The 1989 Fleer baseball card set was a product of the Fleer Corporation and marked the second year the company produced cards after buying out the Topps company’s license. The set featured 750 total cards and was centered around highlighting each team’s top rookie players from the previous season. Several of the rookies featured would go on to have Hall of Fame careers.
For collectors at the time, completing the 1989 Fleer full set provided a challenge. Whereas Topps sets typically included over 700 cards, Fleer upped the ante with their bigger 750 card roster. Finding certain players also proved difficult as distribution of packs could be uneven at the local retail level. Completing a full base set meant trading with other collectors or searching multiple hobby shops and convenience stores to track down the harder to find short prints.
Some notable stars and future HOF players included in prominent spots in the 1989 Fleer set were Ken Griffey Jr., Gregg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Jeff Bagwell. Griffey was featured as the primary rookie card in the design with his name and photo dominating the front. His explosive entry into the majors made his Fleer RC one of the hottest commodities that year. Maddux and Glavine both broke out as impact rookies for the Atlanta Braves staff in 1988 and their rookie cards gained popularity. Bagwell was another popular rookie find from the Houston Astros that season.
Fleer also paid homage to individual teams in the ’89 set with select franchise-focused inserts cards highlighting top players and history. For example, card #679 spotlighted the Boston Red Sox franchise with a collage of stars including Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and others. The Chicago Cubs received the same franchise treatment on card #707. These special extras added variety and local flair compared to typical team sets at the time.
Completing a 1989 Fleer baseball set meant tracking down the standard base cards from #1 to #750. There were also several exciting special subsets hidden throughout packs. The ‘Top Prospects’ parallel subset featured 15 rookie cards of the hottest young talents on card #s 501-515. The ‘Fleer Future Stars’ subset showed future HOFers like Frank Thomas, Craig Biggio and Vladimir Guerrero as promising prospects on cards #s 516-530.
Finding the coveted ‘Topps Traded’ player exchange subset proved one of the biggest challenges. Cards #s 651-675 highlighted 25 stars that had been traded to new teams in 1988 like Ozzie Smith and Harold Baines. The scarcity of these inserts made them highly valued by collectors once the full set was realized. Other subsets included retired stars on ‘Fleer Greats’ cards #s 676-700 and player photos from spring training on the ‘Camp Cards’ set from #701-725.
Among the other inserts were veteran star highlights on cards like Nolan Ryan’s 600th career strikeout (#49) and Wade Boggs’ pursuit of a .400 average (#241). Some random oddball extras existed like cards showing umpires (#426), old baseball cards from the 19th century (#585), and baseball diamond dimensions (#623). These novel miscellaneous inserts added humor and surprise to the collected packs.
One of the most significant facets of the 1989 Fleer set was how it jumpstarted both the baseball card industry and growth of economic aspects like the speculator market. While previous Topps issues approached 750 cards, Fleer expanded the borders and really grew the modern model of inserts, parallels and short prints boosting chase value. Completing a full ’89 Fleer set in mint condition today remains a prized and valuable achievement for dedicated collectors. Prices for unopened wax boxes have soared well past $1000 indicating high modern demand. Individual key rookie cards like Griffey, Bagwell and Glavine also command 4-figure prices.
For hobbyists at the time of the cards’ original release, tracking down every slice of the diverse 1989 Fleer baseball puzzle provided the thrill of the hunt. Replicating that experience of randomly searching packs at the local convenience store or trading with school friends to slowly finish a full rainbow set remains a nostalgic memory. The ’89 Fleer cards truly grew the collectibility of the modern baseball card era and set the framework for what was to come in the golden age of the 1990s. Finishing this expansive and historic 750 card monolith stands as a pinnacle accomplishment in the archives of any lifelong card collector.
