It's a common practice, I know – sticking pieces of memorabilia (be it jerseys, pants, bats, shoes, gloves, tires, whatever) into cards as inserts. It's fun, unique and can even bring a little money in the process.

But we just opened a box of Prime Cuts IV (of which I'll cover in the Bustin' Wax blog soon), and in the pack was a memorabilia card of Joe Jackson. Yes, that Joe Jackson. It was pieces of one of his bats.

Now, I've never seen anything related to Joe Jackson except in catalogs and online, so this was pretty cool to me. However, does the reward of a memorabilia card featuring Joe Jackson warrant chopping up one of his bats (and there can't be that many around)?

I'm a little torn on this one. The topic of taking legends' equipment and cutting it up used to cause quite a stir, mostly by mainstream media who couldn't understand the concept. The question is: Do you leave it alone and let one person enjoy it for an extremely high price, or do you chop it up for hundreds (perhaps thousands) of people to enjoy? And does the patch card hold the significance behind the idea? Do we feel we really have a piece of Jackson's bat in the office?

Yes, we have a piece of Jackson's bat, but the allure is sort of lost in this fashion. And perhaps that's why a lot of collectors an dealers are calling for changes in inserts.

But what? Everyone wants change, but they offer few ideas as to what to change.

Until then, I'll still admire the Joe Jackson card, but I still consider it a small prize compared to the full-sized items.

Now if it were a Joe Jackson cut sig......