Someone explain to me Fleer Tradition

MajorDanby

With all this Topps Heritage talk, i noticed in beckett a set called "Fleer Tradition."

Ok, i thought, if this is a copy of the Topps Heritage theme...i dont see it lasting long given that 1.) Their 59, 60 and 61 sets were ugly (63 the only attractive set) and 2.) Why would they want to copy their 1980 designs since in hobby years...20 years ago is not too far off.

But, in 2002 they produced a set that looked like one of the goudey sets. Fair enough. In 2003, they did their 63 set. Great, i might look into that. In 2004, i have no clue what that is (someone clue me in). But, what surprised me is the 2000 and 2001 sets. They are Topps 54 and 56 copies!! How did Fleer gain the ability to use nearly the same Topps design for their Fleer tradition sets? Doesnt Topps have a copyright on these designs? I can see them doing Goudey, but copying a design from a company that's still in existence and is planning to do the same thing with the same set designs in a few years??

Thanks in advance

Fabfrank

You're equating Fleer Tradition with Topps Heritage. With Heritage, Topps created the brand to specifically "mine" their vintage set designs. Fleer Tradition came about as the new base brand for Fleer. With all the different Fleer brands, Fleer wanted to give its basic Fleer brand a new breath and distinguish it from Ultra, Platinum, GOTG, etc.
The early designs might have been similar (and intended) to copy some previous Topps designs, but it was originally geared to be a modern product. Not a modern product replicating a vintage set.

MajorDanby

thanks fabfrank. So, all sets up till 2004 were replications of older sets (topps 54, topps 56, goudey, fleer 63)?

Wouldnt such obvious replications get them in trouble with Topps?

WinPitcher

Upper deck has done the same thing.

Fabfrank

So, all sets up till 2004 were replications of older sets (topps 54, topps 56, goudey, fleer 63

It seems that the card companies stumbled onto the fact that creating a "retro look" brand would be successful. Look for them to take FULL advantage of that over the next few seasons.

joestalin

back in 2001 this was all the rage, but slowly the other companies have fallen off. UD copied the 63 topps set and it was pretty
decent. Tradition was great back in 2001 but then they made the first 100 cards SP's at 1:100 and didn't tell anyone or put anything
on the wrapper...Im stuck with a partial set that I probably will never complete.

These low end sets are really a nice breath of fresh air. There seems to be a void between the low end set collector and the
high end lottery guy. Topps has made .99/pack products before and they haven' t worked. Heritage is a nice mix..of course
the set aspect, but there are high end cards to be pulled. Its too bad that usually heritage winds up being jacked up by
dealers and sellers, at times it becomes a no win situation.

The T206 products were very popular and topps does a decent job with them..they just need to fix the multiple 1/1 from popping
up!

Kevin

Stone193

I liked the year that Fleer copied their 1963 design very much. All and all, the attempts by companies to attract people with a retro set falls short of Heritage.

The Heritage set was written up in this weeks SCD and got good marks except for the chase of the SP's. But the author admitted this was a personal bias and understood that the SP chase is part of the allure of the set.

Also, the 2004 Topps Heritage set was voted #1 for this pack price category - and with all the sets out there, that's saying a lot.

I do think, that some will say that Topps "jumped the shark" with the light backs. And I think they will catch hell for it! I for one will be doing a little writing.

Having said this, look out for next year!!! The new era card size of the 57s being similar to what everyone collects today will make them a fan favorite!

So, go Heritage!
your friend
mike

MajorDanby

<< <i>Having said this, look out for next year!!! The new era card size of the 57s being similar to what everyone collects today will make them a fan favorite! >>



I was a little down when i opened the 54 heritage packs and they were regular sized. Cant have them all!

Lothar52

we have had this discussion before. I for one was hoping they would copy the design to the T..but they made them modern size and the borders larger to boot. I am not a fan of this but understand that they did this to coincide with the protective supplies that are out there.....This will all be forgotten when 1957 design shows up with this pictures and modern card size fitting the original vintage....BUT....why maek the borders so dag on large....oh well...you cant have it all!!!

loth

CDsNuts

I don't know Stone, every time a company throws something in there without telling everybody it seems to work. It is truly hard to believe and to understand that Topps won't admit they made the whitebacks on purpose. I don't know anything about the set other than the box I opened and what I've read here, but in this day and age of quality assurance in the card-producing plants, almost nothing gets by them unintentionally, especially with the remarkable coincidence that the 56 set also had whiteback variations. Kind of like when everybody was leaking error cards in 89 and 90 "by accident". Sure the Bill Ripken F-face card was probably unintentional, but the other errors in 89 Fleer, 89 UD, and remember all the ones in 90 Donruss? And the 90 Frank Thomas no name? The 90 UD Ben McDonald who just so happened to be the top prospect? Yeah, accidents. Anywho, getting off track. Like joestalin mentioned, the 2001 Tradition SPs were a hit. Also, the 92 Fleer cellos with the Rookie Sensations (which had already been popular in basketball) that came out late in the year after everybody had grown tired of that set. Nobody knew it was coming out, but it got people going out to get more 92 Fleer. I'm actually surprised you don't see more of this type of marketing ploy. People like surprises.

Lee