After their 1961-62 set and just a smattering of cards in the 70’s, Fleer hit the ground running in 1986-87 and was really on a roll with their fifth consecutive set in 1990-91. It was a manageable set to collect at 198 cards, the final two being checklists. The set may not have been as large as Hoops and Skybox’s 400+ card sets, but they were certainly overproduced. So yes, today, the 1990-91 Fleer set can be affectionately called a “junk” set. Ironically though, it was this set that piqued collectors’ interest in Fleer and the first Fleer set that collectors actively sought to purchase. They grabbed 15-card wax packs, 23-card cello packs and 36-card rack packs. Those large packs were an initial red flag that there would be a surplus of the cards. People didn’t realize just how many cards were actually printed until it was too late. Values plummeted and remain low to this day.
This set tends to get overlooked because there are few must-have cards, and the important ones were overproduced. But collectors owe it to themselves to have this set in their collection for many reasons. There are important rookie cards like Shawn Kemp, Tim Hardaway, Vlade Divac, Glen Rice and Danny Ferry. Other items of interest include the first appearance of David Robinson on a Fleer card, and an awesome head-on photo of Jordan with his tongue out.
“Junk” sets are known for printing inconsistencies, variations and errors (both corrected and uncorrected), and the 1990-91 Fleer is no exception. One of the most common variations involves the thin black line between the card number and the stats below. See the images above where it is missing in one of the card backs. This line causes the Jordan card to have two variations, but other cards in the set are affected as well. Collectors who really want to get into this set can search for the numerous errors and variations that have become known in the collecting community.
Discussions of Individual Cards:
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