I hear you on the wallet part. I havent opened a box of cards since 2008, and even then only because of 08 Upper Deck Heroes and I did bust 4 boxes of 08 Donruss Threads.
06 and 07 really turned me off of busting boxes or packs based on what I received from the ones i did open those years.
I long for a return to 04 and 05 I went a little crazy those years, but was able to support my habit by selling some of my pulls andat the same time pull cards I wanted to keep from products like Leather and Lumber, Prime Patches, Zenith, Absolute memorabilia, Leaf, Leaf Cert Materials.
It also seems to me that in 04 and 05 I was getting better product from Upper Deck and Topps, probably because they had to compete with the quality of product Donruss/Playoff was releasing.