While there are other cards from the Junk Wax Era that still have some tangible worth, the above list is populated with rookie cards of current and future Hall of Famers, as well as those who, unfortunately, will be forever linked to baseball's ugly Steroid Era. And, as luck would have it, Mattingly had a rookie card in that Donruss issue. I thought Id share seven terms renewed collectors might not understand: NFT/NFS = Not for sale / Not for trade (usually in a Twitter post when someone wants to just show off a cool card and not get inundated with offers), PWE = Plain white envelope (the cheap way to mail more inexpensive cards), RAK = Random act of kindness (like sending a free card to someone you know who collects that player), Rainbow = All the colored parallels for one players card, Razz = A raffle where a number of spots are sold, and just one or two are chosen as winners, RPA = Rookie/patch/autograph (all on the same card). $360,000 for a PSA 10, $7,800 for a PSA 9. The downside was that most hockey cards from 1990-91 were produced in such vast amounts that it is considered the start of the Junk Wax Era for hockey cards. PSA Graded Cards, 1980 Topps Pat Kelly Gave You Some Options - Wax Pack Gods, Baltimore Orioles Stadium History: 31 Facts, 1986 ProCards Pittsfield Cubs Rafael Palmeiro Left Room for Interpretation Wax Pack Gods, 1998 Upper Deck Final Tribute Captured Eddie Murray in His Second Home Wax Pack Gods, Players with 3000 Hits and 500 Home Runs Wax Pack Gods, Card Traders Near Me: Where to Find Them! So dont worry about having lost out to some jerk from 35 years ago. ), See the full listing on eBay (affiliate link). Since rookie cards are generally considered the most valuable for any given player, Griffey cards are relatively affordable because of this era. Or maybe the Willie Stargell rookie? Rookie Card #98T, 8. If you were looking to pull your own out of an unopened 2009 Bowman Draft Picks or an unopened 2011 Topps Update hobby box, then expect to pay up to $17,000 for the chance to acquire some of the most valuable baseball cards of the last couple of decades. Heck, you might get really lucky and pull a Craig Worthington noggin. A T206 Honus Wagner card sold earlier this month for $7.25 million, a then-record that didnt last long. WebJunkWaxCards.com is your global source for sports cards, gaming, and hobby supplies operating for over 10 years. And this lot offers up a bunch of that all in one convenient package. Imagine its Christmas morning in 1978, and the living room is littered with wrapping paper and baubles and toys that will be forgotten about before you head back to school in January. I mean, the 1987 Topps woodies were everywhere 1987 Donruss was scarce but seemed to exist in pockets. The Pirates drafted Bonds in 1985. The 1990 Topps Tiffany Frank Thomas rookie card was printed in much smaller numbers than the regular Topps card, making it a rare and valuable item. And Im not including Topps Tiffany, Topps Desert Shield or pre-1990 Leaf cards (essentially the Canadian version of Donruss at that time) or any other versions of base sets. You know how, when you see a stack of 1982 Fleer baseball cards, they look all dingy and old? Would you rather have Keith Hernandez or Mike Schmidt on your team? Yanni Stathopoulos, a gifted writer at FutureArtFair.com, specializes in art and collectible investments. Top 30 Most Valuable Football Cards From the Junk Wax Era These scratch-offs came in three-player panels, and you could play a baseball game by scratching off the dots like a lottery ticket for Little Leaguers. That Yaz/Bench beauty is also the centerpiece of this eBay lot, an unopened 1984 Donruss Rack Pack with the Living Legends right there on top, in the middle. You can tick off the movers and shakers of this hobby in your sleep T206 Honus Wagner, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, 1968 Topps Nolan Ryan, 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly, 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. Cards For those who have their own boxes of baseball cards stored away and are hoping for a payday, be aware that there is an era of baseball cards that is particularly not valuable. Its a moot point for me, because how could I ever even dream of opening those beautiful, perfect boxes?? In 1983, though Donruss and Fleer started to figure things out and issued their best sets to date. If youre a baseball card collector, dont miss our comprehensive guide to the Most Valuable 1973 Topps Baseball, Read More 15 Most Valuable 1973 Topps Baseball CardsContinue, Are you a sports card collector looking to add to your collection? Nothing compelling enough to pull you away from your Godzilla action figure, though, so you toss the cards in the pile of Christmas Crap (TM). Its hard to be happy with 15.15 repeating of a bunch of things when you have to have one of everything. This eBay lot brings you two of those three-card packs, one with Dave LaRoche on top, one with Scott McGregor on top. Catchers are often forgotten in both hobbies. You can relive the thrill of discovering those gorgeous cards all those many springs ago with this pristine cello pack featuring Hall of Famer on the front and Pedro Guerrero always in the discussion about best players in the game back in those days on the back. Whether youre a longtime Shaq fan, Read More 10 Most Valuable Shaquille ONeal Rookie CardsContinue, Knowing the exact value of your cards can help you save money with any new purchases or trades, Read More Pikachu Pokmon Card Value Its Worth More Than You Can Imagine!Continue, There are many valuable 1990s basketball cards on the market. The 1984 Topps Don Mattingly rookie card fits that bill perfectly it wasnt the main attraction when Donnie Baseball was making his name during that fabled summer of 1984, but it became a hobby favorite in a flash and has maintained that status for nearly 35 years. Mostly, though, its happy because there are 12,000 Topps baseball cards inside. Still, how cool is it to see these unopened cello packs that have somehow remained sealed since they came off the grill four decades ago? Because that year, if you bought specially marked containers of Mrs. Butterworths syrup, you also got three 1980 Topps baseball cards PLUS ALL TIME RECORDS all packed in a handy cellophane package. As the decades have passed, the value of our baseball cards have ebbed and flowed, but something else has happened something amazing. Or that you could buy them on the cheap more than 30 years later. The only question here is would you eat this stuff? 3 Unhappy Hobby Things Some Collectors Do, Ranking the Top 5 NBA Rookies From Each of the Past 5 Years, 8 Baseball Rookie Cards Were Hoping To See in Topps Series 2. Also, a better Hall of Fame candidate than Jack Morris. And and, you can see Jim Rice and Dale Murphy right there on top of two of the top packs, ready to flash some slugging 1980s lumber. While the exact years of the Junk Wax Era are a bit fluid, well loosely define the period as the years from 1987-1995. In 1986, Donruss was the hottest brand going thanks to the presence of a Jose Canseco Rated Rookie card, but Fleer wasnt far behind thanks to rookie cards of Canseco, Cory Snyder, Lenny Dykstra, Benito Santiago, Cecil Fielder, and many others. In the third panel is Buddy Schultz. Fuzzy up the photos just a bit because the sharpness of the 1983s was too much for the human eye to withstand. Now, of course, Upper Deck solved this conundrum in 1989 by encasing their cards in MRE Wrap, but did you know that Donruss actually beat them to it? Its gorgeous! Theres a consensus about one in particular a 1993 SP Derek Jeter rookie card. Even more luckily, I convinced my parents to float me a loan for all the burnt orange packs I could find. Youve heard of wearing your heart on your sleeve, right? ), 1989 was not a great year for Fleers Quality Control Manager. According to the Athletic, SP was a high-end product from (card brand) Upper Deck. It comes with a PSA value of $360,000 for a condition grade of 10. For collectors of a certain age there is something oddly comforting about junk wax cards. The odds are against you on all those fronts considering theres just one card in the pack, but it sure is fun to wonder, isnt it? But there is a second tier of cards that helped drive the hobby to new heights, even if in a more supporting role. https://moneymade.io/learn/article/most-valuable-upper-deck-baseball-cards Thats deep, bro. Throw in big-time rookie cards of Ryne Sandberg, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Ron Kittle, Frank Viola, and, um, George Wright, and you had a combination that was hard to beat (even though Topps did). OK, so this is not really *wax* in the strict sense, but wax is really a state of mind right? Better grab yourTums. April 2023; January 2023; December 2022; November 2022; Its freaking genius! Then you have Gorman Thomas, whose whole demeanor screamed beer league but who slugged like Dave Kingman for the Milwaukee Brewers, including the 1982 Harveys Wallbangers team. Overprinting helped super-taint this cards price, too. ), Danny Cox, and Gary Pettis. So, yeah, lots like this one four unopened boxes of 1987 Donruss wax packs make my old man heart go pitter-patter and leaves me with drool pooled at my feet. Finding a lot like this in 1987 especially early in the year would have made you feel like you uncovered a hidden gold mine in your back yard. The junk wax era eventually ended in the mid-1990s, as the market became saturated and demand for cards declined. Speaking of Bonds, his rookie card appears on two of these eight cello packs. No one realized they lived through the Junk Wax Era, until the bubble burst and prices plummeted. It is quite a cautionary tale. Just because its known as the Junk Wax Era doesnt mean all the cards are worthless. Recently, some of these cards have been surging in value. And, finally, Rob Picciolo wasnt small at all, but his name is really close to piccolo, which is like a small flute. Or recessless schooldays? Speedsters can help fantasy players a lot, but its all about power and WAR in collecting. Too bad for them Topps stepped on the gas an issued one of the greatest, sunniest sets of all time. Either was, the 1984 Topps set is chock full of classic cards, and you know it would be a blast to tear through this puppy. Someday, somehow, we all know Bonds will get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. All told, there were 112,500 Elite cards. While there are some PC-worthy cards in the 1993 SP Upper Deck set, there is one big chase card that overshadows the rest and thats the Derek Jeter rookie card. There were ten regular Elite insert cards of players, each with 10,000 printed. There are, however, some cards from this era that have some value. What if someone came before you and searched through the packs to get the good stuff? Were deep into the NFL preseason schedule, the first Indiana high school football games went down Friday, and the gridiron is starting to tug at the heartstrings once again. PSA 10 graded card was last sold for $3,280 on March 2023. If you like your baseball cards dreamy, man, this is the issue for you! Too one-dimensional and completely over the hill. Oh, and Reggie Jackson, Robin Yount, Gwynn, and Boggs. For arguments sake, were going to use pricing based on PSAs Price Guide. Instead, the Big Unit took his talents to USC for a few years and the Expos eventually drafted him in the 1985 MLB Draft. But dont completely turn your nose up at this era just because of the name. Thats what Fun Foods was counting on when they issued their set of 133 Major League buttons in 1984. May 18 2021 Topps Dynasty Formula 1 (some lines are still catching up with 2021 releases because of the supply chain issues), May 18 2022 Topps Stadium Club Chrome Bundesliga, May 25 2021-22 Panini Mosaic Premier League Soccer. They often have fuzzy corners and creases, and, somehow, about a third of the 1982 Fleers Ive ever encountered have marker marks on them. At the same time, collectors were having trouble filling their one-of-everything desires because 1984 Donruss was downright scarce and it was a really nice looking set for a change. And the baseball cards that commemorated the occasion pure and utter cardboard blasphemy. The SP Foil set was a limited edition run, with only 5,000 copies of the Rodriguez card printed. Maybe the folks at Topps had the same experience sometime around 1980. And it would have yielded 15.15 repeating copies of every card in whichever set was involved. The 12 most valuable rookie cards of the junk wax era and more Junk Rookies are often overvalued in fantasy, whereas they are gold in collecting. There are many reasons why this card is considered iconic, but inexpensive. I remember those rack packs, and having my mom buy a couple for me when we were on vacation that summer. Then, if you manged to tear open the pack without ripping the stickers themselves, you could affix them to the appropriate page in the accompanying sticker album. The Top Iconic and Valuable Sports Cards from the Junk Wax Era The world of sports trading cards has seen many valuable cards over the years, but some of the most valuable cards come from the 80s and 90s. In my new role of sommelier of junk wax, I would say the 1990 Fleer football set combined forceful star density and design with delicate hints of chase cards before finishing with a lovely sense of nostalgia. Collecting baseball cards in 1984 was a pretty heady experience. Jr. initially hesitated to sign a contract with Upper Deck because he had already signed an exclusive deal with another card company, Score. As far as anyone knows, there are no sealed wax boxes of the 1952 Topps release. Thats not really the case with this eBay lot a cello box full of (wouldnt you know it?) Topps tried out another version of their picture-in-picture design not on par with 1983 but not terrible. Whether you're a serious collector or just curious about the value of your old cards, this article is a must-read. And as the story goes, most of the unsold boxes were dumped into the Atlantic Ocean after years of collecting dust in a warehouse. As much as I cant stand Donruss cards from the 80s, the 86 set is pretty sweet. Like in this eBay lot (affiliate link), which features four packs of the 1984 Ralston-Purina baseball cards, or this companion lot (affiliate link) that offers another four packs. If youre doing the math, that leaves about 75 other packs, and they all fall sorta in the same general vicinity of cardboard space-time as those Ive already mentioned. 10 Greatest Hockey Rookie Cards Its a 25-card food set distributed only at a grand total of 11 McDonalds restaurants in rural Eastern Oregon and Western Idaho for less than a month in the Spring of 1990. (Not sure why I didnt make the set because I once tied for the Major League lead among all fans for fewest games attended in person.). In 1991, the junk wax era was in full gear. Buying and flipping unopened baseball card boxes is fairly common in the modern collecting era. Its sad, because the Buy-It-Now price is only $79 and these cards were supposed to be gold by now. A completely far-out unopened pack of these sweet squares (rectangles)! And these packs wont even send you to the dentist. So they took 30 of their favorite 1984 cards, blew them up to 5 x 7, plopped them into plastic wax packs and called them super. Topps capitalized on that popularity the next year by issuing a whopping nine Rose cards in their base set the normal Rose at #1, a Record Breaker at #206, a manager/Cincinnati Reds team card at #741, and six retrospective cards (#2-7) that showed miniature versions of Petes previous 24 base Topps cards. It must have been a relief or at least a surprise when collectors found these beautiful (yes they are!) One unopened 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter X hobby box was recently listed on the secondary market for $14,000, making these some of the most expensive baseball cards ever. (Thats a very early-1990s thing to say look it up.). Can you imagine if his rookie season came on a staff already stacked with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz? (snaps cyber fingers). After an underwhelming debut in 1981 and a maybe even more underwhelming sophomore effort in 1982, Fleer needed to do something big in 1983 if they wanted to keep up with Donruss (ha!) Rather than write Bill, he apparently chose to make his baseball card PG-13and found his way into memorabilia history. And, if you dont like the cards, at least the listing gives you a new euphemism for well something. The card was produced in limited numbers, with only 241 copies ever made. So its always fun and nostalgic when a 1982 Donruss wax pack makes an appearance, as in this eBay lot. cards Bonds (whose HOF fate is up to the Era Committee now), of course, is the best of the bunch, and this card was just on the early cusp of the junk wax era. Man, those were good days. Round, enameled, bright colored borders, full color photos, baseballs biggest stars these babies are great! PSA 10 graded card was last sold for $2,225.99 on March 2023. I mean, right there on the front panels are sparkling cards of Lee Lacy, Gary Lavelle, and Randy Moffitt. Because so many baseball cards were printed between roughly 1987 and 1993, the values plummeted significantly.. Mattingly was a fan favorite and helped lead the Yankees to several successful seasons in the 1980s. Same same! But back in 1971, hoarding away sealed boxes of cards wasnt necessarily a commonly practiced financial endeavor. The Topps Traded set included players who had been traded or signed as free agents during the offseason. By entering your email address you agree to receive email versions of the Baseball Card Market Report. It didnt even matter that the cards werent all that great. PSA 10 graded card was last sold for $3,300 on January 2023. WebRecently, I came across an advertisement by a company called 49er Headquarters, who, by 1993, seemed to be holding a decent amount of rare and/or hard to find Pro Set items: Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network and Amazon Associates. Youd wait all week or all month for a chance to pick up a few packs at the grocery store or local card shop and then rush home to dig into your new treasures. While his 1992 Bowman rookie is one of the iconic cards of the 1990s, it's actually his 1992 Fleer Update card that earns a spot on this most valuable list. Check out this video for details! Certainly any boxes surfacing from the 1940s-1960s could be added to this list if any surface, and it would be mindblowing to see what a 1952 Topps box would go for these days!
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