5 Billion Cards in One Set: The Real Story of the Junk Wax Era

In 1990, one card company is estimated to have printed more than five billion baseball cards in a single set. So did the card companies know they were printing too many, and keep the presses running anyway? In this case file, we follow the Junk Wax Era from the courtroom that broke the Topps monopoly in 1981, through the price-guide gold rush and the flood of Donruss, Fleer, Score, Topps and Upper Deck, to the 1994 strike that ended it. Then I give my verdict, and one overlooked detail that changes who's really to blame. It might be sitting in your closet right now. Every piece of cardboard has a story. And sometimes, a whole era of them does. CHAPTERS 0:00 Five billion cards in one set 0:58 The courtroom that broke the Topps monopoly 2:56 The gold rush 4:39 The flood 6:41 The evidence: did they know? 8:11 The crash 10:01 The verdict 11:36 Why junk wax still matters WATCH NEXT Upper Deck, Topps & Score: The Cards That Flooded the Market:    • Upper Deck, Topps & Score: The Cards That ...   How Baseball Cards Survived the 1994 Collapse:    • How Baseball Cards Survived the 1994 Collapse   Last case file, the 1952 Topps ocean dump:    • The $12.6 Million Mickey Mantle Card and t...   As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 📚 DIG DEEPER INTO THE JUNK WAX ERA Mint Condition by Dave Jamieson How baseball cards became an American obsession, and how the boom went bust. 👉 https://link.amazon/B0cs1dihm Card Sharks by Pete Williams The inside story of Upper Deck, the company born in the middle of it all. 👉 https://link.amazon/B06SZOTP5 Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide Find out what your old cards are really worth. 👉 https://link.amazon/B0703gQkx 📦 FOUND YOUR OLD SHOEBOX? PROTECT WHAT'S IN IT storage box 👉 https://link.amazon/B03Tt2FnS Penny sleeves 👉 https://link.amazon/B0anxoQrl Top loaders 👉 https://link.amazon/B09UYTxRw 9-pocket binder pages 👉 https://link.amazon/B0gumu2uh SOURCES Library of Congress, In Custodia Legis, "Baseball Card Litigation: Fleer v. Topps": https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2019/01/bas... SABR, "The Great Topps Baseball Card Monopoly: Competition": https://sabr.org/latest/armour-the-gr... Wikipedia, Fleer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleer All Vintage Cards, "The Rise and Fall of the Junk Wax Era": https://allvintagecards.com/history-o... Cardlines, "The Junk Wax 2.0 Debate": https://cardlines.com/the-junk-wax-2-... Underpriced, "1990s Baseball Cards Value Guide": https://www.underpriced.app/blog/1990... Sports Collectors Daily, "30 Years Ago, the Hobby Settled In for a Long and Ugly Baseball Strike": https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com... Christian Science Monitor, "An industry reshuffles to recapture its youth" (2005): https://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0801/p... Trading Card Database, 1989 Upper Deck #1 Ken Griffey Jr.: https://www.tcdb.com/ViewCard.cfm/sid.... Print runs from this era were never published. Every production number in this video is a collector or researcher estimate and is labeled that way on screen. Some scenes are AI illustrations and are labeled on screen. Narration is AI-generated. What's the best card in your junk wax box? Tell me in the comments. Watch the rips on Cardboard Archive UnBoxed:    / @cardboardarchiveunboxed   Subscribe for a new case file every Thursday. #JunkWax #BaseballCards #SportsCards #CardHistory #90sBaseballCards