system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What was in wallets before plastic cards?

I was born on the brink of digitalization ('95), so I don't really remember an era before everybody had a bunch of cards in their wallets.

I'm guessing that before, the only things you would have in your wallet are cash, a couple of ID cards, receipts, and business cards. There's a separate transparent slot for your ID, and you don't put business cards individual slots, so you'd need like 5 at most.
Did wallets look a lot differently back then? Or am I forgetting something?
gpt
It was what's in our phones now: pictures of family/friends, contact information for people, receipts, reminders, and anything else that could fit.

Also, cash. Probably a lot more of it than we carry around now too. If you went to buy a $400 thing, you'd need $400 in cash. That's a lot of bills to carry.