Considering pitching my junk wax...

[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.

[insidethewrapper]

I think some business buys at about 1/5 a cent per card and then repackages and sells in discount dollar stores across the country. I can't remember the Company at this time. I did sell 1 Million commons several years ago for $ 2k ( .002/card). Better than recyling. Not sure of the current buying price. If someone knows a company that buys in commons bulk please list.

If everyone continues to recycle these , maybe some day they will be worth .01/card.

[jchcollins]

Thanks all for the replies. I did consolodate yesterday, but in the end I couldn't do it. '89 Donruss and '91 Fleer will live to see another day! LOL. In going through the boxes, I didn't find anything of tremendous value (I knew I wouldn't...) but I did find a few things of sentimental value - like a price sticker from a long gone favorite card shop in Charlotte, NC - that brought back a lot of memories. I'm sure it's worthless to about anyone else, but to me now this is a collection piece.

The rest of you are right, this really isn't taking up a lot of space - and in the end depending on how long I make it, I'm sure 1990's cards will be fun to look at as a senior citizen...

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

Atta boy! That's the spirit! Three cheers!

Arthur

[Exhibitman]

I bought a collection recently that was about 80% junk wax era materials. I tried to sell them to my LCS, but they didn't even want them for free. They said they just chuck them at this point. I went through and pulled whatever cards interested me (primarily the superstars) and then put the rest into recycling.

[Rich Klein]

Anytime you all get cards you wish to "recycle" and is you wish to get a write-off (and postage can also be included in the write-off), I can provide a tax sheet and am in permanent need of cards.

Thanks to Texas State law, we give everyone who walks into our Adat show and pays the suggested donation a bag of cards and a prize slip. We always need more of those.

Please keep us in mind in these cases

Rich

[buymycards]

What is the donation value for a box of 3000 1990's commons? I sell them at shows for $5 to $8, depending on what is in the box. So, if you are writing off more than $8 or so for a charitable contribution, you are greatly exaggerating the contribution value.

The cost of the boxes is normally more than the value of the cards that are in the boxes, so, depending on the cards, I sometimes keep the boxes and recycle the cards.

Rick

[Rich Klein]

Rick:

Legally, you can claim full book price (assuming the cards are in typical condition for 1990 cards) for a donation. Now I prefer not to give only those out but bulk such as that does bulk up our giveaway bags.

I know there is a max amount of money you can claim. There were many threads on the CU Boards back in the day on this subject. And the new tax laws do change some of this.

You can use whatever number for donationsl you want but that's one reason donations do work for junk wax cards and all those numbers are between you, your accountant, the IRS and your God (if you do believe)

Rich

[conor912]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Thanks all for the replies. I did consolodate yesterday, but in the end I couldn't do it. '89 Donruss and '91 Fleer will live to see another day! LOL. In going through the boxes, I didn't find anything of tremendous value (I knew I wouldn't...) but I did find a few things of sentimental value - like a price sticker from a long gone favorite card shop in Charlotte, NC - that brought back a lot of memories. I'm sure it's worthless to about anyone else, but to me now this is a collection piece.

The rest of you are right, this really isn't taking up a lot of space - and in the end depending on how long I make it, I'm sure 1990's cards will be fun to look at as a senior citizen...

I have some boxes from childhood I have picked through through the years, but I find every time I do, I find something new that puts a smile on my face. I agree, unless that space is to be used for something you love more, keep them.

[avery1328]

Give them out as trick or treat next halloween

[steve B]

I check the stores every year hoping Topps brings back the fun packs... Totally futile.

[Gary Dunaier]

Dump 'em on the floor and swim in 'em...

(2:15 at the link)

[smrtn240]

give them to a young "generation alpha" getting into the hobby

[smrtn240]

by the way that video in the link is hilarious

[Mike D.]

People have mentioned burning and recycling, but I've been toying with an even "greener" approach...composting.

Junk wax era cards, as opposed to some super glossy later cards, are actual cardboard. If they were shredded, they'd work well as the "brown" in a well-mixed cardboard.

Wax boxes would also compost fine. I imagine the wax used in wax packs is petroleum based, as opposed to vegetable based, so they'd be out. I guess those would burn well if someone wanted to have that bonfire still.

I imagine most plastic wax wrappers would be recyclable in places that have plastic bag recycling programs.

In theory, if we could compost junk era cards en masse, we could solve a few problems:

It takes 20,000 pounds of compost to raise the organic matter in 1 acre of land 1%. To get 20,000 pounds of compost, you need about 200,000 lbs of raw organic material to decompose. Increasing soil organic matter makes it better at growing things, hold more water, and sequester carbon so that it's not released into the atmosphere.

Junk wax is near worthless because cards were produced by the millions. To see any substantial increase in value, a good portion of these cards would need to be removed from circulation.

5,000 cards weighs about 25 lbs. So, about 40 million cards per acre should do it.

I think when I build my larger composter this spring, I'll give it a try at a small scale and see how it goes.