Display and Protect Your Vintage Wax Packs

Alpha Holders are available at www.alphaholders.com

Alpha Holders were initially designed to protect PSA graded cards. This project originated in my design studio during the Covid lockdown when my partner and I had some time on our hands. While we were assembling these, we began wondering if we could engineer an insert to hold unopened packs. After a series of mockups and experiments, we found a way to protect and display raw wax packs from Topps, Fleer, Donruss, and O-Pee-Chee.

As a collector of vintage wax, I understand that every pack has its own footprint that sometimes doesn't match the shape of the cards/stickers inside. Tight fitting hard cases and slabs for graded wax force your packs into a different shape, which we didn't want to do. We're using machine cut foam gaskets and paper mats that let collectors customize the look to match their packs while protecting the natural shapes as much as possible.

Here's what fits:

 

Wax Packs - Up to 12 Cards and a Stick of Gum

Packs with up to 12 cards and a stick of gum will comfortably fit in these holders. There's a lot of pack variations between various sports, different years, and the non-sports releases that it would be difficult to compile the a list.

Some guidelines:

• This includes pre-1980 Topps releases for just about all sports, as well as many issued afterwards.
• O-Pee-Chee packs included fewer cards throughout their wax runs, so they'll fit without a problem.

 

Wax Packs - Over 12 Cards and a Stick of Gum

Sometime in the early 1980s, 13-,15-, and 17-card wax packs started showing up. Getting some wax packs to comfortably fit was a happy coincidence with the case depth being the only limiting factor.

• Our acrylic screens are flexible, so a 13-card pack (i.e. 1981 Topps Basketball or 1983 Topps Football) will fit, but the screen will bow slightly. Even with this distortion, the stacking feature of our holders will continue to work.
• A 15-card pack is the most common wax product for 1980s Topps Baseball. These will fit with additional screen bowing. The nesting cavity disappears and stacking stops working, but they still display nicely.

 

Wax Packs - No Gum

Packs that were issued without gum, such as most 1980s Fleer and Donruss wax, will also fit comfortably up to 15 cards plus the sticker insert. Gum takes up a lot of space, so gumless packs are working out great.

 

Non-Standard Size Packs

If your collection includes nickel packs, penny packs, or those with non-standard dimensions (such as '50s Bowman), reach out to us. We'll work with you on a custom size that we can add to our inventory.

Fleer and Donruss sticker packs have come in various sizes (length and width) pre-1980 and require different foam gaskets, which we're creating as we go. This will be a little hit and miss since the wax wrappers aren't always tightly folded, but is why we're using flexible foam to surround and support the packs.