Product Highlight: 1989 Fleer Glossy Baseball

Glossy was to Fleer as Tiffany was to Topps.

In an attempt to compete with Topps, Fleer issued a series of Glossy sets. At a quick glance these cards look just like the normal Fleer flagship set. But upon a closer look you’ll notice minor upgraded changes that give the cards a higher-end feel.

Lets take a look at the 1989 Fleer Glossy Baseball set.

This set consists of (660) “Custom Coated” cards, (12) “Custom Coated” Limited Edition World Series cards, and (66) full color team logo stickers.

When compared to a normal 1989 Fleer Baseball card you’ll notice that the Glossy example has a shiny finish, and has been printed on white card stock.

Turning the card over you can see blue was used for the Glossy instead of yellow. A big “Collectors Edition” logo is in the background on the Glossy card as well.

Sets were distributed in tins only. About 30,000 sets were printed.

Key rookie cards include Randy Johnson #381, Ken Griffey, Jr. #548, and John Smoltz #602.

The 1989 Fleer Glossy Baseball set has a famous cameo appearance in the 1990 film Home Alone.

When Kevin is snooping around his older brother’s bedroom a 1989 Fleer Glossy Baseball tin can be seen on the top shelf.

The shelves eventually come crashing down. Inside the tin you can see a few cards. One card is definitely of Fred McGriff.

Card of the Day: Reggie Jackson 1987 Fleer Update Glossy #U-49

Card of the Day: Roberto Alomar 1988 Score Traded Glossy #105T

Flashback Product of the Week: 1983 KG Glossy

There are a lot of grey areas when talking about the 1983 KG Glossy set.  It’s definitely not a set that every collector is familiar with.  The set closely resembles the 1983 glossy cards Topps made available through a mail-in program.  That’s one of the reasons why some collectors believe the KG Glossy set may have been a test issue, but this has never been confirmed.  The whole set consists of 24 blank back cards that don’t even contain the player’s name.  Steve Garvey and Pete Rose each have two different cards.  The addition of the extra cards of Garvey and Rose make collectors believe they were added at a later date.

Another theory is that the 1983 KG Glossy cards were produced by a guy named Kenny Garshewicz and sold through various collector publications at the time.  If these weren’t a test issue from Topps, maybe this guy thought he could produce this unlicensed set without getting in trouble with Topps by using different photos and leaving the names off.  This is the theory I believe the most in.  I also think whoever issued this set sold it over multiple years.  Just check out this old add from Baseball Card Magazine that was printed in 1985:

By the looks of it, they also have a jumbo set too.

A value is hard to determine.  eBay has a bunch of cards for sale, but only a few have actually sold.  The individual cards that did sell went for under $10.00.  High graded examples seem to have large asking prices.

Card of the Day: Roger Federer 2003 NetPro Elite Glossy #G3