The 1990 Fleer Baseball Cards 10th Anniversary set marked a decade since Fleer obtained the license to produce baseball cards that were a competitor to Topps. To commemorate their 10 years in the baseball card industry, Fleer created a retrospective 330 card set that highlighted key cards and players from their first 10 years producing baseball cards from 1981-1990.
The set was broken into several different series that look back at different aspects of Fleer’s first 10 years making baseball cards. The largest subset was called “Fleer Flashbacks” which featured reprints of 108 cards from 1981-1989 Fleer sets. Some of the reprinted cards included rookie cards of players like Ozzie Smith from 1982 Fleer, Wade Boggs from 1985 Fleer, and Ken Griffey Jr.’s rookie card from 1989 Fleer. Reprinting these key rookie and star player cards from their earlier sets was a nice tribute that also had collector appeal for anyone wanting copies of important Fleer rookies that had appreciated greatly in value in the secondary market.
In addition to the Fleer Flashbacks subset, there was also a 60 card “Fleer Fantastics” subset highlighting some of the best and most memorable players from the past decade. Players in this subset included superstars like Mike Schmidt, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Cal Ripken Jr. photographed in new posed action shots specifically for this anniversary set. For collectors, getting new photos and cards of these all-time great players who were in or near the end of their careers was a real treat.
Another subset was the “Fleer Futures” which included 30 rookie or prospect cards identifying players that Fleer and collectors would be following closely in the new decade of the 1990s like Frank Thomas, Gregg Jefferies, Jeff Bagwell, and Tom Glavine. The Futures subset helped collectors start to assemble the next generation of future stars even before they fully broke out at the major league level.
In addition to the larger subsets, there were also “Fleer Flashes” that spotlighted 31 memorable moments from the past 10 years in short descriptive blurbs alongside a cropped photo relating to that moment. Some examples included Fernando Valenzuela’s rookie year, Kirby Puckett’s game 6 HR in 1991 World Series, and Nolan Ryan’s record breaking 5,000th strikeout. For fans of baseball history, this was a fun way to reminisce about great players and games from recent years in a very condensed summary.
Perhaps the most unique cards in the set were the “Fleer Finals” which paid tribute to nine players who had retired over the past decade by providing career stats and accomplishments on their backs alongside new portraits on the fronts. Included in this subset were legends like Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, and Rod Carew. Giving proper send offs to these all-time great players who had said goodbye to MLB in the 1980s showed Fleer’s commitment to documenting the full careers of the game’s stars.
In total, the 330 card 1990 Fleer Baseball 10th Anniversary set did an excellent job of remembering the key players, images, and moments from Fleer’s first 10 years in the baseball card industry. Through reprints, new photography, highlights of future stars, and recaps of recent MLB history – Fleer was able to engage collectors both nostalgically by bringing back classics while also getting them excited about the next generation on the horizon. The 10th Anniversary set became a very popular and important set for Fleer collectors of the era looking to commemorate a decade of success for the young but growing baseball card manufacturer. It marked not just 10 years in the past, but set the stage for what was to come from Fleer in the 1990s and beyond. The detailed tributes and subsets helped make the 1990 10th Anniversary set one of the most memorable and well-designed retrospective issues in the history of the hobby.
