Inside the Hobby

[autobilia]

Well, with Fleer being gone (at least as we know it), I've decided to release some inside info I received from Fleer over the years about particular cards.. mainly when I collected Final Cuts. Here is one e-mail about the Edgar Martinez Patch error and cards pulled from the set:

Further research told me that a total of only 162 Edgar Martinez Final Cut cards were created (32 were in Fleer inventory for customer replacement--I found 12 that are all patch, some with the same colors as the ones you e-mailed) in Genuine. It was patches from a navy gamer. However, there also are a variation that actually have the batting glove pieces. Notes tell me the blue Edgar jersey was to be used for Material Issue (also in Genuine). The batting glove was supposed to be used for Final Cut. These items were probably shipped to our vendor together with notes. I do not have numbers on the two variations, but I believe that the card was only supposed to use the batting glove pieces. FYI: a typical batting glove cut up in that manner yields about 50 pieces. Unfortunately, I do not have information beyond that.

Also, regarding Larsen and Jackson, both are extremely shot. We tried to delete both from the set because the relatively low number of cards we yielded from scraps of their garments (scraps from 2000 Greats Yankee Clippings). Since my records show the cards as being removed from the run, these were cards that missed our facility's quality control. I have only been witness to a few Jacksons and Larsens (all on ebay). It seems Jackson is a little more available, but I would guess that less than 10 Larsens are in circulation.

But got another, different, answer from another source:

Fleer created a card for Guidry (and Reggie Jackson - I believe) for this Final Cut set prior to getting the player's licensing approval. Unfortunately, they never managed to get that approval and they pulled as many copies of those cards from their production as possible. It appears one or two did indeed slip past their radar - thus they're legitimately scarce cards.

Response from customer service:

Dear Collector

The Jackson and Larsen cards were not intended to be released. It is known that a handful of Jacksons went into the boxes but to the best of our knowledge none of the Larsens were packed out. I hope this information is of assistance to you and wish you the best of luck with your future collecting.

 

[autobilia]

Here's one about the 2001 Fleer Genuine J.D. Drew Final Cut jersey

According to my records, here is what was sent for Drew cards:

White Jersey yield 78 pieces

packed out 75.

It doesn't appear that there were any patch cards, but could be some multi-colors.

 

[autobilia]

This is how the set got it's name "Final Cut"

There are a lot of patches for the other guys because, as the name suggests, in many cases, these were the "final cut" of that particular jersey. Some of the pieces were too thick to put on other designs.

 

[autobilia]

About the 2001 Fleer Genuine Paul Molitor Material Issue jersey card.

Molitor is an extreme short print. There are less than 60 in circulation.

 

[Duke Snider Fan]

Great info...thanks Ike..too bad you didn't complete that set..I assume you got as close as you could though.

 

[autobilia]

I know this is not Fleer, but Donruss.
This is a response about the 2001 Leaf Certified Materials Fabrics of the Game #32 which was reported as not existing. I saw one on Ebay years ago which was Jackie Robinson.

#32 was indeed intended to be Jackie Robinson (a negro league card). Not sure about the status of the card on eBay last year.