Fleer just went out of business

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Posted By: Chris Counts

I, for one, will miss Fleer. I realize that any discussion of Fleer will venture dangerously into the post WWII era, but I'll take my chances anyway.

In my estimation, Topps peaked in 1956-57, and it's been downhill ever since (I do however, love this year's Topps Heritage set, which mimics the '56 set!). Remember, Topps is the company that actually had players pose without their hats off so they wouldn't have to take a new picture for the next decade or so in case a player was traded. Because of Topps' laziness, there are literally hundreds of Topps cards from the 60s of head shots of players with sweaty buzz cuts.

Between the demise of Bowman in '55 and the opening of the card market flood gates in the early 80s, Fleer was the only company that tried to break into the card market on a grand scale, which I understand was no small challenge due to the aggressive legal tactics Topps employed to fend off competition. I've also always had a soft spot for the 1959 Ted Williams set, which I believe has a classic design and many wonderfully colorful actions poses of Teddy Ballgame. I'm also partial to my 1960 Fleer Lefty O'Doul. To represent stars from the 1980s in my collection, I've exclusively chosen Fleer cards, which I believe are far superior to Topps and Donruss cards of the same era.

Competition is good for cards. I understand that both the Old Judge era (late 1880s) and the T206 era (circa 1910) were the direct result of competition in the tobacco industry. In the early 30s, competition led to Goudey, National Chicle, George Miller, DeLong, Tattoo Orbit and a couple others issuing sets at roughly the same time (1933-34). And the 1950s were, in my opinion, the Golden Age of card collecting, no doubt in part because of the fierce competition among card makers. In just the three years that passed before Topps bought out Bowman before the '56 season, card collectors could salivate over Red Mans, Red Hearts, Mothers' Cookies, Johnston's Cookies, Wilson Weiners, Dan-Dees, Stahl-Meyers, Rodeo Meats, Hunter Weiners, Glendale Meats and numerous other sets of varying scarceness, obscurity and desirablity.

Regarding competition and the influx and so many bad, gimmicky and shiny designs in the modern card market, I believe the high tech revolution — from MTV and Fox Sports to Photoshop and of course, computers — is primarily responsible the evolution (or, in my opinion, demise) of the modern card.

As far as I'm concerned, Fleer can now take its rightful, although slightly less exalted, place among the now gone but never forgotten makers of baseball cards ...