In the mid-1980s, the baseball card industry was booming as collecting gained mainstream popularity. People of all ages were fascinated with trying to build complete sets from the various card companies like Topps, Fleer, and Donruss. Seeing the profit potential, card manufacturers dramatically increased production totals to meet the growing demand. They went overboard in their pursuit of profit.
From 1987 to 1991, the yearly production of baseball cards skyrocketed. In 1986, around 1 billion baseball cards were produced total by all companies. But just a year later in 1987, total production soared to around 4 billion cards. Fleer produced 1.8 billion cards for its 1987 set alone, which was more than 10 times the amount of any previous release. And this boom in production continued every year, with 1988 seeing 3.7 billion cards, 1989 seeing 3.5 billion, 1990 seeing 4.2 billion, and 1991 seeing over 7 billion cards produced.
On the surface, the increased production yielded profits in the short term for card companies. With enormous print runs, the cards were mass produced on cheaper pulp paper with less vibrant photos and no logos or licenses from the MLBPA. This meant the companies’ costs were lower and demand seemed insatiable at the time, so investors were making big money.
This unprecedented influx of new cardboard greatly diluted the market. More kids had opportunities to complete the common sets each year without trading much at all. And with so many cards being produced, individual cards became less valuable and collecting as a hobby started to decline. Even though it’s estimated around 8 – 10 billion cards were produced and sold in total during the boom, the market was completely saturated.
As the early 1990s went on, it became increasingly apparent the baseball card market bubble had burst. With so many virtually identical cards in circulation, people lost interest in buying pack after pack or box after box to find stars. What was once a robust trading industry between kids became a game of dealing in bulk common duplicates. The perception of cards as an investment also dwindled as new issues provided no scarcity. This crash devastated the sports collecting industry for years.
By 1991, the card bubble had officially popped. Retailers were stuck with massive inventories of unsold product. Many stores purged their shelves by selling wax boxes containing entire uncracked wax packs for just a few dollars in clearance sales. Even that wasn’t enough to move all the excess inventory. Millions upon millions of unopened packs and boxes ended up in thrift stores, dollar stores, and dumped in landfills across America.
Many major retailers like Walmart and Kmart pulled baseball cards from their shelves altogether after suffering big losses. The sports card industry as a whole lost around 80% of its total market value between 1991-1993. Topps lost around $60 million in 1990-1991 alone and was forced to downsize its baseball card operation dramatically. Fleer went bankrupt in 1991 amid massive unsold inventory.
It took the baseball card market nearly the entire 1990s to recover from the aftermath of the junk wax era boom. Strict production limits were imposed for companies like Topps going forward. Rare parallel and short printed “chase” cards were introduced in the late 90s to recreate some scarcity. Slowly but surely, collectors rediscovered the hobby. Today vintage wax from the late 80s boom still fills attics and shelves nationwide, a sobering reminder of the once overinflated market.
While it brought short term profits, the 1980s junk wax era boom created an enormous bubble that spectacularly burst. Card companies got greedy and diluted the market beyond repair through mass saturation. It decimated the industry and left a generation of kids with mountains of virtually worthless cardboard. Production is still controlled closely today as a direct response to the market lesson of those bubble years. The junk wax era is a cautionary tale about how fast profits can be made and lost.
