At the height of the late 1980s and early 90s sports card boom, Topps expanded its packaging options. While you could still go into a drug store, super market, convenience store or gas station and buy a single wax pack for 40 to 50 cents and maybe a cello pack for a little more, other outlets offered bigger options. At K-Mart in 1989 and '90, there were blister packs that … [Read more...]
1989, 1990 Topps Active Career Batting Leaders Sets are Rare Junk Wax Era Gems
A pack of 1989 Topps baseball cards had 15 cards. Buy a handful and you were still a long way from completing the 792-card set. Even a couple of rack packs barely put a dent in your list and you probably wound up with a few doubles. If you wanted a big jump-start--or maybe scout out some packs that had stars and rookie cards on top--there was one place to … [Read more...]
Last Minute (Mostly) Cheap Gift Ideas for Sports Collectors
The holiday season is upon us, and the collectors in your life certainly deserve something fun and interesting, right? What about if you’re in a Secret Santa exchange with other collectors? If you’re running short on ideas, here are a few to consider … even if you’re just buying a present for yourself any time of year. Most of these options are inexpensive, whether you send … [Read more...]
Notes: 7 Million Card Guy; Funny Obit for Hobbyist; Players Weekend Jerseys; Chiefs Seats
What do you do with seven million cards if you’re not a collector? If you’re Lowell Christensen, you sort them. Then you give them away. Christensen isn’t really an avid collector, but he hates to see things go to waste, so he takes in collections that no one wants, organizes them and stores them in his garage since his wife isn’t keen on having any in the … [Read more...]
Jack of All Trades: Baseball Card Documentary Tells More Than 1 Story
A new documentary about the baseball card industry of the late 1980s and early 90s arrived Tuesday but the film promises much more than a wistful look back at an explosive time in the hobby. Jack of All Trades is described as a “unique personal tale with emotional family ties, outlining the details behind the boom, and bust of the once lucrative baseball card collecting … [Read more...]
Grading Companies Give Much Needed Boost to Junk Wax Era
Broadly defined as baseball cards produced from the late 1980s through the early 1990s, the "Junk Wax Era" is often cited as a primary reason for the crash of the industry felt in the late 1990s. The gist is that cards produced during that time were usually printed in far greater quantities than many collectors believed. As a result, supply became much greater than demand. That … [Read more...]
Rookie Cards of New Hall of Famers Are Plentiful, Cheap
You've got a young man in street clothes. A 25-year-old prospect sitting on a dugout bench. A posed shot of a pitcher in a minor league uniform. Some of the rookie cards of the 2019 Hall of Fame class are not exactly artistic gems but they won't cost you much either. All of them date from the "junk wax" era of the late 1980s and early 90s, when there seemed … [Read more...]
Who’s Leaving Junk Wax Cards at NY Supermarket?
We’ve heard of all kinds of ways to unload those late 80s/early 90s baseball cards that generally aren’t worth anything other than memories. We’ve even suggested a few from time-to-time. Apparently, there's another. It’s a novel concept initiated by a mystery shopper (no, not a “mystery shopper”, just a person who hasn’t yet been identified). Bring … [Read more...]
Notes: Goldin’s Big Tease; Early Signed Mantles; Stolen Mail
Goldin Auctions says it will be offering “the most valuable and historically significant sports-related collectible ever to be sold” in its October Legends auction. Now that’s a tease. They’ll reveal it at a news conference soon. Sometimes such proclamations don’t live up to the hype but the company says “rest assured there will be zero doubt in anyone’s mind” it’s a … [Read more...]
Returning to the Hobby: Collectors Share Their Stories
Like any hobby, collectors come and go. The reasons for giving up on sports collecting are as varied as the reasons people start in the first place. If you're an avid sports fan, though, the collecting gene is hard to ditch completely. A lot of collectors who stopped buying, selling or trading eventually return. It's a trend hobby shops and … [Read more...]