:He said, um, card collecting is like the wife that you've been married to for 50 years you know's familiar, it's there, you love it. Sometimes you get a little tired of it. Then he tells people that I'm still in the honeymoon phase with card collecting, everything's still exciting. I don't know, because it's been almost seven years now, I think, and it's still. You know, I guess I'm still learning. Maybe that's why it's so exciting, but I think if I started earlier I'd just have a whole lot more cards.
Speaker 2:Way too many. Just too many for the both of you. I know Do you focus on any specific sport or do you follow? You just collect for all, like basketball, football or baseball.
Speaker 1:I used to focus on just basketball, just because, like, I thought that the cards look better.
Speaker 2:But here recently I've just I've been buying a lot of baseball yeah, I just said I like that right yeah that's pretty cool, though, like I mean the fact that like you started with basketball and now you're like into getting in some cars because I've seen you know obviously I got to do a research right and you're showing up some of your baseball cards. That's pretty cool stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it just it kind of it comes and goes. It's when I'm like when I'm at a show I mainly focus on the baseball lately but like if I'm on eBay, it's just it's free game, I mean, it's what?
Speaker 2:it's whatever, whatever you can get your hands on. Yeah, how much time do you devote yourself to searching cards now, like, let's say, like you know, obviously you got your your show that you go to, but you also have, like you know, when you look on ebay and you know, marketplace, I'm sure, craigslist, things like that like how much time do you spend looking for cards?
Speaker 1:not really not a whole lot of time. Um, mainly a lot of it comes from um twitter first. So, like I'll see a card that someone shared and I'm like I, I really like that, don't necessarily like that player. Let me go look and see, you know, if there's that same card for someone that I do collect. Um, and it just kind of spirals from there. It just, you know, I'm like I wonder if this person has a card and then it gets out of control.
Speaker 2:I get it. I get it. I mean I look, I don't know Val, I know, but I know I do Like I look for hats like pretty much every day. I got my websites that. I look at and I'm there looking for hats all the time. Did I buy them?
Speaker 3:Probably not, but I shouldn't Earlier, ed, and I never thought of this, that this could be be a thing. But I'm looking at the wall and I think of the binders and I think, like ed, you had mentioned something about an excel spreadsheet. I did not think that that would be something to create with this hobby. That's absolutely incredible. When you come across a car, a player that you have more than one like with with cards, do you, do you trade them, do you sell them? Like? How do you go about that?
Speaker 1:lately I've been trying to find people who are maybe like completing sets or who collect that player too and just kind of send it to them Because I mean, nothing I'm buying lately is, you know, crazy money. So just kind of like, oh well, I know so-and-so is collecting this or putting this set together, I'll just pop it in the mail for them. But I'm trying to be better about not buying the same one over and over again, because it's a lot of work buying it in person. You know it's hours of just digging through boxes and it's like okay, like normally I only end up with like two or three, but lately it's kind of felt like it's more like five or six and you don't have to go into detail about it.
Speaker 3:But is there a card that you own that is worth a pretty penny that you're just not going to sell? Or do you sell them when you know you can get something out of it?
Speaker 1:So I don't really, I don't really sell cards like that just cause I'm, I feel like a little bit of a hoarder, a little bit Cause I'm like I get rid of it. I'm like, but what if I really?
Speaker 3:miss this card someday like what if I need?
Speaker 1:it for something else, um, but I mean, there have been some cards of like players that I don't collect that I'm like it doesn't make sense for me to hold on to this Trey Lance Zion Williamson. I'm like these aren't really people that I collect. Might as well get rid of it while the money is there. It's actually this one. I have it out because I took a picture of it the other day. You might not be able to see it actually this one and I just I have it out because I took a picture of it the other day it's a you might not be able to see it.
Speaker 1:It's a vince carter dunkin go nuts. Um. Is that a whole chain on it? It is, um. I bought it as a joke, um, because I always pick up my husband about how I was going to put it on a necklace and wear it all the time. And that card was actually given to me by somebody else, so I will never get rid of it. I told my husband. I said if something happens to me you have to bury me with it.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Good job yeah.
Speaker 3:Earlier did you say you have a Vince Carter binder? Did I hear?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just going to go back to that. That was just going to ask that question too oh my goodness yeah, um your favorite player.
Speaker 3:You just like the look of his cards the most a little bit of both.
Speaker 1:I like the look of his cards. Um, his cards are a little bit more affordable too, so that was definitely like a a factor, you know, because, like kobe and yeah, well, those are yeah yeah, they're up there wow interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I just never really thought about it this way, right, like I mean, I'm trying to put myself in a way and was like all right, so instead of me collecting hats, it's collecting cards. It's pretty much the same thing, you know.
Speaker 3:I go ahead I cannot pick up another thing to collect.
Speaker 2:I know, I know so interesting.
Speaker 1:What do you collect now?
Speaker 2:What doesn't she?
Speaker 3:I collect a few things Bobbleheads, pins, actually, no Okay, wait, hold on.
Speaker 2:You collect jerseys too.
Speaker 3:Bobbleheads, pins, hats and jerseys.
Speaker 1:Okay, do you just fly them everywhere?
Speaker 3:Okay, hold on. Final list. Final list. I'm sorry I forgot the most important one. Souvenir cups those get displayed, okay. Pins those get displayed. Bobbleheads those get displayed. Jerseys Some I don't wear because a lot of them are autographed, but some I'm like. I also vlog, so I buy the jerseys so that I can wear those to the stadiums. Like, if I'm going to an A's game, I'll wear my A's jersey, if I'm going to an Angels game, I'll wear my Angels jersey, but some are just special to wear. And then hats I always buy a hat every time I go to a new stadium, so I usually do wear them because they're like 30 bucks so I really should wear them. Who?
Speaker 2:are you telling well over 600 hats right here?
Speaker 3:those are usually full. I still put into kids like kids large kids actually, so I'm not spending too much but. I feel expensive, like I said thanks.
Speaker 2:I stopped wearing kids a long, long time ago. I'm six foot two, okay, so it's like I can't.
Speaker 3:I can't wear, you know, kids, anything, youth, anything but yeah, I can't pick up another thing to collect, but this sounds so interesting, especially because I love organization, so if I can find something else to collect that requires organization, that just scratches my brain in such a good way.
Speaker 2:I already have too many things that I'm collecting. If you see, right now I have a lot of Legos in this office. I build them and collect the Legos. Yes, I do. I know Baseball. So, like you know, the one thing that I do now is and it's like to your point, val is I started collecting pins when I go to the ballpark. So if I go to the ballpark, then I'll buy a pin there. So that's something that I do. Minor league baseball it's how we are. We love our minor league baseball, but as far as a hat, I will only buy a major league hat if I'm at that ballpark.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay. Yeah, see, we're all crazy, we all justify one way or another we all got our, you know, we all, you know, justify one way or another. Oh yeah, no, my husband, when he took a break from cards, he picked up lego collecting. I, just, matter of fact, I got him one coming from ebay. Now it's the? Um. You know the scene in jurassic park where the breakthrough yes got him that one coming in the mail kind of excited about it I should show it like we should.
Speaker 2:Me and your husband should talk. I have a bunch of cars and then I have nothing but star wars all over this house, all of his office, star wars. I got my wife. My wife started building, my daughter builds lego. So yeah, it's a family thing now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, him and my, him and my three-year-old built the Legos together.
Speaker 2:It's fun.
Speaker 1:He's got some patience, because I couldn't do it Not with, not with the kids. Like I can do it alone, perfectly fine, but like watching him. Like she's like no, I'll help, I'll do it, I'll do it, and he's like okay.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's how it started with me. And my daughter is like, no, I'll help, I'll do it, I'll do it. And he's like, okay, yep, that's how it started with me. And my daughter is like, go ahead. And now she's building the you know the 18 plus you've bought you know the flower ones. She built it all by herself now, and she's six, about to be seven. All right, got a couple of. I have a question for you, because I'm something that intrigued by this. You and your husband go to the car shows together.
Speaker 1:For the most part we had been going together. It's kind of become a little difficult recently. Our six year old has autism and it seems like I don't know if there's just something changing with him or if it's if he's just had enough changing with him, or if it's if he's just had enough, if he's like I'm done with this. But it seems like his patience with it and like he gets overstimulated um a lot quicker nowadays. So now it's just kind of me going and then them hanging out at the house or at the hotel if we're, you know, traveling I can, I can see that where it's like you know, because it's a lot, it can be a lot.
Speaker 3:You know those, those card shows I I'm assuming there are some very, very one-of-one type cards at these card shows oh yeah how involved were you, whether it was just like through the news or or whatever, with the most recent, I guess, card card? I don't want to call it card drama, like card.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like were you keeping up with that?
Speaker 1:Yes and no. Like I, you know, I saw the like, the bounty that they were offering on it and that sort of thing, but I wasn't chasing it or checking to see if it had been pulled. When I saw that it had, I was like okay, cool.
Speaker 3:It reminded me of the same excitement from the Willy Wonka movie. I'm not with the card world, but it caught my attention. If you find it in a pack and then I remember I kind of like wanted to go out and like buy a pack of cards and see if it was my lucky day. Um, were you involved with, like, the card frenzy during the mike trout when that when, when that card was being searched for a few years ago?
Speaker 1:not really again. Like my, my, the things that I collect are normally like early 2000s and prior. Um, I had like a brief, you know, a couple of years where I was um, buying the modern stuff and opening it and chasing all the rookies and everything else, and then it just like the the price on the newer stuff, like it just wasn't fun anymore. So like we were, you know, you spend a lot of money and it's just like afterwards you're like oh, I do not feel good about that, like it's like eating a whole tub of ice cream.
Speaker 2:When you're doing it.
Speaker 1:You're like this is great. Afterwards you're like why, Relatable, super relatable.
Speaker 3:Now I'm curious about this card show thing. When was the last time you went to one?
Speaker 1:It was a couple of weeks ago. We to um one they had down in atlanta at the um like right across from the ballpark and stuff. Oh nice and do you live in atlanta no, we're about a little over five hours out from atlanta, so we tried to make it like a weekend thing.
Speaker 3:Wow, that's incredible and what was like one of like the one of one cards that like was was there, like the gold mine of cards that was there that day.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I saw a lot of like the vintage cards, so like the fifties and, yeah, the ones that are pricey. But my go to is it's these big cardboard white boxes Like I don't. I don't even look at the showcases anymore. I'm like there's nothing in there I can afford. I'm going to go over here to this box that has a $1 sign on it. But it would have to be one of the vintage cards that I know go for a ton of money.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When you go to these shows or just overall, when you're card surfing and things like that. What's your unicorn Like, what's the one holy grail for you? Not like you know for everybody, but like the holy grail for you.
Speaker 1:So previously it was the Vince Carter that someone gave me. That was my grail that I was chasing, and then somebody just sent it to me in the mail and then I was like, does this mean I'm done? Do I just stop? Do I stop?
Speaker 1:you know, and so now it's just kind of like going through the boxes and it's like, oh, I like this one, I'll just add it to my stack. And you know, it doesn't really. I thought it would like take away from the fun of it a little bit. But now it's just kind of like how many? How many can I put in a binder? Like, how many can I collect now?
Speaker 2:so. So it's evolved from getting the card that you wanted to let's see how many I can get interesting, um, as far as, as far as like for when it comes to that now, like, do you, um, do you, when you go to these card shows, do you go specifically for like one sport, like it was like all right this weekend? This is the cards that I'm looking at, or, like you know, whatever comes to mind, I'm gonna go ahead and get it um, not usually so before christmas, so any card shows that I went to, probably october, november, december.
Speaker 1:I was focused on just finding um andrew jones cards so my husband collects andrew jones. He has a binder that I think he only needed. I think he had like 70 that he needed to like completely fill it front to back, and so my goal was only to look for that, yeah for his like, his, like part of his Christmas present.
Speaker 1:Um, but normally it's just whatever I can. Whatever I've come across is I've. I tried to make a list, you know, of like cards that I were. I was chasing and it just it went off the rails so fast.
Speaker 2:I'm like this isn't on the list list, but kind of like it so to that point, as far as, like you know, the collecting of the cards and things like that, like, do you set yourself, like a, a, a budget, a limit? You know it all. Right, I'm not going over this much.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's something that I kind of talked about on Twitter God, it was probably a month or two ago, because it's so easy to let it get out of control.
Speaker 1:I mean you can ask anybody, because there's, especially after COVID, there's been this thing that there's money to be made in sports cards. There are people that do, and they do really well for themselves, but they work at it 24-7 almost. For the rest of us it's people that do, and they do really well for themselves, but I mean they work at it 24, seven almost. For the rest of us it's. You know once that money's gone, it's gone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, once it's gone, it's gone. You ain't getting it back.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I had to. Um, actually what I do is I take a portion of my paycheck and put it in a separate account and use that. I mean not even just for buying cards, but card supplies, using it to contribute to like they're called racks. But so you know, when they gift other collectors a card they've been wanting and that sort of thing, um, all of that comes from the same account and once it's empty, it's empty until the next replenish again.
Speaker 3:Okay, I lied, I do have a small collection. And then I know I have a 94 tops box or a box of 94 baseball cards from 94 unopened because that was the year of the strike so I don't want to open it. So maybe offline we can get together and see what I have. And I've got a lot of basketball cards in here. Actually this is all basketball, so we can chat offline and see if there's anything of basketball cards in here. Actually this is all basketball. We can chat offline and see if there's anything in here that you like. We've got Dennis Scott. I saw Charles Barkley. I'll look for a Vince Carter card in here for you and see if you have it Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I love looking through cards.
Speaker 3:We have six things. I wouldn't call myself a card collector, though. Like it's just a small box compared to what you have.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, mine started out was a small box.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it quickly.
Speaker 2:Snowballed.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Have you counted how many you have?
Speaker 1:No, there's no way that I possibly could.
Speaker 2:Yeah, don't do that. My wife was like one day she asked me how much do you spend on average per hat? I'm like, oh, we're doing this, aren't we? I'm like, okay, are you sure you want to do this? Because once we go that route, you're like you cannot take that away, and so we stopped counting. I hope you guys enjoy this episode with ashley. Now make sure you guys are following her on all the socials. Make sure you guys are following also val and myself on we are on blue sky actually, she's not on blue sky anymore, she. We're on threads, we're on instagram, I'm on facebook. And then also make sure you guys are following our youtube channels. That way, you guys are always in the know when something does pop up. Okay, and lastly, make sure you guys are sharing this episode with one more person. Okay, Now come back next week, because we will find out whether or not our good friend gal becomes another collector of cards. God help us. Gotta go.
