General Forum

Now that I've finally made it through the rest of this thread, I can expand a little.

I WILL consider a card as actual junk if it is in horrible condition and made after 1980 (would hold them if in decent condition from pre-87) . I really don't like to throw cards away or destroy them more, but if it fits the sentence before this it's gone! If I get anything with real damage from the 2000's (creases, writing on it, tears, missing portions), it is garbage. Off-center or wear is okay with me.

Talking only about MLB cards here, 1987 Topps is still one of my favorite card designs ever and 1989 Topps holds a special place to me b/c that was the first year that I really got to buy my own cards. 1990 Fleer is my favorite design by them from their 1st decade ( and until the 1993 set). I don't know why people keep dumping on it. 1991 Fleer was the horrible yellow and black borders that I thought everyone hated the most! That was Fleer's response to Donruss' worst design in 1990 (the red border with black specks). Score was always bad in the early years, but made up for it later with the release of Pinnacle. Upper Deck started out with really nice designs that were much better than most of the other companies. 1989 and 1992 UD are still very well-designed sets to me, as well as 1993 Topps. I still search for cards of my favorite team and of favorite players that didn't play for them from the so-called "junk wax era", but I don't want them if they have a bunch of damage. If it was made in the mid-80's or later and has creases, I don't want it.

My very first Lou Brock card was a 1978 Topps card and it was very creased, but I held on to it. When I upgraded it, I put the first one in a screw-down case and gave it to my nephew. Several years later now and he still has it! It's still in the case and he likes it b/c it is as old as I am.

My only card that is at least one-hundred-years-old is missing a whole corner and has a single crease across the middle. I don't collect the player or the team, but it's not going anywhere. It's especially not going in the trash! If I got a card like that from 1990 or newer, it's definitely going in the trash. It might get spared from the trash if it's older but that might depend on the player.

I don't think I've ever trashed a NASCAR or NBA card and maybe not an NHL card. But I know I have done it with MLB and NFL. It had very little to do with the Era when the card was made and everything to do with the condition of the card.

Dan, that story is painful to hear, but thank you for your upcoming generosity to me. 

If 1990 Fleer baseball is the yellow border set, I really like it. Yellow is my second favorite color, after bright green. I have some in my collection but I don't know the baseball sets well enough to remember which design goes to which year.

I think this is the first thread I've seen that got two full pages of replies while I was sleeping.

1991 Fleer is the yellow border design.

The 1991 Fleer set has the yellow borders. The 1990 Fleer set is the one that if you open a box of say 250 cards, you'll have 250 different sized cards. Quality control that year didn't exist. The design itself was "ok at best". Some of the yellow framing was a little washed out (good example). And a lot of wasted space at the bottom (look at any regular card from that set). Plus the fact that they actually went to press - in 1990 - with Ripken's last name misspelled is absolutely ludicrous.

With the exception of 1982 (really boring design, poor printing process blurred almost every photo), I really like all of Fleer's baseball sets from 1981-1989. I also like 1991-1994. 1990 was a huge regression for them.

Wow, spelling the name wrong of one of the biggest stars in the sport is not a good look. The base design is not bad but not too memorable. I like the texture on the backs of them. 

I think the worst of the worst regarding the junk era.....would have to be '88 thru '94.  That was the general wheelhouse of junk in my opinion.  Whenever I visit card shops nearby, they often have junk wax boxes on a table for like $5 or $10 a box.  The '88 Donruss, the '89 Fleer and Topps, '91 Topps, etc. etc.  I stopped collecting around '94 like a lot of people, and really didn't pick it back up until almost 20 years later.  After a nearly 20 year hiatus, I noticed that the industry went from millions and millions of overproduced product, to millions and millions of variations, subsets, and specialty cards.  Like if I type in Joey Votto in the database for instance, there should definitely not be over 80 pages yielding more than 4,000 results.....seriously?  Because of this, my collecting habits these days primarily include just the base set of cards.  Meaning the regularly issued flagship sets, 2017 Topps, 2017 Bowman....keeping it simple for the most part.  If I see something nice and shiny that I really really like from this modern day era of collecting, I'll probably still pick it up though.... 

Ouch. 1982 Fleet was the first set I ever tried to hand collect. I just finished it a few months ago by finally finding a Jim Morrison card, and I probably have 300 or so dumps to be put in here.

I am surprised by the love of Fleet I am seeing in this thread. I honestly thought I was one of few who liked Fleet. One of my goals is to get all of the base Fleet sets. I believe I have 7 of the 20 or 21 done.

Here goes. 

In order to earn the right to call late-'80s to early-'90s cards junk, you have to rip and trash at least 100 cards from that era.

How much is that, like 7 packs worth?

If you can't do that, then I'd be comfortable saying that it's not really junk to you.

I can say that I've done that with 1986-1992.  I wouldn't go much outside that although I'm considering trashing about 15 badly miscut '67T-'79T cards--mostly '75s. 

Just think...you'd be contributing to the rise in value of some very nice sets. 

Though I disagree with you that any non-Topps card from the era is junk, I agree with your point that it's easy to call something junk, but harder to throw it away. 

I collect that era and will continue to do so because I like them. 

RTD87, By your last comment, I really don't think you understand anything in this conversation or respect anyone else's opinion.  And if you really believe "Just think...you'd be contributing to the rise in value of some very nice sets." then you really don't get it.