The junk wax era
 

When this begin? After 1980?

I lean towards 1988 as the beginning as that year has virtually no redeeming qualities as far as looks or good rookies and I think they basically left the printing presses on 24/7...might still be going today. You could include 86 and 87 due to production numbers but those are much better than 1988.

Try this link to a recent thread concerning this same issue. This thread was started in 2013 but has had recent posts, but the opinion seems to be 1987 -1988.
http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=180136

I set up at a lot of shows in 86-89 or so and can tell you 1987 was the year there was a noticeable increase in production. I mean none of the 80's mainstream issues were underproduced but in '87 you could really tell things had ramped up.

Modern = 1981-1986
Junk Wax = 1987-1994
Refactor and #d Era 1995-present

The difference is that modern can be somewhat challenging with all of the production flaws and full bleed colored borders but junk wax is available in abundance in essentially flawless condition. Last National I pulled so many perfect looking major RCs and stars from junk boxes, cards that have lost 90% or more of their value since their peaks.

I'm straying off the theme of the OP a bit - my apologies!

I'm certainly not in tune with print runs and the like, so this is just based on the perceptions I've formed in an attempt to consolidate my collection.

I always consider modern and shiney to be synonyms in the trading card vernacular so in my mind when color photos were added to the backs, that's an "era shift " to me anyway. I think 89 ud were the first (mainstream anyway) then it seems like it may have taken till 92 for other sets to show up with color photos on the back.

That Refractor/#'d differentiation seems like a good marker for modern as well though

I personally categorize my post war collection by decades:
40's & 50's
60's (although 57 thru 73 also seems like a reasonable group due to card size and series)
70's (although It does seem like 73 being the last issued in series is a good mark in time)
80's (I could easily throw 1980 in with the 70's and make the entrance of fleer/donruss a mark in time)
90's (as indicated above, 89 upper deck really belongs in this group for me, and a handful of early 90's issues with no color photo on the reverse really belong in the 80's)
2000's (I have very few beyond 1999, so no need for me to further establish any other groups)

Hate to be pedantic but 88 Score had photos on the back and Sportflicks (not a major brand) started in 87 or maybe even 86.

Thanks, I figured I'd overlooked some...... the gist remains the same. at least I learned a new word (pedantic) ;)


btw I like the 89 Score design

I consider the post-war era to end when they stopped issuing cards by series in 1974 (maybe '75?).

Yeah 1974 and 1981 were major changes in the field. But try to pull together a genuine high grade set from 1974 on and the Topps production flaws will just drive you nuts until 1978. That's the year Topps seemed to get many of its QC issues under control. There are still tough individual cards in those years (e.g., a centered 1978 Ryan or 1979 Schmidt), but nothing like the hot messes that the other years present.