BY JOEY SHIVER

The rise in the popularity of baseball cards that would lead up to the Junk Wax Era began as early as the late 1970s, and the introduction of two new manufacturers helped spur further growth in the early 1980s. But the interest in baseball cards would reach a fever pitch by 1988, which would mark the first year since 1981 that a new manufacturer would enter the fold.

Some collectors believe that 1988 was the height of production numbers per set, while others believe it would increase into the early 1990s. While all of that can be argued without much concrete support from the companies, the introduction of Score to the trading card market certainly indicated that the demand had reached a peak not previously realized up to then.

In 1988, Topps was still the granddaddy of baseball cards, while Donruss and Fleer had worked out the kinks from their early ‘80s releases to settle in as nice, attractive sets of their own in the industry. The companies had enjoyed a stretch that saw interest in their products grow year after year. Then, in 1988, a new player entered the market - Score. The inaugural release of Score introduced a different looking set from the other three major manufacturers. And Score certainly grabbed our attention from a visual standpoint. The set was 660 cards in size and would be broken up into 110 card segments of different color borders; including purple, blue, red, green, yellow and a rookie class that was somewhere between the orange and a gold color.