A timely arrival for Fleer Fortnight

Fleer is out of commission as a card producer at the moment. I think the brand name is still owned by Upper Deck after Fleer went into liquidation in 2005. So there is no chance of doing a 'Modern Monday' post using a Fleer card. But, a couple of days ago some cards arrived through the mail. They were more cards from Glenn, who is winnowing his large collection. And one of the cards was a Fleer card. 

So, this card is brand new to me, even though it's 25 years old!

Card Number 946: Fleer Ultra Top 30, 1997; #12

This is a really nice insert card from one of the peak years of the Fleer Ultra range. 

I would argue with the use of the word "Possibly" to start off the write up on the back. At the time Tony was the best pure hitter in baseball. Especially in 1997 when he was about to win his fourth batting title in a row.

Whether he was the best ever is debateable. Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. Some players before the Second World War achieved more. But I don't feel those are comparable eras. However, given that Ted Williams retired in the September of the year Tony was born, I would argue that Tony was the greatest active hitter of his own lifetime and since.

So a massive thank you to Glenn for this card - and also for making me smile before I had even opened the envelope!

Total: 946 cards

2013 oddities courtesy of Glenn

Last week Glenn sent me a little envelope with a couple of oddities from 2013. That year is right in the lull caused by the Topps monopoly squeezing other card companies out of the baseball market at the end of the noughties, and the recent resurgence in baseball card popularity that started in about 2019. There aren't many Tony Gwynn cards from that period so I was surprised when Glenn sent me pictures of two cards I didn't yet have from the same year. 

Card Number 914: Topps Archives 1969 mini-stickers, 2013; #69S-GBRS

The card number is weird. 69S stands for 1969 sticker, because they replicate the 1969 Topps card design. Tony is the G in GBRS. He shares this card-sized sticker sheet with Wade Boggs (B), Cal Ripken Jr (R) and Ryne Sandberg (S).

Tony easily has the best photo on the front. Wade looks annoyed. Cal looks sleepy. Ryne looks tense and confused.

The photo of Tony seems to come from the photo-shoot that yielded pictures used on his Topps glossy all-star card in 1986 and the Baseball Champions Superstar sticker in the same year. The guy in the yellow shirt behind him seems to have a large number 18 on his back. That's not a contemporary Padres shirt as far as I can tell, so I have no idea who that guy is.

The back is dull, even for a sticker back. 

Card Number 915: Panini Cooperstown Colgan's Chips, 2013; #unnumbered

This is the first round 'card' in my collection. It's unnumbered, but there are 165 listed on Trading Card Database.

The photo of Tony isn't the most flattering. He looks to me like he is trying to suppress a laugh.

This is from Panini's 'Cooperstown' range that they issued through an agreement with the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's the range that had a card that just featured Tony's spikes. 

In 2013 Panini were feeling their way into the unlicensed card market, wary of triggering a lawsuit from the aggressively protective Topps, and also trying to hit on a formula for cards that people would want. This set was issued the year before Panini resurrected the DonRuss brand when they were also still trying to get the Prizm brand right. So this round card was part of a process where Panini threw a lot of things at the wall and hoped something would stick.

Despite being a retro-tastic tribute to gum cards issued a century before, these inserts were a one shot that they didn't try repeating in the following year's Cooperstown set.

The Cooperstown set of 2013 is noteworthy in that it had autographed inserts, including cards autographed by Tony. Those would have been some of the last cards that he signed before his untimely death. One day I might be lucky enough to add one to the collection.

A big thank you to Glenn for checking whether I had these weird cards. Much appreciated, Glenn!

Total: 915 cards

There's that photo again

Last week Glenn from Glasgow sent me a photo of a card asking if I had it. The answer was 'no' although the photo on the card is one that is becoming more familiar. In fact, I blogged a card that uses the same photo last week, and a different card that used it a fortnight ago! Glenn kindly sent it to me and here it is:

Card Number 638: Topps Minis, 2014; #TM-4

This card was part of a 100-card insert set of die-cut minis that reused the Topps template from 1989. I've always liked that card design.

Yes, that is the same photo that was used in the Gypsy Queen set in 2014 and in an insert series in the Topps Update set in 2019 and again in Topps Update in 2020.

There's reusing photos and there's reusing photos. 

The cardback on this is great though, with a tip-top factoid about Tony's dual sporting Collegiate career, on a pink background like the cards from Topps 1989 set.

So, there are a lot of plus points to this card to counterbalance Topps reusing the same photo: the 1989 swoosh design, the great cardback factoid, being a die-cut card, even the coloured edging around the border. 

And I suppose it does fit in my developing gallery of cards that use this photo. I am up to five now!

When I messaged Glenn to tell him the card had arrived we started chatting about photo reuse, and he sent me a picture of some of his vintage Tigers cards, showing how Topps had been doing this since the 60s. At least they have been consistent in their practice for a long time!

Total: 638 cards