Fleer Boxed Sets

Fleer put out a ton of boxed sets each year between 1985 and 1990. I count 34. Here is a checklist for my reference as I try to collect them all. If it's bold, then I have it.

1985 Fleer Limited Edition

1986 Fleer Baseball's Best Sluggers vs. Pitchers

1986 Fleer League Leaders

1986 Fleer Limited Edition

1987 Fleer Award Winners

1987 Fleer Baseball All-Stars

1987 Fleer Baseball's Best Sluggers vs. Pitchers

1987 Fleer Baseball's Exciting Stars

1987 Fleer Baseball's Game Winners

1987 Fleer Baseball's Hottest Stars

1987 Fleer League Leaders

1987 Fleer Limited Edition

1987 Fleer Record Setters

1987 Fleer Superstars

1988 Fleer Baseball's All-Stars

1988 Fleer Award Winners

1988 Fleer Baseball MVP

1988 Fleer Baseball's Best Sluggers vs. Pitchers

1988 Fleer Baseball's Exciting Stars

1988 Fleer Baseball's Hottest Stars

1988 Fleer League Leaders

1988 Fleer Record Setters

1988 Fleer Superstars

1988 Fleer Team Leaders

1989 Fleer Baseball All-Stars

1989 Fleer Baseball MVP

1989 Fleer Baseball's Exciting Stars

1989 Fleer Heroes of Baseball

1989 Fleer League Leaders

1989 Fleer Superstars

1990 Fleer Baseball Superstars

1990 Fleer Baseball MVP

1990 Fleer Award Winners

1990 Fleer League Leaders

Another 1951 Bowman. Ed "Whitey" Ford rookie card

1951 Bowman contains some iconic rookie cards. Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle each debut in this set. Mantle's teammate and friend, Ed "Whitey" Ford also has a rookie card in the set.

The Batter's Box card shop had two of them recently. They now have none. I went in last weekend with intent to purchase one or both. One had just sold to one of the guys that works in the shop. In fact he made a second payment on the card and took it home with him while I was there. 

The reason I considered getting both was because they were so different that I couldn't decide which one to get. You can see mine below. The condition is rough, but I'm okay with that. The condition of the other copy was a little better except that it had stains all over the front of the card. I asked the shop owner about the stains and he confirmed what I thought. The stains were from the plastic of some really old pages that the card had once been in. The centering was a little better and the colors were more vibrant, but it had these stains all over it. I wish I had taken a picture of it. 

I've mentioned before how much I love the card backs on the early Bowman releases. This card is no exception. Love how they talk about his military service. Can't even imagine something like that happening today.

I got a good deal. At least I think I got a good deal. I asked and got a bit of a discount on the sticker price and was able to take this home for $125. 

So while I don't have the Mays or the Mantle, I was happy to add this rookie card of a Hall of Famer to my collection. And specifically to my collection of 1951 Bowman cards. I now have Ford and his battery partner Yogi Berra, a Nelson Fox rookie card and Ralph Branca and Bobby Thompson as well as a few others.

This card will go down with my 1954 Hank Aaron, 1968 Nolan Ryan and Johnny Bench, 1969 Reggie Jackson rookie cards as one of the cards that I dreamed about owning as a kid, but never thought it would ever happen. Lots of cards still on that list though. Which one will be next?

How about you? What cards did you dream about owning as a kid, that you now own. Which ones are still on your list?

Bonds and Mattingly from Ohio!

I am still, slowly but surely working on my quest for 762 different Barry Bonds card. One card to correspond with each of his home runs. I recently sent reader, Ohio Tim an Upper Deck Reggie Jackson card he needed and he sent me back an envelope with a few Barry Bonds and Don Mattingly cards.

Of the 6 Bonds cards Tim sent, I needed 3 (the bottom row).

Out of the 3 Mattingly cards Tim sent, I needed 2.

So 5/9 would be a .556 batting average, which is great! Thank you Tim!

With the cards from Tim and a few others that I added to my Bonds binder that I had gotten from dime boxes recently from shows or shops, I am at 418 different Bonds cards, so I still have a ways to go. If you have some Barry Bonds cards you are looking to trade, check out this post to see which Bonds card I already have. 

I was "lucky" to find these 1951 Bowman cards!

I saw a card on Twitter the other day and I instantly wanted it, so when I went to the card shop this past Saturday I asked to look through their stack of 1951 Bowman commons and I found it. I also found a few others that I happily added to my collection.

These are all cards I didn't even look at when I got the Ralph Branca and Bobby Thompson 1951 Bowman cards a week or so ago.

Virgil "Fire" Trucks - Great nickname and great autograph signer through the mail. Passed away a few years back.

Vic Raschi - Under appreciated pitcher. Check out his stats.

Johnny Pesky - Lost a couple prime years due to WWII, but was a .307 lifetime hitter over 10 seasons.

Jack "Lucky" Lohrke - Check out the back of the card to see why his nickname was lucky. This was the card I saw on Twitter that made me dig through the stack of 1951 Bowman cards.

Eddie Waitkus - Not so lucky. He was shot by a female stalker and is who that part of the Natural is loosely based on.

 I really love the 1951 and 1952 Bowman cards. No stats, but the write up on the backs are fantastic.

Tell me something you know about one of the players featured here that I didn't mention.

Mini-Collection Monday (Awards)

I have a lot of mini-collections, but cards featuring awards was one of my first and is one of my favorites. I've been able to add a couple of cards recently that fall into this mini-collection.

This 2019 Topps Chrome card features Shane Bieber and his All-Star MVP Award.

This 2021 Topps card commemorating the 2020 World Series showcases World Series MVP Corey Seager with not only the actual award, but the 2021 Chevy Tahoe that came with it. I own a Chevy Tahoe, but mine is 20 years older than the one Seager won. Even with it being 20 years old, it still runs great so come 2041 Corey's Tahoe should still be going strong.

What mini-collections are you working on right now?

It's fun buying presents for myself; AGAIN! (1974 Topps Nolan Ryan)

I picked up this 1974 Topps Nolan Ryan card on my recent trip to The Batter's Box card shop. It's not in perfect condition, but I was happy to add it to my Nolan Ryan Topps collection. 

I realize now that I already have it. In fact I picked up a copy just a few months ago. D'oh! This isn't the first time I have done this and not the first time I've done this recently. With limited funds, I have got to be better about this type of thing.

With this second copy of the 1974 Topps card I now just need 1969, 1970 and 1972 to finish the complete Topps Nolan Ryan run from 1968 - 1994. 

More birthday presents! (1951 Bowman)

I picked up a few other gifts for myself at the card shop with some birthday money. The Batter's Box got a bunch of 1951 and 1952 Bowman's in recently and so I went through and found a couple of 1951's to add to my collection.

You can't think about 1951 without thinking about Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca.

I figure these will go nicely with the 1952's that I had picked up previous.

1951 and 1952 Bowman are very similar. The only real difference is that the 51's have the name typed on the front and the 52's have the name as a signature. Which do you prefer? 

I think for me I actually prefer the 51's with the name typed on the front, but it really could go either way.

Another Birthday Present! (Reggie Jackson Auto)

This past Saturday I went to a couple of card shops with a bit of birthday money burning a hole in my pocket. I first hit up AZ Sports Cards hoping there were some additional vintage cards put out from the collection they bought recently. Not only was there not anything new, but a couple of the Mantle cards were back and so was the Koufax rookie card; although it was priced $100 higher this time.

Next I went to The Batter's Box. I was able to find a couple of things including this Hall of Fame Postcard signed by Reggie Jackson.

At $30 for the PSA/DNA encapsulated postcard I was extremely happy to add this to my collection. I'm a big fan of Reggie Jackson and have his Topps base card run, so adding an autograph is perfect.

There were some scratches on the case, seen below.

I ordered some Meguiar's PlastX cleaner and polish and it made a big difference.

It's not perfect, but it's much better than it was. I don't have a lot of graded items, but I will probably take a look and see if any of them could use this treatment. Anybody else have any experience with PlastX?

Birthday gift from my wife!

Two Saturdays ago I went to AZ Sports Cards and was surprised to find a showcase filled with vintage baseball. There is always some vintage there, but the majority of the cards at AZ Sports Cards are modern. 

The case was filled with some stunning pieces of cardboard from the 1950's and early 1960's. The story I was told was that a 74 year old gentleman came in with his childhood collection and sold it to the shop. Included was a 1953 Topps Jackie Robinson, 1954 Al Kaline RC, 1955 Sandy Koufax RC, 1955 Bowman Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron, and a 1956 Topps Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron among others.

I drooled over everything and grabbed a bunch of 15/$1 cards and left spending just $3. On the way home I called my wife and told her I bought the Koufax rookie card for $700. She freaked out a bit, but when I told her I hadn't actually gotten the card she told me I could spend $200 if I wanted for my upcoming birthday. 

I ended up going back later that day. All the Mantles were gone and so was the Koufax rookie card. I had my sights set on the 1955 Bowman Hank Aaron card. It had a $250 price tag, but I asked if there was any room on it and was able to get it for $220.

It's not perfect, but for a 66 year old piece of cardboard, it's in darn good shape. There are some issues with the corners, but there aren't any big creases or other major issues other than the centering, but even the centering isn't as bad as many of the 1955 Bowman cards I've seen.

This isn't a rookie card, but it is Hank's only Bowman card issued during his playing career since this was Bowman's last year and Aaron didn't have a 54 Bowman card. I paid pretty much the same amount that I paid 6 years ago for his 1954 Topps rookie card, which I thought was interesting. This card is in way better shape than my rookie card though.

While I was happy to add this to my collection, I would have preferred to have had the opportunity to get a 1955 Topps card since I need that one for my Hank Aaron Topps collection. If I had the opportunity to get either the 55 Bowman or the 55 Topps, I would have gotten the Topps card, but I am still extremely happy to ass this card to my collection.