1963 Fleer Baseball: One of the Hobby's Great "What Might Have Been" Sets
Stone193
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Why this set? I was at a flea market around 1992 and picked up 4 raw cards and immediately enjoyed the simplicity of the set - I really liked the design and heck, only 66 cards! So 14 yrs later - after finding eBay the hunt was on.
The 1963 Fleer baseball set represents one of the hobby's most interesting "what might have been" stories. In an effort to challenge Topps' dominance of the baseball card market, Fleer packaged its cards with a cherry-flavored cookie rather than gum; in an attempt to skirt the law. I hunted high and low and couldn't find a pic of the cookie! 🍪
Additional series were reportedly planned, but legal pressure from Topps and disappointing sales brought the project to an abrupt end, leaving collectors with the familiar 66-card set plus an unnumbered checklist and dreaming “what could’ve been? Moreover it’s well understood that there’s only one short print: Joe Adcock (IMO tough to find centered)
The cards have aged much better than the cookies. Longtime dealer Larry Fritsch once recalled, "The cookies were terrible. I gave them to my dog, and he didn't like them either."
The result was a colorful issue featuring many of the game's biggest stars, including Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Bob Gibson, Carl Yastrzemski and Maury Wills.
While smaller than contemporary Topps releases, the set has developed a loyal following among collectors who appreciate its unique place in hobby history.
An interesting quirk of the set is Willie Mays' placement as card #5 rather than alongside the other Giants. One hobby theory suggests that Mays may have signed with Fleer late in the production process, forcing the company to insert him into an already finalized checklist.
Perhaps just as interesting as who appears in the set is who doesn't. Collectors will immediately notice the absence of Mantle, Aaron, Banks, Kaline, Killebrew, Musial, Berra and many other stars whose rights were tied up by Topps.
One can't help but wonder what later Fleer series might have contained.
Former Fleer employee Ted Taylor later recalled that the company had reportedly planned at least four series before legal pressure from Topps brought the project to an end. Keeping in mind supposedly poor sales may be a contributor. Had Fleer continued beyond its initial release, a rookie Pete Rose card might have become a reality.
While purely speculative, the possibility remains one of the hobby's great "what ifs."
One of the most interesting stories behind the set involves Maury Wills. He was called up in 1959! Despite becoming one of baseball's biggest stars and winning the 1962 National League MVP Award, Wills was largely absent from Topps baseball card sets during his prime years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Topps approached him late to the party and Maury told them to “suck it!”
As a result, the 1963 Fleer became the only mainstream card issued during part of the height of his career and is widely regarded as the key card of the set. And some might say this is his “rookie card?”
Topps would not issue Wills his first regular base card until 1967, after he had been traded from the Dodgers to the Pirates. For many collectors, that unusual history adds another layer of significance to an already important card.
One characteristic of the set is that centering is the primary condition challenge. However, collectors should not overlook the green-bordered backs, which can be susceptible to chipping, fading and color bleed.
While eye appeal is often determined by centering, strong backs are also an important part of evaluating high-quality examples.
In my experience, the Drysdale has always been one of the tougher cards in the set to locate with outstanding centering. Finding a high-grade example is one thing; finding one with truly balanced borders is another.
As a companion piece to the set, I've included an original 1961 Fleer letter sent to Bill Mazeroski. I picked it up in the Hunt auction a few years back. The correspondence discusses player contracts and compensation, offering a fascinating glimpse into Fleer's efforts to sign major leaguers as it prepared to challenge Topps' dominance of the baseball card market.
The letter is particularly interesting because it predates the 1963 set itself, providing tangible evidence that Fleer was actively working to secure player agreements years before the cards reached store shelves.
The essence of the letter from what I can get from some of the legalize is Dear Bill: Please send us all your contracts, amendments, extensions, and legal paperwork so we can determine whether you qualify. That is, does he get 125 bucks - he probably spent 200 bucks in lawyers fees to determine? 😎
Adding to the conversation. I’ve included an index card I got from Topps where you can see how they paid players - either in gifts or cash.
I've also included a card personally autographed by Mazeroski that came with the letter. Together, the letter and signed card help connect the collector not only to the set itself but also to the business side of the hobby during one of its most interesting eras.
Last, while anecdotal, I found that these cards were some of the toughest to find centered:
12 Francona
35 Purkey
37 Aspromonte
41 Drysdale
44 Bolling
50 Amaro
53 Demeter
54 Mahaffey
58 Law
64 Cepeda
More than sixty years later, the 1963 Fleer set remains one of the hobby's great unfinished stories. Its combination of star power, missing legends, unusual packaging and historical significance continues to attract collectors who appreciate a set that almost became something much larger. I kinda think this was a real David and Goliath moment?
Moreover: some more of the key players in the set and the checklist
If you got this far down? I think PSA should reward you! In fact I think you deserve a cookie! 😎
Comments
Mike , fantastic write up !!! Always good . Always insightful .
Although at times it doesn't take much , but I actually learned a lot about this set . It almost makes me want to , no , no , no , not that . I'll leave that collecting for others . --- Sonny
I love ‘63 Fleer Mike loved the read well done! My brother put a high grade set together years ago and enjoyed watching his journey. My understanding was the checklist was also short printed - is that not the case? It seemed the checklist went down in price for a number of years before coming back up. If it is not short-printed as previously thought that could explain the drop.
Beautiful cards all. Do you think they should take down grades for cookie stains on the back - they do not but my brother made sure none of his cards have stains. My Mays has a stain as he gave it to me for a birthday present because he couldn’t see the stain on Ebay. This was before grading was popular. I think they should be penalized like wax stains but I think I am in the minority.
In addition to Rose we could have gotten Stargell as he debuted in 1962 and played over 100 games in 1963.
Thanks for the Great Read and eye candy of the beautiful cards.
I've always LOVED this set just for the photography. Whoever did the shots was a master and got some of the coolest looking portraits ever put onto a card. Everyone just looks so cool, relaxed and enjoying the process. That's so rare with most card photos.
The Gibson is one of my favorite photos of him of all time.
Mike Phenomenal write up
That was a joy to read, I'm glad you decided to do the thread.
Awesome work
Great thread with great cards. Thanks Mike.
Thank you for the write up. Enjoyed learning about the set.
Outstanding write up, Mike! Thanks for sharing the history of this set and I really like the insight into the player contracts with Fleer. Also, great eye for those centered beauties. They really pop!
Great thread, love the cards.
Thanx brad.
Good question - shouldn't have left that out. Was afraid of getting too Wikipedia on you all.
There are 66 cards - so a sheet of 132 - in order to have the checklist, they sacrificed 1 card - that of Joe Adcock. To what extent I don't know.
These facts may be anecdotal - not directly from Fleer. Files on this kind of stuff is very hard to come by unfortunately.
On stains - have never seen any - and have no info - I'm sure if bad - the cards never made it to PSA since there was a sufficient enough good cards to have graded.
A very warm thanx to you all - Sonny, brad, EMSZ, Chris, Canes, Dave, Paul, BBB for your kind words.
It's hard to do a thread like this without it being a bit lengthy - nice to see some appreciate this.
Nice write up Mike !!!! I remember eating the cherry filled oat meal cookie
.......one of the first graded sets I put together !
and I thought they were really good
I think my first Psa graded card I bought off of E-Bay in 1999 was a 1963 Fleer Checklist ,
graded a Psa 6/o/c
Robbie
1963 Fleer
Lou Brock Master Set
Great write up Mike
Made me go out to ebay and grab a card
Great info piece! I also had that feeling while reading this article - maybe I should ........
@Stone193 Mike, thank you for the very informative writeup. I really like this set because of the player selection and how Fleer organized the players by team. Fleer loaded up on stars in their 63-card debut. Besides the stars mentioned above, there was also Pinson, Santo, and Boyer who made an appearance in this set. Fleer certainly had a good product in their debut, good enough to make Topps take legal action to keep the Topps monopoly going.
According to Ted Taylor, a former Fleer employee:
Taylor says that "Topps was able to enjoin Fleer from completing the set because the vast majority of the players in the first series were already under contract to Topps. Fleer, being essentially a mom-and-pop operation at the time, didn't have the deep pockets to take a financial hit from Topps if they lost a lawsuit, so they just folded, sold their contracts to Topps and didn't produce anything beyond that first series."
more info here: https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/auctions/1963-fleer-was-a-fabulous-confection
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball cards
also collecting Canadian silver coins
Totally agree!
I might do the same
Thanx Dave, Mike, Kevin and Adam.
It's really great to have a discussion about hobby sets.
Adam - over the years I'm compiled a lot of threads and articles on Fleer and Topps.
Here's something on the legal battle that's interesting: LINK
IN THE MATTER OF:
TOPPS CHEWING GU , INC.
I steered away from this since my thread would be more like War and Peace.
Summation of the one legal battle between both sides:
1. This explains Fleer's problem
The FTC complaint is basically saying:
"Topps has signed everybody."
That fits perfectly with:
Missing stars in 1963 Fleer.
Fleer's need to scramble for available players.
The Maury Wills situation.
My Mazeroski letter from 1961.
In fact, my Maz letter is evidence that Fleer was actively trying to build a player roster at the very time Topps was being accused of locking up the market.
2. The complaint mentions threats of legal action
One allegation was that Topps used:
"threats of legal action"
to frustrate competitors trying to obtain player rights.
That doesn't prove a specific 1963 Fleer lawsuit occurred, but it does show that legal threats were part of the FTC's allegations.
Look at the date.
The FTC complaint was filed in 1962, before the 1963 Fleer set was even released.
That tells us the government already viewed Topps' control of the market as a significant issue before Fleer's 1963 experiment hit store shelves.
I suspect what happened is:
There may never have been a famous reported court decision.
There may have been threats, injunction requests, negotiations, settlements, or contract disputes that never produced a published opinion.
The hobby gradually condensed all of that into:
"Topps sued Fleer."
The FTC case is documented. The alleged 1963 lawsuit is not nearly as easy to document.
The coolest thing for my thread?
My Mazeroski letter got more important.
Here's proof from a 3 card strip and a 36 card sheet where the Adcock was swapped out for the Checklist. Thus, creating a Short Print.
While theoretically and statistically all the cards are double printed on the sheet (66 x 2) - the Adcock may have been single printed along with the checklist on a sheet.
And as said - how many checklist sheets per print run are unknown
Very nice writeup of a great and often overlooked 1960's set. Thanks for taking the time to put this together!
Thanx Daniel.
Awesome read. So much info that I never knew. I've liked the set since I was a kid as it was elusive, rarely seen, and as you noted, a clean design. Thank you for including so many pictures with it.
Thx, Mike for the informative write up about the ‘63 Fleer set.
Enjoyed reading this Mike!
HOF SIGNED FOOTBALL RCS
The backs of the 1967 Topps cards are similar to 1963 Fleer (same shade of green, vertical orientation, and similar font). I wonder if the Topps designers had '63 Fleer in mind when coming up with their '67 design.
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball cards
also collecting Canadian silver coins
A good looking set and great story. Thanks for sharing!
Again - thanx guys - you all made my day - guh, Monte, John, Adam, Greg.