When Did the Junk Wax Era Start?
And how many cards are TOO many?
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Before we dig in to our discussion du jour, I want to ask you a related question -- how many baseball cards were produced in the 1980s? And ... how many baseball cards are too many?
OK, that's two questions, but they fit right in with what turned out to be a looooonnnnnng email (this one, in case you were wondering).
It's also a question (that first one) I dig into with some hard numbers over on this week's Baseball Card Market Report (you can read that right here).
All of which is a good segue (says I) to a sort of cardboard existential question.
Look ...
Terminology changes over time, and that's true even for staid old institutions like baseball ... and baseball cards.
One of the terms we never heard growing up but that now gets applied to our era of sports cards (if you're old like me) all the time now is "Junk Wax."
As in, "there were so many of these cards produced that you can still find original unopened wax packs, and you probably will be able to find them forever. They're just junk. They'r junk wax."
It's become such a common refrain that the term is more or less a proper noun -- Junk Wax.
And the years when those cards were (over)produced? Why, they comprise the Junk Wax Era.
Now, I get that some folks take umbrage to the very term and will tell you that there's no such thing as Junk Wax. I understand why -- it's sort of like saying a beat-up copy of Harriet the Spy is junk just because you couldn't pay somebody to take it off your hands.
But if that book -- that copy of that book -- set you on a path to a career as a private eye, well, it's a freaking treasure to you.
So, yes, I love my 1987 Topps baseball cards beyond reason, but that doesn't mean they're not sorta junky. For our purposes here, then, and out there in the wild, Junk Wax is a thing.
Ah ... but when did the Junk Wax Era begin, and when did it end?
I've already tipped my hand a bit here by mentioning those glorious woodies, but there are no hard-and-fast boundaries that I've found.
You could probably dive into the PSA Population Report or eBay sales and gather some solid data, but I'm going with "gut" and personal experience on this one.
I was deep, DEEP into the hobby by about 1984, and I stayed there through about 1991 before returning to the cardboard fold a few years back. So, I grew up in an era when there were always at least three card companies, and then, toward the end of that run ... a lot more card companies, and sets.
Finding new cards to buy was just about as hard or easy in 1985 as it was in 1984, and in 1983, when I was cutting my hobby chops.
Then, in 1986, Topps was everywhere ... like, everywhere. Gas stations, drug stores, grocery stores, card shows and shops.
Fleer and Donruss were a lot harder to come by, just like they had been in 1984 (especially Donruss that year) and 1985. I paid above MSRP on a per-pack basis for a box of 1986 Fleer rack packs that summer, and I was glad to do it.
And I never did run into gluts of Donruss and Fleer from 1986 and before, the way I did (do) for, say, 1990 Fleer.
The 1987 cards started out sort of the same, except Fleer and Donruss were extremely scarce -- there seemed to be pockets across the United States where you could find one or the other, but not both, and usually not either. Packs climbed to $1-plus before summer and inclined for a long time, driven partly by a stellar class of rookie cards.
Topps was everywhere (again).
Then, in 1988, all three companies were everywhere, and, soon, so too was Score. You can still buy 1988 stuff for a few grains of salt.
And then, as the 1990s steamrolled us with holograms and prisms and Studios and clubs and super-duper premium promo swag bags, more of the older stuff started showing up, too. Not surprising, considering that baseball cards were gold (gold, I tell you!) -- who wouldn't want to cash in a little?
But what was surprising, to me at least, was that 1987 Donruss and Fleer were suddenly pretty easy to come by, too. I mean, there was plenty of it, after half a decade or so in hiding.
All of this is a long-long-winded way of saying I think the true Junk Wax Era started in 1987, even though it didn't feel like it at the time. And it might have been as early as 1986, and certainly was eating us up by 1988.
Some old-timers -- older-timers than I, even -- contend that "Junk Wax" applies to anything after 1980, the last year of the first Topps monopoly. That doesn't jibe with me, but I might just be a homer for my own hobby roots -- certainly, there were plenty of each card made in the early 1980s. You can get a flavor for that by reading that market report I mentioned at the top of this tome (here is the link for that).
But were there enough cards made to constitute a "Junk Wax" label? Not for me.
OK ... so, when did the Junk Wax Era end?
I don't know. Not really. Is it over?
I mean, I see videos and such where collectors buy closeout stuff from a couple of years ago at severely discounted prices. Does that make it junk wax?
Maybe, but my sense is there aren't millions and millions of each card being printed these days. Just millions and millions of permutations, which is different, I suppose.
So, where does that leave us?
Well, I'm going with 1994 as the end of the Junk Wax Era. It was certainly the end of a baseball era, thanks to that dirty, lowdown, good-for-nothing strike, and the changes that blew threw the game thereafter -- realignment, interleague play, expanded playoffs, home run chases, steroids.
Certainly, collectors and investors alike pulled back from the frenzy of the early 1990s as baseball sorted out its issues.
So there you have it -- the Junk Wax Era lasted from 1987 through 1994. That's the same conclusion I reached awhile back over on the website when I broke down the modern card eras. So, consistency.
What do you think, though?
What's your definition of Junk Wax, and its era? Or do abhor that label altogether?
I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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Until next time ...
Take care, and have some fun with this great hobby of ours ... even in the junky, waxy depths!
Adam
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