Friday Five: Top 5 1980s Fleer Sets

We have worn the Durham Bulls and Cardinals out during the past few months, so I am going to go back to the whole baseball card thing for awhile.  You know, I started this blog as a baseball card blog, but wander off to food and Wes Anderson movies.  Back to my roots for the next few months on my weekly Friday Five posts.  This week I am focused on the 1980s Fleer products.  After carefully looking through all the Fleer sets produced in the 1980s, including Update sets, I have picked out the best of the best based on design, cool base set cards, and important rookies cards.

Sets are in numerical order by year.  Cue the music....

1982 Fleer 

This was the second Fleer set issued in the 1980s behind the error filled 1981 set.  The design was really simple with the white border, colored band, and player information in that oval thing at the bottom center of the card.  If you flip through the base set there are lots of good early eighties players in here: Nolan Ryan, Ozzie Smith, Reggie Jackson, etc.  The Brad Mills card is actually my favorite card out of the base set.  The set is really made by the most important rookie card in the product.

Not the best of the Cal Ripken rookie cards, but there are not really any bad ones.  Easily the best card in this set and the only reason that this set makes this list.  Hate to play you that way Brad Mills, but it's true.  If you do not own this set it worth it for the Ripken card alone.   If you own the Ripken card, but not the rest of the rest...Well, there's Brad Mills.  

1983 Fleer 

This was the first year that I collected cards and my first pack of baseball cards.  My first card was a Jim Smith.  The base set is pretty similar to the 1982 set in terms of photography, but the design of the card was changed up a bit.  The grey bordered cards were a little something different at the time and I still cannot recall many sets with just a grey border outside of this and the 1970 Topps.  Seriously, nothing too cool about most of the base set, but there were three pretty important rookie cards in this product......

All Hall of Famers.  My favorite of the group is the Sandberg card.  Love that blue pinstriped Cubs uniform.  This set is really affordable considering that it has three Hall of Fame rookie cards.  The cost of buying the whole set is not going to be too much more than buying three nice copies of the important rookie cards in the set.   

1984 Fleer Update

The only Update set on my list and one of the absolute best sets of the 1980s.  The cards are actually somewhat difficult to find and the set has two monster rookie in it.  My favorite card in the base set is the Pete Rose Expos card.  The all-time hits leader was briefly on the Expos during the 1984 season in between his stint with the Phillies and second go around with the Reds.  The two best cards belong to Roger Clemens and Kirby Puckett.  

Both players are in the Hall of Fame and these are their only 1984 issued cards.  Both have several rookie cards in 1985 products that are also considered rookie issues, but these are the top of the food pyramid as far as 1980s rookie cards in Fleer products.  Yes, I would put these two above the Ripken rookie card.  Finding this set is much more of a challenge than the other sets on my list and will cost considerably more money. 

1987 Fleer

The 1987 Fleer set should only be bought if you want some rookie cards of some pretty good baseball players.  There is Will Clark, Barry Larkin, Barry Bonds, and Rafael Palmeiro.  The rest of the 1987 Fleer set is rather boring.  The blue card design is pretty cool, but again it all comes down to the big rookie cards in this set.  

I am not going to get in too deep on the whole steroids thing right now, but there is a lot of Hall of Fame caliber talent in this set given how cheap it is on sites like Ebay.  If you can track down a copy the Tiffany version of this set looks really nice and rarely costs more than $30 and comes in a nice tin.  The high gloss finish is well worth the extra money.  

1989 Fleer

If I had to pick out just one base set from the 1980s Fleer products this would be it.  The design leaves a little bit to be desired, but in my opinion it offers one of the best base cards of the decade and an underrated rookie card too.  The Ripken card is one of the more iconic modern baseball cards for all the wrong reasons.  This is the unedited version of the card, but some of the edits are rare and extremely pricey.  The two rookie cards worth owning.......

The Griffey rookie card is nice and is underrated in someways, but the real prize here is the Randy Johnson rookie card which is underrated in almost everyday imaginable.  Similar to the Ripken card there are different variations of the Johnson card because of a Marlboro cigarette sign over his right shoulder.  Some cards the sign is visible, others it is blocked out by different colored boxes.  Like most things 1980s Fleer the Johnson card is not too expensive and is not too difficult to track down either.  

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard-#39 Barry Larkin

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard
#39
Barry Larkin

1987 Fleer Barry Larkin

Hobby Impact-
Larkin seems like he missed out a little bit by beginning his career in the prime of Ozzie Smith's career. It seems like a lot of people warmed up to Barry Larkin cards after he had been playing for a decade, but he still pulls a lot of weight with his cards.  First, his rookie cards have good company in the 1987 sets which also feature other bigs stars of the nineties like Maddux and Bonds.  Not the most expensive card in those sets, but definitely important to have a good clean copy of the Larkin card if you want to claim your set is truly complete.

His autographs sell very well.  Larkin has been a little bit stingier with his autographs then many of the stars from his era which has pushed the price and competition on bidding and pricing.  Older inserts of Larkin also sell very well and often pusher high because of demand and popularity.  Whatever Beckett says you can throw it out the window at times with Larkin cards.  While Larkin was slow to warm-up nationally, Reds fans have always viewed him as the best player from his generation of the team and they do not miss out on many of his cards.

On The Field Impact-
As stated before, Larkin was the best player on the Reds for a long run.  Sure, the Reds had Eric Davis at the beginning of his career and the team had Ken Griffey Jr. towards the end of his career, but Larkin was always better than the other good players on the Reds.  Strictly looking at awards, Larkin put up an MVP award in 1995, won a couple of Gold Gloves (would have won more without Ozzie), and also claimed roughly ten Silver Slugger Awards.

Larkin was always a really good shortstop defensively, but was also a top tier offensive player for a middle infielder.  In my opinion, a better defender than a player like Derek Jeter and a better hitter than Ozzie Smith.  Although, I would argue that he is probably much closer to Jeter offensively than most people would probably admit.  Larkin's highest OPS+ season of 155 is higher than any season posted by Derek Jeter.  In fact, for his career Jeter and Larkin are within a point of each other in that statistical category.  The separator between the two for me however, is the fact that Larkin has a higher career dWAR than Jeter who has a negative rating for his career.

The JAWS rating system puts him as the thirteenth best shortstop of all-time immediately behind Jeter and several spots behind Ozzie Smith.  Here's a look at Larkin in action:



Favorite Card:
Larkin has had some pretty cool cards over the years.  A part of me wants to put a card like his 1987 Topps in this space, but everyone has seen that.  Not interesting.  So, I will go with a bit of a dark horse.

1995 Emotion Barry Larkin

I've always rather liked this card.  The Emotion set was released once or twice in the mid 90s and featured close up, almost studio like, pictures of players with a descriptive word.  Cool picture of Larkin in his prime with the red Reds jersey, not black.

30 year Top 50: 1987 Topps

#25-The sledding is all downhill from this point forward on my countdown.  I sat down this morning before typing this post, looked over the sets that will be popping up on my countdown during the next few weeks, and have some more really cool cards to share in my blog space.  Very excited about some of the sets coming up.  I am glad that so many of you have enjoyed reliving some of these sets and have taken time to comment or email.  Thank you.

1987 Topps Barry Larkin 

One of the iconic card designs of the past 30 years belongs to the 1987 Topps set.  As a kid, I really thought that these cards were ugly.  The wood grain wasn't at all appealing to the ten year old version of me, but this set grew on me as I grew older.  I love the fact that Topps copied the design and used it for a miniature insert in the 2012 Topps set.  I made sure that I ended up with a complete set across the three series of cards in the Topps base set this year.

The design of the 1987 Topps set is really the closest that Topps has come to replicating some of it's design magic of the 50s, 60s, and 70s since I've been collecting.  Sure, the early eighties cards sets all have their unique designs, but this set is the most recognizable 80s Topps set.  The sets since haven't all been bad or anything, but the more modern designs can be uninspired and drab.  They change little from year to year at times and I that in another 30 years I will have a difficult time telling the difference between the 2004 and 2005 Topps cards.  

1987 Topps Rafael Palmeiro

A lot of people think of the rookie cards in the 1987 Topps set before they think of the wood background.  The rookie cards were one of the big original draws of this set before the steroids era took care of most of their reputations.  Barry Larkin is of course already a Hall of Famer, but there were also rookie cards of Barry Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro.  I love the cool Future Stars logo on some the rookie cards in this set.  That graphic screams 80s Topps.  

1987 Topps Mike Laga

My favorite card in this set is this awesome Mike Laga card.  I complain about the airbrushing on cards often, but this card should be in the airbrushing Hall of Fame for many reasons.  First, I'd love to know how a pink jersey got past the editors office at Topps.  Second, Laga was originally on the Tigers and was traded to the Cardinals.  Over Laga's right should there is a Tigers player wearing a grey Tigers road uniform.  The Cardinals wear grey road uniforms.  How is that a blue Tigers hat can turn red, but a grey uniform being airbrushed over for another grey uniform turns pink?  Hmmm.  Mike Laga is also famous for being the only player to ever hit a ball out of Busch Stadium II.  It was foul, but quite a feat at one of the big 70s concrete cookie cutter stadiums.  

Like the 1987 Topps set?  Not in my Top 50 countdown is the 1986 Topps set.  While the design isn't quite as cool, and the set lacks an important rookie card,  the 1986 Topps set can be condition sensitive.  I am not saying it's the 1971 Topps set, but anything before the advent of the Upper Deck sets with a black border can be tricky to find centered with good edges and corners.  

1986 Topps Darryl Strawberry 

While there aren't many great rookie cards in this set, apologies to all Darren Daulton and Lenny Dykstra fans, there are some good looking cards of many of the great players of the 1980s.  Cal Ripken wearing the cartoon bird uniform, Nolan Ryan in an Astros jersey, and Tony Gwynn in a brown Padres uniform are some of my highlights.  

1986 Topps Glenn Brummer 

The set also has some great photography with a good mix of portrait style cards and action shots.  One of my favorite action shots is this Glenn Brummer card with him holding up the ball and the running, Bobby Meacham ?, sliding into home.  Really cool card.  

  

   

A Dozen Alternatives To Triple Threads Pt. 2

In the first part of this post I took a look at six sets that fans of the Triple Threads releases should take a look at for their collection.  This thread will continue with six more and include my favorite out of the bunch, the 2003 Topps Tribute set.

2012 Topps Museum Collection Jon Jay Dual Jersey/Autograph

2012 Topps Museum Collection Matt Holliday Quad Relic

2012 Topps Museum Collection Matt Moore Autograph

7. 2012 Topps Museum Collection- See the description of the 2010 Topps Marquee set too.  This set has some Triple Threads looking cards with a different package.  I did really like the white cards with the autographs though.  Generally young players, but good card design with clean space for signing.  There might be 400 of them, but I have always loved this Matt Moore autograph.  

2005 Topps Pristine Aaron Boone Autograph

8. 2005 Topps Pristine- Always a hilarious high end set in my opinion.  There is more than one issue of it.  The cards had packs of cards within packs of cards when you bought the boxes and the cards were always "limited".  One must realize that when Topps uses the word limited, it means that the card is slightly hard to find then toilet paper.  For example, this cool Aaron Boone autograph has an "Uncommon" label in the corner.  It means there are 247 of them.  

2010 Topps Sterling George Sisler 6 Piece Bat Card

2009 Topps Sterling Carlton Fisk 4 Piece Bat/Autograph

9. Topps Sterling- Like Triple Threads I didn't put a year.  This set actually has cooler relic pieces than Triple Threads and they tend to have some cool Hall of Famers.  See George Sisler.  However, that Carlton Fisk card is destroyed by the sticker autograph. 

2012 Topps Tier One Mike Morse Autograph

10. Topps Tier One- This card set is really nice.  Topps put the autographs on card.  There are some really good players out there too.  This set is one of the better ones on this list.  

2003 Topps Tribute Sparky Anderson Dual Jersey/Autograph

11. 2003 Topps Tribute-This set featured a lot of Hall of Fame players with on card autographs.  Tigers fan, or no Tigers fan this card is really cool.  Topps has continued to issue the Tribute cards, but they continue to tinker with them.  For awhile, they went to sticker autographs.  Nice cards, but not nearly as nice as the card above.  

2011 Topps Tribute Barry Larkin Bat/Autograph

Of course, Topps switched back to on card autographs this year, but they are in card containers and some people (Matt Kemp) haven't signed their redemption cards.  

2009 Topps Unique Scott Rolen Patch

12. Topps Unique-Really cool idea with really small patch cards.  There are autographs, but they have stickers.  If you are looking for a jumbo chunk of someones jersey, this is your set.  

  

30 Year Top 50: 2001 Pacific Private Stock

#36- I have already made a few posts about this set if you want to take a few minutes to read another post or four.  The set was arguable its my one of my favorites and if my countdown were based solely on my dislikes and likes, this set would probably be in the top 10.  The Private Stock release was the swan song for Pacific in the world of baseball cards.  They bent a few rules in the cards that appeared in the set, but the release was an overwhelming success.

The draw of the Private Stock release was the fact that the every pack had one relic card.  While most people recognized it was the easiest way for Pacific to dump it's entire holding of baseball memorabilia, collectors risked drawing a Pokey Reese bat card versus picking up a patch card of Greg Maddux, Tony Gwynn, or other star.  There were also some cards that broke licensing rules that were highly sought after.  The two biggest were the Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.  I own two copies of the McGwire, but the Sosa has an extremely limited print run (I have heard anywhere from 1 to 5).  No, I don't have one.  See the McGwire here.

Private Stock had two basic types of relics cards.  There were jersey cards:

2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Larkin Jersey Card

and there were also bat cards:

2001 Pacific Private Stock Craig Biggio Bat Card

Some of the players in the set had only a bat card, some had a jersey card, some had a home and a road jersey, while others featured both a bat and a jersey.

2001 Pacific Private Stock Barry Bonds Jersey Card

2001 Pacific Barry Bonds Bat Card

Cooler yet were the patch cards inserted in the set.  The patch cards skipped around throughout the set. Some of the patch cards are really cool and feature really cool players.  Others are not so great.  For example, as a Cardinals fan I was always a little disappointed that Pacific used Garrett Stephenson as the Cardinals player with a patch.  Not really my favorite player, or even a likable player.  Other teams faired better:  

 2001 Pacific Private Stock Todd Helton Patch Card 

As a collector, if you are looking for a collecting challenge this set is a great amount of fun.  The cards are rather plentiful still and can be easily found on Ebay or COMC.  Since the supply of cards is plentiful, collectors will often trade or sell these cards often and for a small price.  I am still missing some of the patch cards, but was able to buy or trade for almost all the other cards in the set for under $5.  The lone exception was the McGwire card.

Like the 2001 Pacific Private Stock set?  Not in my Top 50 countdown is the 2003 Playoff Piece of the Game set.  There were multiple issues of this set, but I have always liked this issue the best.  Similar to the 2001 Pacific Private Stock, the 2003 Playoff Piece of the Game set (POTG) was a relic per pack product.  However, there were some slight difference in the product.  First, the major difference was the inclusion of autographs in the POTG.  Some of the autographs were duds.   I believe I have a Runelyvs Hernandez running around my card collection somewhere, but there were also some great autographs available too.  This is my favorite one that I own:

2003 Playoff Piece of the Game Frank Thomas Jersey/Autograph

The major drawback of the autographs of course was the sticker.  I still love this card.  There jersey/bat/patch cards had the same cards had the same design as the autographs.  The one really cool aspect of the cards was the jersey picture on the back of the cards.  

2003 Playoff Piece of the Game Adrian Beltre Jersey

I always thought it was pretty cool that Playoff put the picture of the actual memorabilia used for the card on the back.  I guess there are varying degrees of game used and given the recent jersey gate scandal.  Not as cool as the Private Stock set in my opinion, but there are definitely cards worth owning in this set.   

30 Year Top 50: 1987 Fleer

#38-This is another great 80s set with great rookies, but was completely overproduced.  However, the potential for this set to move up or down is tied to how the Hall of Fame voters deal with the Steroid Era players.  Currently, the 1987 Fleer set houses one important Hall of Fame rookie card, but could potentially be holding other key Hall of Fame rookies.

1987 Fleer Barry Larkin

Barry Larkin was elected to the Hall of Fame this past summer.  This isn't the best card in the set, but is an easy and cheap rookie card of a Hall of Fame player and should be a card most collectors are able to put into their collections.  The regular Fleer issue sells for $2 max while graded versions might max out in the high twenties.  The Glossy version of the Larkin card sells for $2-$3, but the graded versions are a little steeper.  A good graded Fleer Glossy Larkin will run over $50 depending on the grading.  

1987 Fleer Barry Bonds

The best card in the 1987 Fleer set is clearly the Barry Bonds rookie.  Love him, or hate him this is the best card in this set.  Raw versions of the card sell for between $5 and $10 dollars with a premium on the Graded and Glossy versions.  A high end grade on a Glossy Bonds rookie will easily take you over $100.  In my opinion, Bonds is a Hall of Famer and is slightly different from the other steroid cheats in one regard.  Since the steroids case around Bonds has played out in court it is widely accepted that Bonds start date for steroid use was the 1999 season.  Look at the first thirteen years of Bonds career and he is a Hall of Famer.  This is another great card that collectors should try to add to their collection.

1987 Fleer Will Clark 

There are several other nice rookie cards in this set besides the Bonds and Larkin.  Most noteably are the first year issues of Will Clark, Rafael Palmeiro, and Bo Jackson.  While none of those players are Hall of Famers, they are all solid Major League players with a good collecting hobby.  Particularly the Clark and Jackson.  The complete sealed Glossy set of cards can be found for between $25 and $30 while the regular issue set can be found for less than $10.  If you aren't interested in owning the whole set I strongly recommend keeping your eyes open for single copies of some of the key rookies from this set.  

Like the 1987 Fleer Set?  Not in my Top 50 is the 1989 Fleer set.  Just like the 1987 set the 1989 Fleer issue has some nice rookie cards.  My two favorites are the Ken Griffey Jr rookie and the Randy Johnson.  If you have some spare time and want to research the Randy Johnson card, it has a few different versions.  Notice over his right shoulder is a Marlboro sign.  Fleer creatively edited this card multiple times.  

1989 Fleer Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr. 

The real story of the 1989 Fleer set is the card of Orioles second baseman Bill Ripken.  In fact, the card is so important to the world of baseball cards the last 30 years I almost put this set in the Top 50 based on that card alone.  So, if you have never seen the Bill Ripken card here it goes.  

1989 Fleer Bill Ripken

This card was issued at a time when kids still collected baseball cards, so imagine the horror Fleer must of felt when they made the ultimate proofreading gaffe in baseball card history.  A quick check of Ripken's bat knob will show that the handle of his bat reads F*** Face.  Collectors went crazy for the card.  Fleer, of course, tried to correct the mistake.  Several different ways.  I am not sure which came first, but here's a look at the edit job.  

1989 Fleer Bill Ripken Whiteout

1989 Fleer Bill Ripken Blackout

1989 Fleer Bill Ripken Black Scribble 

  

30 Year Top 50: 1998 Skybox EX-2001

#39-I fully appreciate vintage baseball cards and have plenty of cards that predate 1983.  The next set on my countdown of cool sets is the antithesis of vintage baseball cards.  I know many vintage collectors who look at some of the modern cards and cringe especially sets like the 1998 Skybox EX-2001.

Before I get rolling on this set: If this were a set name list, this card set would be in the bottom ten.  Easily.  The name is ridiculous and was a follow up to the 1997 Skybox EX-2000 set.  Also a terrible name.  The set line continued through 2003 with equally troubling and ridiculous names.

1998 Skybox EX-2001 Mark McGwire

There were several other plastic like cards issued sometime in the late 90s and early 2000s, but this set was always the best of them in my opinion.  One argument against plastic cards is the fact that you can have any imperfections with plastic cards.  Very true of card sets such as Topps Tek were the picture and design were printed directly onto the card surface.  However, the Skybox EX cards always had a raised surface around the player picture that make it subject to the same imperfections as other cards.  In fact, take a quick scan of secondary sales sites and you will see that there are graded cards from this set there are clearly imperfect.

The set itself was a 100 card set with an exchange card of Kerry Wood available for a total of 101 base cards.  The Wood card might be the best card in this set.  Since it was an exchange card and short printed there are obviously fewer cards available, but it also seems to be one of those cards that was an early release of a player, not a true rookie card, that people treat the same as a rookie card issue.  The set and base cards can be difficult to locate and the boxes that are stilling floating around are often not cheap.

1998 Skybox EX-2001 Kerry Wood Exchange

The Skybox EX-2001 set did have insert sets and even some autographs.  However, the real chase cards in this set were the Essential Credentials cards.  I have had a few write ups about these cards in the past featured in a highlight about my Ray Lankford collection.  The Essential Credentials were a double parallel set.  The Essential Credentials Now and Essential Credentials Futures sets were serial numbered to different numbers with one set having an ascending run with the card numbers and one have a descending run with the card numbers.  Complicated I know.  There are several up on Ebay write now for triple digits, or close.  The last completed sale was a Larry Walker out of 22 for more than $200.

1998 Skybox EX-2001 Craig Biggio Essential Credentials Now

Overall, this set was among the first plastic card sets out on the market and the best of the bunch in my opinion.  The fad surrounding these cards has faded and there hasn't been a similar card release in a very long time.  Since the set is fairly small it is not very difficult to assemble in a short time.  It's a fun set build too.

Like the 1998 Skybox EX-2001 set?  Not in my Top 50 for the past 30 years is the 1999 Skybox EX-Century set.  I had thought long and hard about putting the 2003 Skybox EX set here, but I think the 1999 model edges it out.  The 1999 issue of the Skybox EX set featured a similar design as the 1998 set, but I feel like Skybox did a good job of cleaning up the design a little bit. 

1999 Skybox EX-Century Barry Larkin

Mainly, I like how the player name is written going down the side of the card and the team logo has been incorporated into the side of the card.  Also similar to the 1998 set, the 1999 set was really about the chase for the Essential Credentials cards.  The parallel sets were again set up the same way with the dual sets with varying numbers.

1999 Skybox EX-Century Essential Credentials

The other factor that made the 1999 Skybox EX issue was the insert sets.  The earlier sets featured inserts, but they didn't fit the overall feel of the set at times.  Later sets started to dabble with autographs and jersey pieces.  The 1999 inserts I felt fit the feel of the set very well and were still in the mode of cool 90s inserts too.  One of my favorite inserts was the Favorites for Fenway set which somehow tried to predict the All-Star teams for 1999.  I guess they missed with J.D. Drew.  

1999 Skybox EX-Century J.D. Drew Favorites for Fenway