81 Fleer quality? Surprising to me

bobbybakeriv

I recently started going thru a box of 80s and 90s cards and came across some nice 81 Fleer cards including these 3. I know they aren't worth much unless by some miracle they graded 10 but they do look nice. In fact all of the Fleers I found (~100 - I think I only saved the stars) look really sharp and are centered. Was Fleer's overall card quality this good back then? For the record, I don't like the look personally but I do remember buying them when I was a kid.

bobbybakeriv

weaselpuppy

Man, I loved that set. Error cards,, multiples of key guys,, clean look..
The Donruss debut is so much worse.

nam812

@weaselpuppy said:
......The Donruss debut is so much worse.

That is being VERY kind.

bobbybakeriv

Whatever happened to ole Fernand? LOL I don't know if it was Fleer's production quality but the cards I have are nicely centered. Backs too, and no print defects. Maybe I just picked out the best? But, back then, I didn't really pay attention to centering, etc. I looked at the corners mainly. Also, I thought Reggie was "Mr. October?" "Mr. Baseball?" And why does Michael Jack have his pants pulled up to his armpits? LOL again.

bobbybakeriv

Ok last photo. Serious props to Fleer for production quality. I really was surprised when I got to these cards. They are very nice overall and I was stunned at the overall centering like I mentioned. Not necessarily perfect, but way better than other companies in my experience. Any Fleer experts out there? Was this the norm? I am intrigued.

bobbybakeriv

Well from what little I found on the board referencing 81 Fleer, QC sucked. I don't know why my cards are so nice then. Again, I am not a Fleer fan nor am I expecting to make any money off of any of these, I just was stunned by the production quality. Maybe I am just getting old.

daltex

How many 1981 Fleer did you have to go through to select those? My memory matches yours, that this was a below average set for the '80s, which was a very low QC decade.

jackstraw

I loved 81 Fleer and Donruss!! I remember as an 11 year old chasing these sets!! Roland Office was the last card I needed for the set! Not sure if I ever got one? The memories!!!

bobbybakeriv

@daltex said:
How many 1981 Fleer did you have to go through to select those? My memory matches yours, that this was a below average set for the '80s, which was a very low QC decade.

I didn't go through any. Just the 100 or so that I had on hand, which all came from my childhood. I could have done so way back then but I simply don't recall it. I did re-organize and store my cards in college so it might have been then? I found these by accident to be honest. I didn't even know I had them anymore. I was so surprised to find them with such quality is what underlies the reason that I started this post. It motivates me to go thru other old boxes to say the least! I know they're not valuable but they are definitely MINT (for the most part). I am a Topps guy so maybe I shoved to the back of the line b/c I didn't like them. Who knows?

bobbybakeriv

@jackstraw said:
I loved 81 Fleer and Donruss!! I remember as an 11 year old chasing these sets!! Roland Office was the last card I needed for the set! Not sure if I ever got one?

The first card I ever pulled was a '75 Rowland Office! LOL I remember it saying something about him jumping over the fence to rob a HR in the trivia section? LOL I bought this card in remembrance of Rowland. Not 75, but from my favorite Topps year!

jackstraw

Awesome card! Wow I love it! Need one now LOL!

bobbybakeriv

Thumbs up!

bobbybakeriv

I have an absolutely MINT raw 75 Rowland somewhere too, Not worth $50 to get graded though! LOL I will have to find it.

balco758

I have an 81 F FASC box and tempted to rip as I love the gum from this box. But, there just aren’t any cards to get me excited. Maybe one day tbjs will be a $500 box lol

craig44

I liked 81 fleer. 81 Donruss however, I never really liked that one though. I didn't like the backs and the card stock seemed really flimsy to me.

Mcvillagehtx

Loved 1981 donruss as it was all I knew as a 6 year old in Texas.
I agree though that the Fleer had remarkable centering throughout. I've never ran into the types of centering issues that i have with other sets from the early 80s with that 1981 fleer set. It's astonishing actually.

BigTex22

You have some great cards in great condition. For me personally, I’m not a big fan of the style - kind of bland.

thedutymon11

Afternoon,

If anybody is interested I have a Lot of about 500+ different Cards from the set (81 Fleer) along with some of the Errors. This was a Complete Set that I pulled some Errors for Grading and a few low Pops as well, so may be closer to 550! All Pack Fresh pulled by Mintoplys way back in the day from Dozens of Boxes! Great way to build the set with a lot of the work already done!

Let me know.

Thanks

YeeHaw!

Neil

balco758

The 81 F Rickey is a super nice card.

Estil

Is it just me or did 1981 Fleer have a MAJOR problem with slanted borders?

jayhawke

Those are nicely centered ‘81’s.

bobbybakeriv

Thanks. I thought so as well. Quite surprised when i found them.

bobbybakeriv

I was either a brilliant 13 year old or extremely lucky. I sure wish I was as lucky in 76 and 77! LOL If prices don't go nuts, I might just do my first ever non-Topps sub. These are some of the nicest raw cards I own.

GreenSneakers

I remember so vividly a friend’s older brother showing me this set for the first time. There’s a company other than Topps that makes cards? You can buy a whole set at once instead of building through packs? I definitely remember thinking that the “look” and “quality” of the cards (what we call centering now), along with the star power of multiple cards for guys like Reggie, made Fleer a game changer. I stuck with Topps but this set from Fleer was a big learning experience for me and a jolt to the hobby. Good times.

Estil

@GreenSneakers said:
You can buy a whole set at once instead of building through packs?

This one probably needs some clarification. Prior to 1986 Topps (and Fleer for that matter) didn't do factory sets (technically there was one in 1985 but it was extremely limited) and their vending boxes had a totally random assortment. Fleer's vending boxes from 1981-85 were different. The came with a note saying that the vending boxes are numbered #1-#4 and cards always appear in the same sequence and are purposely designed for a set of four vending boxes #1-#4 to make three sets. This allowed dealers to much more easily build/sort/sell complete sets.