i.like.old.fleer

#sundayfunday #sundayrunday Hardly a complete representation of #oldfleer #vintagenonsportscards. One of the most notable omissions here is the 1960 Spins and Needles set featuring the Rock n Roll stars of the day. Some of these I built or am building the set. And others, an example is enough.

Pictured:
1935 Cops and Robbers
1959 Indian Trading Cards
1959 Three Stooges
1961 Pirates Bold
1966 Three Stooges
1966 All-Star Match Baseball Game
1969 Stadium Baseball Fact Cards
1971 Harlem Globetrotters

The Fleer Corporation, founded by Frank H. Fleer in 1885, was the first company to successfully manufacture bubble gum (Dubble Bubble); it remained a family-owned enterprise until 1989.

Fleer predated many of its competitors into the business of issuing sports cards with its 1923 release of baseball cards in its "Bobs and Fruit Hearts" candy product. These rare cards are basically the same as the 1923 W515 strip cards but are machine cut and have a printed ad for the candy company on the back. Many years later in 1959 it signed baseball star Ted Williams to a contract and sold an 80-card set oriented around highlights of his career. Fleer was unable to include other players because rival company Topps had signed most active baseball players to exclusive contracts.

Fleer continued to produce baseball cards by featuring Williams with other mostly retired players in a Baseball Greats series. One set was produced in 1960 and a second in 1961. The company did not produce new cards the next year, but continued selling the 1961 set while it focused on signing enough players to produce a set featuring active players in 1963. This 67-card set included a number of stars, including 1962 NL MVP Maury Wills, who had elected to sign with Fleer instead of Topps. However, Topps still held onto the rights of most players and the set was not particularly successful.

After several years of litigation, the Topps monopoly on baseball cards was finally broken by a lawsuit decided by federal judge Clarence Charles Newcomer in 1980, in which the judge ended Topps Chewing Gum's exclusive right to sell baseball cards, allowing the Fleer Corporation to compete in the market.