Considering pitching my junk wax...

[fastfiat81]

I am in the same boat as you and have been trying to decide what to do with 20,000 1982-86 junk.

I will watch this thread with interest in the opinions.

Good luck!

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

Guess it depends on what you're looking to get out of the hobby. If this is strictly a fun thing for you to do, yeah, definitely keep them. I've gone through two rounds of "throwing everything out" and I regret each one; it'll never happen again.

If you're looking more to turn a buck, the odds of finding a hidden gem from the era are decreasing exponentially.

I think a lot of people throw junk wax era stuff out as a form of catharsis or out of spite. Junk wax era broke a lot of hearts back in the day.

Arthur

[NiceDocter]

I would suggest either donating them to the Goodwill or Salvation army and let some kid hit the jackpot cheap! I gave away over 100,000 cards to the Ronald McDonald House also and they were glad to get them.......

[pokerplyr80]

I remember a post a while back from a teacher who did something with junk era cards as rewards for students. Seemed like a cool idea. I'd call a local school and see if they want them before I would toss them away.

[AGuinness]

I'm still in the process of doing this. I'm keeping cards that really stood out from my childhood (the 1987 Topps set really roped me in), but donating most everything else. I found a nonprofit in my city that was interested in them a couple years ago, so I gave one 5k box to them (that was tax deductible).
Another option is http://commons4kids.org. I sent a large flat-rate box full of cards to them last month (including a Griffey Jr. 89 UD that Net54 member maximus35 sent to me for no compensation - thanks again!). They donate the cards to a variety of organizations (donations to commons4kids are not tax-deductible though).
I've found that finding a local nonprofit can take a little time. I'm going to put together another 5k box soon to donate, and reached out to a local group last night. The email I got in response noted that they wouldn't be able to use them and suggested I do an online search to find an organization that could (gee - where did they think I found their information to send them an email?).
As for the space it creates, I'm someone who prefers empty space to clutter, so even if I'm not planning on using it for anything else, donating and de-cluttering is the way to go.

[steve B]

Only 2-3 regular boxes?

That's not taking up much space, especially if its the little ones. Even 2-3 5000 count boxes isn't bad.

[mrmopar]

If you don't want to spend the time to donate them, post on Craigs list. I tossed some REAL junk (early late 80s/early 90s basic sets like Score, Fleer, Donruss, Tops with no stars or semistars even) into a box (maybe 3-5K worth) and it wasn't even a card box but an old brown shipping box, posted the ad with a FREE - first come first served disclaimer, put it on the curb and they were gone within the hour of posting them. Now maybe the person who claimed them ended up disappointed with what they got, but no longer my problem and I didn't trash or burn them.

Someone will want them for some reason. Art project (look no further than Tim Carroll for example), school, even resale in some cases. No need to destroy them.