The 80's marked a turn of events for the sports card industry. Topps wasn't the only player in town and the card competition heated up. One of the innovations to make a comeback was mini cards. I'll admit, I was not enamored with small cards and never really paid attention to these when I was younger. Probably because I was too busy trying to buy standard sized cards from all 3 companies.
I remember seeing Topps selling minis in packs, but never saw the Fleer cards in anything but a boxed set. While the regular issue was numbered to 660 cards, Fleer's mini version was limited to 120 cards. The set was also packaged with 18 team stickers. Why did Fleer short collectors 8 team stickers? We'll never know.
The set starts with card #1, and using this hall of famer was a pretty good choice. Most collectors probably noticed right away the photos are different from the regular issue.
The added variety gave collectors some interesting shots, like this Gary Carter card. The background looks like he's prepping for a preseason game or practice.
Doc Gooden was a popular player at the time, and getting a posed shot with him holding a bat and actually smiling? Well, that's a bonus for any Gooden collector.
Here's a look at the difference in size. Pedro gets the pose treatment in the regular set, but in the mini version it looks like he's being interviewed or maybe someone's asking for an autograph.
Fleer didn't do fans of Reggie Jackson any favors here. If the background weren't different a person could say this is from the same set of shots.
I've always liked the dark blue edges of the regular issued set and certainly don't mind it with the mini version, though it will show chipping easily. As far as mini sets go, this doesn't hold water to the venerable 1975 mini set, but it can be had for basically the same cost of a few of those commons. However, just like the 1975 set it is plagued with centering issues. I'll maintain a box for the collection, any loose duplicates will be purged.
OH LOOK MORE CARDS TO GIVE AWAY!
Random UD Hockey
Random chrome BB
Random stadium FB
I was gifted with this set a year or two ago. It's still in its box, because I don't really know how to store them page-wise (I think the pages that fit Topps stickers would work but I'm out of those). ... I do like that they have different photos on them than the regular-size '86 Fleer cards.
ReplyDeleteThe 86 Topps mini's also have different photos, but the border doesn't match the regular set. Also IIRC, there are 12 pocket pages that fit these.
DeleteHuh, never even knew these existed. Seems like I would've at least seen some on the blogs before.
ReplyDeleteBack in the day, I was dying to add this set to my collection because Canseco didn't have to share his card with Eric Plunk.
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