A few weeks ago, I picked up a huge stack of them of them at the De Anza Flea Market for three bucks. Over 150 of them were 1982 Fleer Team Stickers.
Back then, Major League Baseball only had 26 teams and at first glance, there appeared to be 4 basic sticker designs: cap, logo, logo diamond, and logo from cap.
Using my 4th grade math skills, I figured there would be a total of 104 different stickers to collect. Right? Wrong.
After a quick search on Beckett, I discovered that there are also "Puzzle on Back" variations.
Complete 1982 Fleer Team Sticker Puzzle
At first I thought that some of these stickers didn't have the puzzle piece on the back. Then I noticed that some of the "cap" and "logo" stickers have a variation with the words "puzzle on back" on the front of the sticker.
At this point I started to get a little discouraged... but I ultimately figured it would be a challenging, yet entertaining set build.
I started sorting all of the stickers by teams alphabetically.
That's when I discovered that some teams have multiple colored backgrounds. Damn. I've got way too much stuff on my plate right now to venture down this rabbit hole.
Maybe one day, I'll take on this challenge and attempt to build this master set, which according to Beckett contains 157 different stickers. Who the heck knew something as simple as Fleer Team Stickers could be so confusing?
In the meantime, I'm content with trying to build the Oakland A's team set that appears to contain six different stickers.
So far, I have four of them...
1982 Fleer Team Stickers #104
Cap w/Puzzle on Back Label
1982 Fleer Team Stickers #105
Logo w/Color Background
1982 Fleer Team Stickers #106
Logo w/Color Background and Puzzle on Back Label
1982 Fleer Team Stickers #108
Logo from Cap
I'm still looking for the cap without the "puzzle on back" stamp and the logo diamond.
The logo onto of the baseball diamond is widely available, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
On the other hand, I haven't been able to find the cap without the "puzzle on back" stamp, but here's the Phillies version as a photo reference.
I just purchased another huge lot of 1982 Fleer Team Stickers on eBay. I'm hoping to find the two Athletics stickers I need. If I do, it'll be one step closer to taking the plunge down the rabbit hole.
Until then...
Back in the 80's, who do you think had the best pack bonus?
Donruss with their puzzles? Fleer with their team stickers? Score with their magic motion trivia cards? Topps with their bubble gum? Upper Deck with their hologram team stickers?
I don't have the blogger skills to create a sidebar poll, so let your voice be heard in the comments down below.
Happy Tuesday and sayonara!
17 comments:
Same today as back then....Fleer.
Fleer wins hands down!
Here is my look a the 1982 Fleer sticker set:
http://fleersticker.blogspot.com/2008/07/1982-fleer-baseball-stickers.html
Fleer, without a doubt, had the best extras. Not even close.
That said, I can't be bothered with collecting them and all the variations. There are baseball cards to collect!!!!
I agree with the consensus that seems to be building: Fleer stickers from the 80s were by far the best promo item. Topps gum was inedible, Score's magic motion cards were pretty boring to look at, Donruss puzzles were pretty bad as puzzles (did anybody ever take apart the three pieces in each? If you do, it makes the puzzle extremely difficult to put together) and the Upper Deck stickers were boring since they all look the same from a distance.
The Fleer stickers were great because they were so colorful. I used to cover the lids of 3200 card boxes with them.
1992 was a dark year in baseball card history - the death of the Fleer team logo stickers barely passed with a whimper at the time but in retrospect it really marked the death knell of baseball card collecting being a fun thing for kids.
Oh hell yes...Fleer logo stickers. I used to keep card boxes in an old four-drawer file cabinet in our garage. My boys were young and they loved helping me cover the sides of that thing with those stickers.
Gum hits me in the feels and as a kid I was never a huge fan of the Fleer stickers except for the 1988 ones with the stadiums on the backs. As an adult though, while I *do* miss the gum, I appreciate the stickers so much more than I used to since the logos have all changed.
Hard to argue with the stickers. I did like Donruss pop up cards a lot.
I think I was all about the gum as a kid, even if it was only good for a few seconds. And the UD hologram stickers were pretty impressive. But yeah, looking back, hard to beat the old school Fleer stickers.
Topps hockey cards in the 1980s had pretty cool sticker inserts. The top half was a team logo, and the bottom half had number stickers or little hockey puck stickers (or a combination of both). I think somewhere on the back of the card it encouraged you to stick them on your hockey helmet!
I’m partial to Donruss and Topps for sure. I was always a sucker for the magic motion cards and inserts.
I really liked the puzzles myself. But when the stickers had cool backs I liked them a lot as well. My favorites are the Famius Feats cartoon backs.
Well,If you'll allow rack packs as a choice,I'm going with the 80's Topps Commemorative glossy all star cards.At least you were getting a player card.
I was given a mixed bundle of cards and one Topps 89 had the clear oblong outline of a stick of gum embedded in the card. Gum damage always makes a card feel more authentic to me for some reason.
I like the effect of the magic motion cards, but was never a fan of the inserts. Of course, I didn't buy any of these as new packs after about 1984 anyway.
Poll Results:
Fleer 6
Topps Gum 3.5
Donruss 1.5
Topps Hockey Stickers 1
Topps Glossy All-Stars 1
John Miller - I admire your consistency.
Fleerfan - Thanks. I used your site trying to figure stuff out... and will use it again if I actually try to build the master set.
night owl - I hear ya. I too ADD. Need to work on my focus.
Sean - I totally built the puzzles or at least tried to. When I started collecting again about 10 years ago, I made a point to go back and build all of the puzzles, which I now have displayed in a binder.
Commishbob - I did the same thing with some of my card boxes in the early 80's. Pretty sure I'd stick them to my Pee Chee folders too.
Nick Vossbrink - I ate the gum too, but I enjoyed the other bonuses more b/c it was something else to collect. The stadium backs were very cool. Maybe one day, I'll go crazy and attempt to build a master set of those as well.
The Lost Collector - If I remember correctly... I think the Donruss Pop Up cards came with three puzzle pieces.
defgav - By the time UD arrived I was wrapping up high school, so I didn't really utilize their stickers like I did the Fleer ones. I did keep them... although I'm not sure if I ever attempted to complete a team set.
Anonymous - I know exactly which ones you're talking about. If I had to guess, I'd say they were either 1989-90 Topps or 1990-91, because I opened a fair share of both those products. Never was willing to spend the big bucks for older hockey products.
SumoMenkoMan - I loved the Magic Motion cards. The inserts? Not so much.
Baltmoss68 - I appreciate the puzzles much, much more as an adult. I'll pull my puzzle binder out from time to time to reminisce. And I totally agree... those Famous Feats cartoon backs were fantastic!
Big Tone - I really love those glossy All-Star cards as well. I've thought about putting a binder collection of those together too. Maybe one day.
Jongudmund - This is going to sound crazy... but I've actually been looking for gum stained rookie cards of the 80's for the exact same reason that you mentioned.
GCA - Agree 100%
nothing tops Fleer stickers! I may trade a few but keep most! I don't care how many dupes I have!
I'm the exact same way. Although... as soon as I organize my stuff, I'll definitely start sending the extras out in care packages. The problem is making sure they're duplicates and not variations first.
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