Presented here is an incredibly scarce 1970 wax box containing complete amount of 24 unopened wax packs authenticated by Baseball Card Exchange, the industry leader in unopened pack authentication. The 1970 Topps Baseball set consists of seven different series, with each getting progressively tougher to locate as the 1970 season wore on. Series 4 was distributed right around mid-season so many retailers who sold packs of sports cards at their stores still had a decent supply of Series 1, 2 and 3 so Series 4 was not always offered until the earlier cards had been sold, thus accounting for the scarcity level as the year wore on. The Series 4 Checklist is card #343 in the set while the remaining Series 4 cards range from #373-459. Among the highlighted players in this series are: Tony Perez, Gil Hodges, New York Yankees team, Jim Bunning, Boog Powell, Los Angeles Dodgers team, Bill Mazeroski and Jim Palmer along with All-Star cards of the following players: Willie McCovey, Rod Carew, Ron Santo, Brooks Robinson, Pete Rose and Reggie Jackson.
With every year that goes by, vintage baseball unopened wax gets tougher and tougher to come by. On those rare occasions when a vintage baseball wax box does become available at public auction, much of the time the winning bidder will open each wax pack hoping to get what in turn will be third party authenticated 9’s and 10’s to sell for serious money. Spearheaded by the creation of the PSA set registry, this certainly feeds into the competitive nature of today’s card collector, to own the best of everything out there. For this reason, unopened material decreases with each passing year, and the remaining unopened supply tends to appreciate in value as there is now less unopened product in existence. You can see where this can be a very lucrative endeavor for a potential buyer no matter which way you opt to go with your purchase, open and grade or keep sealed and watch it appreciate further over time.
Box has image of a New York Mets player on the lid and front panel, probably prompted by the Mets winning the World Series the previous year.  Front panel also notes “Extra! Scratch Off Card In Each Pack” and shows an example of this card. This box was actually sent through the mail as is, back in the day; underside has ink stamp return address, inked mailing address, postal strip and “Special 4 ^th  Class” ink stamp marking. Box bottom has some surface paper wear along edges. Back right corner split. Other general handling wear but appearance remains clean and art retains deep, rich color. Still displays very nicely as BBCE wrapped.
To the best of our knowledge, the most recent sale of a BBCE authenticated 1970 Topps Baseball Series 4 wax box at auction was for $28,809 back in July of 2019. Given the fact that one of these rarities has not been offered at auction for more than six years, one can only imagine what the potential value is in today’s hobby where seemingly everything has exploded in value as compared to pre-pandemic levels. Recent results of other series wax boxes from this 1970 issue have consistently been $50K or more. As the sports card market continues to evolve for vintage unopened wax, the combination of dwindling supply as compared to increased investor demand portends a bright future for this segment of the hobby. Sealed and authenticated by Steve Hart-Baseball Card Exchange (BBCE) w/their logo on the shrink wrap and authentication label on underside.