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DOES FRED MEYER SELL BASEBALL CARDS

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Yes, Fred Meyer does sell baseball cards at many of their store locations across the western United States. Fred Meyer is a large regional department store and supermarket chain owned by Kroger. While their main focus is on grocery, home goods, clothing, and general merchandise, they do carry a limited selection of trading cards, including baseball cards.

Baseball cards can be found in the toy aisles at most Fred Meyer stores. The selection tends to be smaller than what you might find at a dedicated card shop or sports card store, but they do maintain a revolving stock of new baseball card products. Common brands they carry include Topps, Upper Deck, Panini, Donruss, Leaf, and Bowman. The vintage selection is usually very limited if they have any at all, as Fred Meyer focuses more on moving recently released products.

For the 2021 baseball season, Fred Meyer had stock of the current year’s Topps flagship baseball card products like Series 1, Series 2, Allen & Ginter, Stadium Club, and Topps Chrome. They also carried some of the non-Topps options like Donruss Optic, Leaf Metal Draft, and Panini Prizm. The stores received shipments of these products around their on-sale dates to stay as up-to-date as possible given their general retail focus. Their stock levels do tend to fluctuate based on consumer demand in each local area.

In addition to loose packs and boxes of the main baseball card releases, some Fred Meyer locations will also have baseball cards available in other forms. You may find specialty blasters, tins, or other miniature collections of cards targeted towards younger collectors. Every few months they refresh these seasonal or holiday baseball card assortments as well. Stores that have a larger toy section are more likely to stock these supplementary baseball card products.

The price points on baseball cards sold at Fred Meyer aim to be accessible for casual collectors on any budget. Loose packs are usually found for standard retail values between $3-5 depending on the brand and product line. Boxes offer better overall value but start at around $20-30. Many stores will also put older stock on clearance periodically to make room for new shipments coming in. This can be a good way to find slightly discounted card items if you don’t need the latest releases.

As a general merchandise retailer rather than a sport card specialty shop, the level of customer service support for baseball cards at Fred Meyer is relatively light. Employees in the toy departments may have some familiarity to answer basic questions, but don’t expect in-depth knowledge or grading assistance that you would get at a dedicated card shop. Stock is also replenished less frequently than at smaller hobby shops that are card-focused.

For a quick or convenient baseball card purchase when combining other errands, Fred Meyer offers the advantage of one-stop shopping. Their presence in many grocery-anchored shopping centers makes it easy to peruse new packs alongside essentials like food and supplies. The ability to use Fred Meyer Rewards coupons and fuel points on card purchases provides additional savings potential as well. But serious collectors still rely more on the expertise available at local card shops for their core collecting needs.

While Fred Meyer can’t compete with specialized sports card retailers in terms of selection depth or customer service, their stores do maintain a rotating assortment of mainstream baseball card products for casual fans. Being a mainstream retailer, prices are reasonable and it’s a handy option when other errands are involved. But the overall baseball card offerings are geared more towards impulse purchases alongside other items rather than core collecting. As long as expectations are managed accordingly, Fred Meyer satisfies the occasional baseball card buyer.

FRED MEYER BASEBALL CARDS

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Fred Meyer was a prominent Portland, Oregon-based supermarket chain that issued baseball cards in their stores from 1952 through 1961 as a baseball card promotion. The cards were inserted randomly into cereal boxes, gum packs, and candy bars sold at Fred Meyer stores. While not as prolific or popular as Topps or Bowman baseball cards of the era, the Fred Meyer baseball card sets are still sought after today by collectors due to their scarcity and regional significance.

The first Fred Meyer baseball card set was issued in 1952 and contained 48 player cards featuring stars from the American and National Leagues of that season. Some notable inclusions in the 1952 set were Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Warren Spahn, and Roy Campanella. The cards had black-and-white player photos on the front with basic career stats like batting average and home runs on the reverse. The cards did not feature any team logos or insignia, instead just featuring the player’s name and a “Fred Meyer” banner at the bottom of each card.

From 1953 to 1956, Fred Meyer issued 24-card sets each year containing updated stats and photos from that season’s top players. The 1953 set included rookie cards for future Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, and Al Kaline. An unannounced color test set was apparently issued in a very small quantity in 1955 as some examples have surfaced containing color photos on duller cardstock than the standard black-and-white Fred Meyer cards of the era. The 1956 set is considered the most common of the early yearly issues.

In 1957, Fred Meyer took its baseball card promotion to another level by issuing a substantially larger 96-card set. This expanded offering allowed the company to feature additional star players and rookies alongside lesser known major leaguers. Some of the notable “firsts” in the 1957 Fred Meyer set included the first cards featuring future all-time hits leader Pete Rose as well as Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench as a rookie. Color was still not used on the fronts of the 1957 cards but a colorized team logo did appear on the backs for the first time.

The 96-card format continued through 1959 and cards began featuring colorful team insignia on both the fronts and backs. Several rookie cards of future stars like Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Luis Aparicio, and Early Wynn’s only card appeared in these medium-sized sets from Fred Meyer. Overall production remained limited regionally to the Pacific Northwest so many of these cards are quite scarce to this day.

In 1960, Fred Meyer embraced the expanding baseball card market by issuing its only large 132-card set to date. This helped capture more comprehensive coverage of that season’s players. Notable rookies included future 500 home run club members Mike Schmidt and Reggie Jackson. Select cards also featured player autographs signed via contest mail-ins further adding to the excitement of the Fred Meyer promotion. After a short run of only a year at the expanded size, the 1960 132-card issue marks the end of Fred Meyer’s golden era of baseball cards.

The 1961 Fred Meyer set reverted back to a smaller 68-card run that stuck mostly to star players and notable rookies like Tom Seaver rather than having broader representation. This would ultimately be the last baseball card set sold exclusively through Fred Meyer supermarkets. Throughout the 1940s-1960s, Fred Meyer gained a prominent foothold in the Pacific Northwest grocery industry but was surpassed nationally by larger chains.

While Fred Meyer continued to sell sport cards as a side business through the 1970s and ’80s, they no longer produced original baseball card sets of their own. Those produced between 1952-1961 have developed a strong cult following among regional collectors and sets can now fetch high prices when complete, especially for their early issues and key rookie cards of stars. Though never Topps-level releases, the Fred Meyer cards still hold significance as a unique part of baseball card history that spotlighted stars of the time specifically for fans in the Pacific Northwest supermarket aisles.