The Junk Wax Era refers to the late '80s and early '90s — a period when card manufacturers absolutely flooded the market with product. The result? A massive supply-side imbalance that tanked card values across the board.
Cards and boxes from this era are generally worth significantly less than comparable cards from earlier in the 1980s, purely because the print runs were enormous. Everyone thought they were sitting on gold, but when millions of copies of the same card exist, scarcity goes out the window.
A lot of collectors got burned and walked away from The Hobby during this time. But here's the silver lining: the Junk Wax Era taught the industry a hard lesson about supply and demand, and today's products are produced with much more restraint. Plus, there's a growing nostalgia market for Junk Wax — those cards may not be worth much, but they're packed with memories.