Must. open. junk. wax.

Joe S. of The Priceless Pursuit sent me this one-card pack of 1985 3-D Baseball Stars, along with a few other cool items.

I am sure that you know that Joe has set up a card shop in his home by purchasing all manner of junk wax boxes and displaying them as you would see at your neighborhood card shop (if you are lucky enough to have one of those).

I am terrible at leaving packs or boxes unopen. I don't think I could ever do what Joe did. They would taunt me every time I walked into the room. Perhaps if I filled the room with boxes only from 1991, then I would be able to resist temptation. I don't think I want to open anything from 1991 again. Besides, a full box of 1991 Fleer would give off such a glow that it would keep me up at night.

But in general, if there is an unopened pack or box in my home, it is because someone has hidden it from me or because it is required that I greet the dog first when I come home from the store before I do ANYTHING, even to open freshly purchased packs.

So, yes, I opened the 3-D Stars pack, featuring "One 3-D Baseball Photo."

But first, here is what one of these things look like:

Joe sent me the Fernando Valenzuela, which I believe is the only Dodger in the 30-card set.

If you've never seen these before, the cards are 4 1/2-by-6. The player image is raised off the card, like a relief map. The little team logo emerges from the card, too. I never knew these existed until a few months ago. That may be hard to believe, but I was off to college in 1985, and kiddie sets weren't a thought in my head. If these came out even just five years earlier, I would have been all over them.

OK, ready to see what I received from my unopened pack?

Here is the checklist so you can guess what I pull:

There are some decent options there: Schmidt, Brett, Sandberg, Henderson, Jackson, Ripken, etc. It's actually a nice representation of 1980s stars. Only a couple of duds in the checklist. If I pull a Langston or Boddicker, I'm sending it back to Joe.

Got your guesses in?

OK, let's see what I get.

The top portion of the pack is open, I'm pulling the card out, and ...

Awesome! It's Tom Terrific! Looking very strange in that White Sox get-up.

I'm happy with my Seaver 3-D card. That is a player who deserves to be blown up and raised off the card surface. Look out! The ball's coming at you!

That's the back of the card. It reminds me of those Halloween masks that I wore in the 1970s. Those sticky strips at the top allow you to stick it to a surface, say your bedroom wall, so when you pull it off and the paint peels, your mom flips out.

Joe also sent a pack of baseball tattoos from 1986, another pack that I never opened before. It's getting opened now:

There you are: lots of 80s goodness, and not-so-goodness. I don't know about you, but if I saw anyone today wearing a Donnie Moore tattoo -- given his sad story -- I'd be a little concerned.

That was fun, but for me the real fun was getting Dodger cards that I needed. Joe sent a bunch of those, too. Among them were:

... a couple of Nomo needs. The bottom card may or may not be a rookie card. I don't know. He has so many rookie cards.

A 1995 Bowman card of Todd Hollandsworth on gold foil overload. It needs gold foil rehab.

And here is a Hollandsworth '96 Leaf Steal card encased in a wrapper protecting me from its steely makeup. OK, maybe the film is really protecting the card from my careless collecting ways. But I see "steel" in a card set name and I get a little concerned.

Mid-1990s PARALLEL MADNESS!! Meaningless gold press proof card from '96 Donruss and electric diamond silver cards from '94 Upper Deck. Fortunately, I was pretty much done with collecting in 1993. I stopped at the right time.

Lastly, an Action Packed Tommy John.

Nothing to say about this card, except that it's cool. And also 3-D like, although not as much as the Seaver card.

Many thanks to Joe, who sent these cards out of supreme kindness. It takes a special kind of person to do that, and to stare at boxes of unopened cards and not tear into them.