Flashback Friday #11: 1988 Fleer Headliners

I love inserts.  Always have and always will.  Okay... maybe I'm exaggerating.  But I've enjoyed collecting them for a long, long time.

But upon personal reflection, I figured something out about myself.  I tend to associate inserts with the 90's.  It probably has to do with the "insert" craze that swept the hobby during that decade.  Nonetheless inserts have been around way before the 90's.

One of the first insert sets I attempted to build was the 1988 Fleer Headliners.  They were only found inside of 1988 Fleer rack packs and highlighted some of the game's biggest names at the time.  You would assume that this set would be super easy to complete, since it only contains six cards.  However... if I remember correctly, collation was terrible and I had a hard time finding certain cards.  I think Mattingly and Morris were the two guys that kept me from completing the set.

And since I didn't have access to COMC or eBay in the 80's... the set was never completed.

Recently, I've noticed them popping up in dime boxes and quarter bins at card shows.  I'm pretty sure the Mattingly and McGwire were 25¢ each, while the rest were 10¢ each.  I was pretty excited to relive my past and finally build this set.  Sort of cardboard closure.

I'm a big fan of the simple card design that utilizes a newspaper background.  On the back, Fleer wrote brief summaries of the player's current and career achievements.  My only complaint is their choice of photo selection.  I like the action shot on the Mattingly card.  And the posed shot of McGwire is cool too.  But I'm not a huge fan of the "in between" action shots of Morris and Gooden.  Plus I'm not sure why they used non-action shots of Strawberry and Raines where they weren't looking at the camera.  Oh well... for under a buck it's hard to complain.

Oh and did anyone else notice the checklist includes six candidates for the Hall of Very Good?  I guess technically Morris can break the pattern and get into Cooperstown this year.  And who knows... maybe McGwire or Raines eventually make it in too.  Only time will tell.

What do you guys think?  Any chance any of these guys make it into the Hall of Fame?

Happy Friday and sayonara!