The Junk Wax Era- when did it start?

[37Jetson]

The Junk Wax Era in Football started around 1983 with the Topps "X" boxes that were largely bought up by Steve Myland. Low and behold Football got hot a few years later and still goes for good coin today. These "X" boxes sold for around $4 if I recall.

For sure the overall Junk Wax era started in 1987, maybe 1986 if you count Topps.

[callou2131]

I would argue that we are back in it again. Every rookie has thousands of signature cards, they may even be designated as such for 3 years. Look at it this way. In 2000, spx had the big card Rick Ankiel autographed /1500 That was pretty much it. Now take it to 2013. You would have his Base auto of God knows how many. His refractor, his blue refractor, his quadrublesuperamazingfractor etc. That would be in topps chrome. Next week out comes Bowman chrome with all the same stuff. The week after that another topps product comes out with again all the same stuff. It used to be a big deal to pull an auto. ANY auto. You could get $10 for the cheapest and they only went up from there. Now you can pull an auto and not even break even on the PACK nevermind box. Oversaturation will again kill what little market is left for the newer stuff. After all the junk and watching fleer and donruss dissapear the other companies didnt learn a thing.

[Beatles Guy]

Originally Posted by callou2131

I would argue that we are back in it again. Every rookie has thousands of signature cards, they may even be designated as such for 3 years. Look at it this way. In 2000, spx had the big card Rick Ankiel autographed /1500 That was pretty much it. Now take it to 2013. You would have his Base auto of God knows how many. His refractor, his blue refractor, his quadrublesuperamazingfractor etc. That would be in topps chrome. Next week out comes Bowman chrome with all the same stuff. The week after that another topps product comes out with again all the same stuff. It used to be a big deal to pull an auto. ANY auto. You could get $10 for the cheapest and they only went up from there. Now you can pull an auto and not even break even on the PACK nevermind box. Oversaturation will again kill what little market is left for the newer stuff. After all the junk and watching fleer and donruss dissapear the other companies didnt learn a thing.

I agree with this observation. Autographed cards have "jumped the shark" so to speak, just like GU stuff has. It's to the point where many autos have become worthless. Topps definitely needs some competition.

[insidethewrapper]

Overproduction really started for Topps I think , and agree in 1987. Fleer in 1988 and Donruss in 1988.

Great boxes are still 1989 UD, 1990 Leaf, 1992 Bowman, 1984 Donruss. Low prints were 1994 Fleer Flair Series 2 ( Arod - R) and 1992 Fleer Update Factory Set. Most of the above are harder to get in case lots.

1986 when the card market crashed from the overproduction

[toppcat]

I was active in the current market back then and it went into overdrive for Topps in 1986 but realistically, high levels of production really commenced about 1973-74.

[tulsaboy]

Dave, during your research into Topps, have you ever found any reliable production numbers for any period? I would be interested in exactly how out of control production got. You said it kicked off in 1973-74. Do you think the shift to one series during those two years has anything to do with that? Freed of the problem of series-based distribution, do you think it was easier for Topps to produce more cards and to distribute them in a wider variety of methods than before? Lots easier to be creative with distribution when you aren't worried about how well a late series will sell when in competition with football or basketball... Just curious about your thoughts.

The other contributing factor is back before the 80's baseball cards were for kids, most thrown out by their mothers, I could be wrong but people didn't worry about saving them along with unopened boxes thinking they're not going to be worth money if they did it was a hobby not a business to make a living. Now things changed because of the media tv, price guides, a dime a dozen in the mid 80's, attracted not only kids but adults thinking that some day they could have a fortune if they save it and as the years go on the cards would increase in price, not thinking that the card companies saturated the market satisfying the demand of buyers the sky was the limit. The card companies also got greedy offering different limited edition sets, special cards, etc and raising the price and marketing towards the adults and not the kids with pack prices as high as 5.00 dollars. I guess print it and they will buy.