Fleer 1970 World Series set

[ALR-bishop]

Marty-- I have spent some time this week trying to reorganize my Fleer sets by year with associated packs and wrappers. It is complicated because Fleer issued and reissued some sets over multiple years and often packaged several issues together. The Fleer sticker blog is a big help but conflicts some with info I have from Mike Mossier and Barry (isakur), both who are great resources as well.

SCD's checklists are really lacking, but in the 2011 Catalog, which is for the most part limited to post 1980 issues, they checklist a 1983 Fleer Laughlin set that I am unaware of. I am aware of the 1986 set, but SCD's lists both an 83 and 86 set with different checklists. Do you have an 86 set ?

[laughlinfan]

Hi Al! Are both sets yellow and black sticker backed versions of the Great Feats set? I think they may have issued them in packs and also in factory or traded sets - I thought this was only done for one year (1986 seems about right), but maybe that was in multiple years? Are the subjects listed in the sets completely different? Not sure why Fleer thought a drab yellow subset version of a nice colorful set they had previously issued was a good idea - to be honest, I've always resented this set a little bit!

[ALR-bishop]

I have a 72 Fleer Laughlin color Famous Feats set of 40. Then I have two 1980 Famous Feats sets, one a B&Y Fleer /Laughlin product of 22 with logo backs and one a color Laughlin only set of 40 that is blank backed. I also have a 1986 Fleer Laughlin set of 22 with logo backs

But SCD ( 2011 CATALOG) lists a 1983 Fleer Laughlin set of 40 ( 2 1/2" x 4"), the checklist for which is the same as the 72 set. I am guessing maybe the 72 set is just incorrectly labeled as a 1983 set

[laughlinfan]

Hi Al! A little confusing to say the least! I will share what I think is the history of all of the Great Feats sets, and a scan of each.

In 1971, Bob started working on a Great Feats set to be used by Fleer as the “bottom boards” (as Fleer called them) for the 1972 sticker set. At some point, Fleer got spooked off by the 1971 Topps Great Moments set, and canceled the planned 1972 set. Bob created a very small print run of the smaller sized Great Feats cards, and issued the set himself. This set consisted of 40 players and 1 header card. He redesigned the cards, added 10 more, and issued the larger red set later in 1972 (50 plus a header). Apparently, they were able to work out the legal concerns and Fleer issued their 40 card Famous Feats set in 1973 (even though it has a 1972 copyright date on the back) and used many of the same subjects that Bob had used in his independently sold set – I am guessing a few players did not come to terms, so a few new players had to be added to the Fleer set. Bob did a third issue of his Great Feats set in 1975 – the blue and flesh tones version – again containing 50 subjects and a header card. In the 1980/1981 time frame, Bob issued the “second series” of Famous Feats totaling 40 cards. These were sold in sets, or could later be purchased in 4 series of 10 cards at toy stores (like Toys-R-Us). Then, in the early to mid-eighties, the 22 card sticker back version was issued by Fleer as an insert (as opposed to gum) in some packs and with update/factory sets, I believe. Al, you mention that you can see a difference between some of these cards that would push them into two separate years – I am guessing that there is something on the sticker side that would indicate that the years are different? Again, I haven’t looked too closely at the yellow version – I have a set and a bunch of singles (somewhere in the great abyss), but have not looked at the stickers to see if I can distinguish a year. Hope this helps!

[toppcat]

Oh those Laughlin/Fleer sets are an unruly bunch to untangle!

[laughlinfan]

Got that right, Dave! The fun of trying to track down history on a one man operation! Other than his short lived newsletter and the occasional article, there is not a ton of first hand info out there. Looking forward to the scans you have sent to the Fleer Sticker blog to see if I can glean any additional nuggets of info!

[laughlinfan]

Found a couple of other interesting Laughlin items related to the 1970 set. One is the large promo "card" that Bob produced for his WS set in the early 70s - an 8 1/2 x 11 version of the 1905 card. The other is a copy of the line art of the 1953 WS card given to Carl Erskine.