In 1987, McDonald’s launched a famous promotion where it included baseball cards in its Happy Meals. This proved hugely popular with children and collectors alike, sparking what became known as the “Junk Wax Era” in baseball card history from the late 1980s through the early 1990s.
The McDonald’s promotion came about after MLB commissioner Peter Ueberroth wanted to find innovative ways to attract new and younger fans to the sport. Topps, the longtime leader in baseball card production, saw an opportunity through a cross-promotion deal with McDonald’s to mass produce cards at an unprecedented scale. Previously, Topps had annual print runs numbering in the hundreds of millions – but through its McDonald’s partnership, production soared into the billions.
Each Happy Meal came with five common baseball cards and a promotion was that nine “premium” cards also existed with rarer players or inserted parallels. Kids consumed the promotion in droves, eager to collect full sets from the cards found in their McDonald’s meals. The sheer production volumes dramatically lowered values of the cards. While early sets from ’87 and ’88 retain some collector interest today, most from this era are unfortunately considered “junk wax” with little monetary worth.
Nonetheless, the McDonald’s sets were hugely popular with both kids and adults at the time due to showcasing the biggest stars and newest rookies of that MLB season. Some of the iconic players featured included Roger Clemens, Ozzie Smith, Kirby Puckett, Wade Boggs, Jose Canseco and more. The ’87 set in particular had a mini-poster included, adding to the excitement. Subsequent years from McDonald’s also included NFL, NBA and NHL sets – further cementing the company’s role in the sports memorabilia world.
In terms of rarity and value, the premium insert parallel cards featured shorter print runs versus the common cards. Such examples included the ’87 Clemens in purple (1 per 1,000 packs) or ’88 Canseco in gold (1 per 18,000 packs). Even these rare parallels still saw productions numbers reach into the millions – limiting their worth today to serious set collectors versus true investors. Another notoriously difficult insert was the ’88 Mark McGwire rookie with “AIR BRUSH” wordmark across it, found at an estimated 1 in every 700,000 packs.
Other quirks of the McDonald’s sets included missing player names/stats due to licensing issues. For example, Nolan Ryan’s name never appeared on his card in the ’87 series as he had an exclusive deal with Topps’ competitor Donruss at the time. In other cases, cards were pulled and re-inserted mid-run due to trades – like Jose Canseco moving from Oakland to Texas that same ’88 season.
The promotion proved so wildly popular that other Fast Food chains like Burger King and Hardee’s rushed to jump on the bandwagon with their own sports card offerings in the late 80s/early 90s boom period. The sheer quantity manufactured greatly diminished collectors’ values afterwards. By the time of the junk wax era bust in the mid-90s, the glut had proven too much for the market.
Despite their status as “junk wax,” the nostalgia and memories of collecting the early McDonald’s sets still resonates with many today who grew up during that era. While single cards hold little worth, complete sets still retain $50-100 of value to commemorating collectors. Further, the introduction undoubtedly helped expand the MLB fanbase – as intended by the original goal. It marked a peak period of mainstream popularity for the hobby before the crash.
In summary, McDonald’s launched one of the most iconic sports card promotions of all-time when it included baseball cards in Happy Meals from 1987-1992. While producing junk wax status due to immense overproduction, it showed how memorabilia could effectively cross-promote both a sport and fast food restaurant to younger audiences. Few promotions have matched the excitement and cultural impact of that initial McDonald’s foray into the collection card space.
