Observations from a yard sale - 80s/90s junk cards

[insidethewrapper]

What is considered the #1 junk wax box ? 1988 Donruss ? I see the 1988 Topps Wax Boxes are now selling in the $25-30 range on ebay. I thought these were junk when I was buying at $ 5-10 a box per case.

[oldeboo]

I get the appeal of buying unopened junk wax boxes. For some, it's hard to beat the nostalgia factor and the ability to rip a bunch of packs for $20 or whatever. It's not for me, but I get it. It's much like those buying monster boxes of junk. There is a chance the box wasn't completely picked over and still has a few decent cards. There is also a chance that a few good cards are in there from outside of the junk wax era. There are even some hoarding junk wax while they watch others throw the cards in landfills and burn pits. It's going to take a lot of burning until there is significant value, but "one day" is the hope I suppose. Junk wax isn't for everyone.

[Yoda]

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

[tiger8mush]

Originally Posted by insidethewrapper

What is considered the #1 junk wax box ? 1988 Donruss ?

I think 88 and 89 Score are battling for #1

[Exhibitman]

They may not have value but I think 88 Score were great looking cards

[insidethewrapper]

Over time many junk boxes turn into gold . I bought 1981 Topps Football Wax Boxes when they were closing them out by the case with the "black marks" across the front of them for $ 1-2/box back in the day and now they are selling at over $ 4,000 a box on ebay. Wish I still had them.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

They may not have value but I think 88 Score were great looking cards

This, 88 Score was a pretty big step up from Topps/Fleer/Donruss in quality, even if 89 Upper Deck gets all the press. I pick up cheap boxes of Score now and then to rip just because they are fun cards.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by G1911

This, 88 Score was a pretty big step up from Topps/Fleer/Donruss in quality, even if 89 Upper Deck gets all the press. I pick up cheap boxes of Score now and then to rip just because they are fun cards.

I like '88 Score; however, don't think it was "a pretty big step up" from the mid-80s Donruss releases.

At the time, though, it made a huge splash.

[Johnny630]

1987 Sportsflics and 1988 Donruss to me are the worst cards ever!! lol

[swarmee]

I would still vote 1988 Topps as the worst, most boring design ever. Hated them when I was a 9 year old, still hate them today. It does have a couple of error/variation cards, but I wouldn't consider any of them especially valuable.

[buymycards]

I bought 250,000 cards, in 5k count boxes, in January and another 250,000 in April.

There are some real dogs in some of the boxes, such as 5000 1995 Pinnacle football cards that are stuck together like concrete. There also some boxes with nothing but 1988 Score commons and some boxes where every card has corner damage. I threw 80,000 cards in the garbage and gave another 20,000 cards to my grand sons.

I went through pretty much every card in every box, pulling out all of the stars, inserts, parallels, and rookies. So that left me with 90,000 cards that have some value for bundling them for sale on eBay or setting up at a show with 25 cents and 10 cent boxes, which I have done in the past with amazing results.

I met a person who has bought every one of the 5000 count boxes of commons for $12 each, even though he has been told several times that he won't find stars, inserts, parallels, or rookies, but he is bundling them by team and selling them in large lots.

While going through the boxes, I have found items such as:

A Kobe rookie that I sold for $275.

35 Dirk Nowitzki rookies that I sold for $30 each.

Non Sports and Marvel type inserts by the dozens that sell for $5 to $10 each.

Topps Heritage and Bowman Heritage short prints and short printed rookies.

A couple of thousand singles that are either going on eBay or going to COMC.

And lots of obscure items that you don't see every day, such as several dozen CBA team sets, Action packed inserts, 100's of vintage hockey cards and many many others.

I love going through the boxes. It is like going on a treasure hunt every night when I go through a couple of boxes while my wife and I are watching TV. I am retired, so I spend my days pricing, scanning and listing cards.

As far as garage sales go, I can find many items that I can make money on. Political pins, political bumper stickers, bobble heads, cards, photos, and dozens of other items. As one of our fellow board members once said, I am one of those "armpit collectors". If I can buy something for a buck and sell it for $3-$5 with very little effort, I am happy. I have 3200 items in my eBay store, so I have a constant flow of items that are selling.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I like '88 Score; however, don't think it was "a pretty big step up" from the mid-80s Donruss releases.

At the time, though, it made a huge splash.

I like 88 Donruss, it’s my favorite junk wax set. I’ve cracked at least 60 boxes of it. 88 Donruss is on an inferior stock, the backs are poor quality with no image, etc. while Score was bringing quality color photos to the back, and better quality stock on both sides. I don’t see how 88 Donruss can be rated above the Score issue on a technical quality level.

[Eric72]

Originally Posted by G1911

I like 88 Donruss, it’s my favorite junk wax set. I’ve cracked at least 60 boxes of it. 88 Donruss is on an inferior stock, the backs are poor quality with no image, etc. while Score was bringing quality color photos to the back, and better quality stock on both sides. I don’t see how 88 Donruss can be rated above the Score issue on a technical quality level.

I was referring to mid-80s Donruss, most notably 1984.