Sports Card Magazine’s monthly auction report highlighted an incredible item in its April 1998 issue: the sale of a completely signed 80-card 1959 Fleer Ted Williams Set!
Based on the magazine’s date, the Sportsworld “All Boston” Auction must have been in December 1997 (I can’t find any other references to the auction). And, as you can read, the set of signed Williams’ Fleer baseball cards sold for $11,694.
While they highlighted card no. 69 in the text; I think they meant 68 because that’s the actual number for the “Ted Signs for 1959” card they featured in the image.
REA has recently sold a pair of these signed cards for some modern market context. This first example is a PSA 5, which sold for $1,920 in the spring of 2024.
The second example was this PSA 2, with a much nicer signature, that sold for $1,560 in October 2024.
Card 68 is definitely the key card in the set; other signed 1959 Fleer Ted Williams cards sell for a lot less; for example, this “Ted Reaches 400th Homer” sold for $276.50 on eBay back in November 2024.
Kit Kiefer was a former editor of Baseball Cards Magazine and the VP of Professional Hobby Consultants, so he knows a thing or two about sports cards. Here’s his list of the 10 most significant action photos of all time, in order of importance. Not bad, huh?
The list was part of a much longer article in the February 1997 issue of Sports Card Magazine, in which he mentioned that “action photos on sports cards were non existent for the first 100 years, but today they are as common as a new pack of cards.”
In terms of popularity, you have to consider adding the 1991 Topps Carlton Fisk card featuring Cecil Fielder barreling toward him; here’s the Desert Shield version (4 Sharp Corners was offering it on eBay for $759 in November 2024).
With their 1989 baseball set, Upper Deck brought the hobby its first premium product. They backed that up with another innovation in 1990 with the first major chase card. But Upper Deck also innovated in how they marketed their products. All the major brands put ads in hobby publications and sports magazines along with providing sell sheets and pamphlets directly to dealers, but Upper Deck decided to target collectors directly in another way by distributing promotional/commemorative sheets.
This article kicks off a four-part series dedicated to these Upper Deck sheets, starting with those for baseball sets (later, I’ll cover hockey, basketball, and football sheets). There are two categories when it comes to baseball. In 1989 and 1990, Upper Deck provided Limited Edition Commemorative Sheets at card shows, announcing their entrance to the hobby, while from 1991-1994, they had commemorative sheets and Heroes of Baseball sheets that they distributed at sporting events. They’re all ~8 1/2″ x 11″ and blank-backed.
In 1989, Upper Deck distributed a pair of Limited Edition Commemorative Sheets at two events to promote their first set. The first was at the 10th National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago, held from June 29 – July 2. The sheets are numbered out of 25k.
Upper Deck gave out the other sheet at the National Candy Wholesalers Association Exposition in Washington, D.C., between July 27 and 29. This sheet is scarcer and costlier (probably because it includes the Ken Griffey Jr. card photo) than the NSCC one.
And a final version, and the toughest to track down, was available at the 1990 All-American Sports Collectors Convention, August 31-September 3, in San Francisco, CA.
Around this time, The Upper Deck Company replaced Equitable Financial Companies as the sponsor of Baseball’s Old-Timer Series – which was renamed the Heroes of Baseball Series.
The following article from The Journal Times in Racine, Wisconsin, from February 1991, explains that the 1991 24-game exhibition series benefits the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT) and that Upper Deck would donate $10k to BAT for each of the Heroes of Baseball games that were set to begin on April 14.
Old Timers Series Renamed
So the next Upper Deck sheet is this single version dedicated to BAT, the Foundation of Baseball, and is numbered to 1500. Notice that it’s dated to 1991 on the seal.
1991 Upper Deck Commemorative Sheet
1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheets
TCDB lists 23 total sheets in the 1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet series, including two cover sheet versions with the schedule. One is numbered to 10k, the other to 20k, and both feature the same Reggie Jackson Heroes of Baseball card. The seal has a 1991 date, but the Upper Deck logo says 90/91.
1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – Cover Sheet Version 1
The rest of the items were distributed at various events throughout the year. Interestingly, and perhaps it was based on expected attendance, the sheets are numbered to different totals. Here are a few examples.
1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – Battle of Missouri
1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – 1971 Pirates vs. Orioles
1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – A Tribute to Joe DiMaggio & Ted Williams
1992 Upper Deck Commemorative Sheets
TCDB describes this series of five 1992 commemorative sheets as those distributed at Upper Deck-sponsored events but doesn’t include the Heroes of Baseball series, which they listed separately. The five events were the Yankees Second Annual Fan Festival (Jan/Feb 1992), Opening Day at Oriole Park at Camden Yards (April 6, 1992), two versions were available at the All-Star FanFest in July 1992, and the last version honored the Atlanta Braves 1991-1992 Back-to-Back National League Champions.
1992 Upper Deck Commemorative Sheet – Yankees Fan Fest
1992 Upper Deck Commemorative Sheet – Opening Da at Camden Yards
1992 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Commemorative Sheets
The following article from the Tampa Bay Times, from February 1992, explains that in 1992, the Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball “tour” would be visiting all 26 stadiums plus Mile High Stadium (the original home of the Rockies who would join MLB the following season). Again, Upper Deck Co. donated $10k to BAT for each game.
Old-timers – Tampa Bay Times
TCDB lists 31 items in their checklist for this series of sheets. Here are a few examples, and again, serial numbering varied.
1992 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Commemorative Sheet – The 200 Club
1993 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheets
Again, Upper Deck gave these sheets away during the Heroes of Baseball Tour. The checklist on TCDB includes 27 blank-backed sheets that again have varied serial numbering.
1993 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – Inaugural Season
1993 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – May 15, 1993
1993 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – A Tribute to Billy Martin
1994 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheets
The following article from the Journal News in White Plains, NY (March 1994) explains that Upper Deck was now donating $225k for every Heroes of Baseball game played to BAT and that in 1993, they donated $300k.
Sports Collecting – Journal News
TCDB’s checklist includes just eight sheets in 1994 that the article explains Upper Deck gave away to every fan attending the various games.
1994 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – Brewers Silver Anniversary Season
1994 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Sheet – Hollywood Softball Game
I’m unsure what happened to the Hereos of Baseball series; Wikipedia implies the final game was played in June 1995 at Dodgers Stadium. And while the following ad from the LA Times from Tuesday, June 6, 1995, still includes Upper Deck’s sponsorship, the advertisement shares regular Dodgers games and the Saturday game against the Phillies at 7:35 (that they lost 3-0). I’m unsure if there was a Heroes game before the first pitch or if it was just a sponsored night where stars of the past appeared. Commemorative sheets aren’t mentioned in the ad for the Saturday game, and I haven’t found any from years after 1994.
Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball Night Ad – LA Times
Conclusion
You can find most of these Upper Deck baseball commemorative sheets for just a few dollars, but they hold a lot of historical value to the hobby and baseball. So whether you’re an Upper Deck card collector or just looking to make a display piece, these sheets would be an excellent way to spice up a collection or hobby cave. Ultimately, they’re a fantastic journey through Upper Deck’s contribution to the sports card industry. Don’t forget to revisit the blog over the next few days since I’ll be covering Upper Deck’s hockey, basketball, and football commemorative sheets, too.
This article marks the conclusion of my series on collector issues, which began a few weeks ago with my look at Mike Aronstein and TCMA and was followed by an article about Larry Fritsch. This week, I’ll be looking at Mike Cramer, who, as T.S. O’Connell wrote, “parlayed his initial foray into minor league cards and collector issues into full-fledged licenses with baseball, football, and hockey. In other words, a collector-issue company became one of the big boys, no small feat when considering the size of some of his competitors.”
Hobby Figure Mike Cramer
Cramer was a fan of baseball cards from an early age. The details for his book Cramer’s Choice: Memoir of a Baseball Card Collector Turned Manufacturer note that before high school, he had a mail-order trading card business before founding Pacific Trading Cards.
Cramer’s Choice Book Cover
In his early days, Cramer would buy vending cases of Topps baseball cards and collate sets from them. In a Sports Collectors Daily article, he shared that his wife Cheryl did a lot of the work while he was off crab fishing to make money.
After doing this for a while, Cramer started making his own sets and also innovated collecting a bit around that time. They produced plastic sheets to put cards in binders and cardboard boxes designed for cards.
Key Mike Cramer Collector Issues
Before getting those big licenses with the major sports leagues, Cramer got his start with a few minor league sets and Baseball Legends releases.
1975 Phoenix Giants Minor League Set
1975 Circle K Phoenix Giants Michael J. Cramer
It seems Cramer actually produced a few different sets for the Phoenix Giants, but his first is cataloged as the Circle K Phoenix Giants set and included a card of Cramer from the Phoenix Giants thanking him for his work in helping produce the card set. It added that his collection had almost half a million cards!
A search on TCDB also turned up a 1976 Cramer Phoenix Giants set that included a sponsorship from CocaCola.
1976 Cramer Phoenix Giants Horace Speed
Some of his other late 70s minor league sets included ones for the Seattle Rainiers, Tucson Toros, Salt Lake City Gulls, Spokane Indians, Tucson Toros, Albuquerque Dukes, Tacoma Yankees, and Hawaii Islanders.
1980-83 Baseball Legends
1980 Cramer Baseball Legends #5 Joe DiMaggio
From a collector issue perspective, Cramer is probably best known for the four Baseball Legends sets he released between 1980 and 1983. The cards have a sepia-toned photo on the front with a black frame. The backs are brown and include personal data, stats, and career summary. The key cards across the series include Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson’s portrait card, Roberto Clemente, Ted Williams, and Joe Jackson.
Each series had 30 cards, but the 124-card total comes from the four fourth series cards Cramer printed on this box in 1986.
Baseball Legends Box Bottom
Baseball Legends Box Top
Notice the ad for Pacific Trading Collector Sheets on the wrapper! The wrapper and box have a 1985 copyright, but I usually see them advertised as a 1986 product.
Baseball Legends Wax Wrapper
Cramer would develop another series of Baseball Legends cards from 1988-90 under the Pacific name that were printed in color.
Conclusion and Further Reading
Along with Mike Aronstein and Larry Fritsch, Mike Cramer was pivotal in moving the hobby forward since they were creating many of their now-famous collector issues at a time when Topps had their monopoly. However, the role of collector issues slowly diminished after 1981 when three major companies, Donruss, Fleer, and Topps, started competing to produce the most popular cards. Given the current market consolidation under Fanatics, one has to wonder if the hobby might need collector issues again.
The Halper Collection is pretty legendary, but it’s also shrouded in controversy due to some fake/counterfeit items. I’ve hesitated diving deep into it for that reason. However, rediscovering a March 1997 Sports Card Magazine article on the collection gives me a great baseline from which to start on the blog moving forward.
I started my collector issue series a few weeks back with my article about Mike Aronstein and TCMA. Today, I’ll shift to another hobby pioneer from the 70s known as having had one of the largest personal collections of anyone in the hobby, Larry Fritsch.
Hobby Pioneer Larry Fritsch
Fritsch became a full-time dealer in 1970 when he launched Larry Fritsch Cards, Inc. on May 1st. But Fritsch traced his involvement in the hobby back to 1948 and was a collector first – he built one of the most legendary collections in hobby history. He was known to have bought, traded, and sold cards religiously since childhood.
Larry graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and worked multiple part-time jobs, including one as a train baggage handler, a tax researcher, and in a paper mill, before following his passion in the hobby.
Fritsch operated primarily as a mail-order business with giant catalogs. He advertised his company in many different publications, like The Sporting News. Around 1989, he was selling more than 200k mail-order cards per week.
Larry was the face of the business side of the hobby for over 30 years.
Key Fritsch Sets and Cards
Today, many people know the Fritsch brand for having some incredible unopened material that Larry had bought directly from manufacturers’ end-of-year stock, but he created some significant collector issues.
Fritsch One-Year Winners
1977 Fritsch One-Year Winner Eddie Gaedel
Fritsch’s first offering was an 18-card set, One-Year Winners, printed in 1977 and sold through his catalog. It featured players “with brief, but often well-known, major league baseball careers.” The first card in the set was Eddie Gaedel, who, along with Pete Gray, had the key cards in the 1977 release. The set was continued with 36 more cards in 1979 and another 64 in 1983 (many of which used unused Topps pictures and were designed similarly to 1966 Topps baseball cards), all continuously numbered. As I said, he was a collector first, so it makes sense that his first set was something the hobby had never seen before.
1986 Fritsch Negro League Baseball All-Stars
1986 Fritsch Negro League Baseball All-Stars #25 Jackie Robinson
The Standard Catalog describes this set as “one of the most comprehensive collectors’ issues to features stars of the Negro League…most of the photos are contemporary with the players’ careers from the 1920s into the 1950s, with a few of the segregated leagues’ earlier pioneers also included.” The set’s key cards are Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Moses Fleetwood Walker, Josh Gibson, Willie Wells, and Smoky Joe Williams. If you’re into baseball history, pick up this 119-card set.
The SAMPLE backs are a little more desirable.
1986 Fritsch Negro League Baseball All-Stars Sample Back #11 Jackie Robinson
All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Cards
1995 Fritsch All-American Girls Professional Baseball League #1 Dorothy Wiltse
From a collector issue perspective, Larry Fritsch Cards key set came out in 1995 when they released a set of 234 cards highlighting the women’s league that the movie “A League of Their Own” made famous. They added a second series in 1996 to bring the set’s total to 340 cards. Later, in 2000, they added a third series with another 72 cards and an updated series of nine cards in 2002.
Other Key Cards
As a collector first, Fritsch didn’t make reprint sets for a long time because it was against his philosophy. But he said that when a set reached $5k, a lot of folks couldn’t afford them anymore, and he wanted more people to be able to see the cards. An example is the 1982 Fritsch 1957 Spic and Span Reprints.
1982 Fritsch 1957 Spic and Span Hank Aaron Reprint
In the 80s, Larry Fritsch Cards created a few dozen Midwest League minor league sets along with a great minor league card of Kirby Puckett on the Visalia Oaks.
1983 Fritsch Visalia Oaks #6 Kirby Puckett
In 1983, Fristch commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Boston Braves’ move to Milwaukee with a 33-card set that included Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn.
1983 Fritsch 1953 Boston/Milwaukee Braves #41 Eddie Mathews
Wrap-Up and Further Reading
Not only did Fritsch contribute some incredible collector issue sets to the hobby, but he also did a lot to educate it. He contributed to many hobby guides and books like the Sports Collectors Bible series and authored the Baseball Card Alphabetical Handbooks.
Baseball Card Alphabetical Handbook Volume 1 by Larry Fritsch and Bill Haber – 1975
The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards also used his knowledge and collection to detail a lot of obscure and rare cards.
Unfortunately, Larry Fritsch passed away in 2007. Kit Young wrote a wonderful article about his friend in the Sports Collectors Digest.
While flipping through the April 1998 edition of Sports Card Magazine and Price Guide, I stumbled upon a fascinating article authored by T.S. O’Connell titled “Collector Issues” with a subheading that read ‘Once upon a time in the hobby, there weren’t enough cards for collectors to collect (no kidding)… so TCMA, Larry Fritsch, and Mike Cramer filled an important niche.’ It inspired me to write a series of articles as a baseline for future writing, dedicated to these hobby pioneers who gave collectors “something other than good ol’ Topps” cards to collect. In this particular piece, I’ll spotlight Mike Aronstein and his company, TCMA, along with a few of their key sets and cards.
Sports Cards Magazine and Price Guide – April 1998
The Baseball Card Hobby in the 1970s
O’Connell wrote that some folks called the 1970s the hobby’s ‘Dark Ages’ because there wasn’t a lot of newly printed material. That’s why collector issues became a thing – card shows were also still a few years away. O’Connell also shared that Fleer’s Robert Laughlin sets, released from 1970-74, showed the hobby had room for more than Topps and probably continued to motivate Fleer to push against the Topps monopoly.
TCMA 101
TCMA probably gets the most credit for “championing the collector issue,” according to O’Connell. Aronstein started the company with Tom Collier, so they used their initials “TC” and “MA” to name the company TCMA. Aronstein bought out Collier two years later and changed the company’s name to The Card Memorabilia Associates. They produced hundreds of sets, often in black-and-white and without a license.
The company re-printed older sets, made postcard-size sets of league leaders’ cards, and made a big push into the minor-league market. But, I know them most for their great teams of the past sets; they made over 50 of them from 1974-88. They also produced a few larger sets like “The 1960s,” with 293 cards in 1978, and “The Baseball History Series,” focused on the ’50s with 291 cards – the sets used the 1953 Bowman Color set design. The company was headquartered north of New York City in Westchester County. TCMA eventually sold to Impel Marketing.
Mike Aronstein, SSPC, and Donruss
Aronstein grew up around Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and collected cards as a kid. While he didn’t hold the first hobby convention, the one he had on March 15, 1970 (with 19 attendees) was the largest meet-up to that point, and you can read all about it in SABR’s Baseball Cards Research Committee article called ‘50 years ago today…‘ Before that, in 1968, Aronstein made a Sports Starts Publishing Company set with his uncle but dropped it because they couldn’t keep up with the demand. Then, with Collier, a hobby friend, Aronstein decided to do reprints of old cards and founded TCMA in 1972. Sports Collectors Digest has a lot more details about Aronstein, the early days of TCMA, and its history in this article, but there are two other stories I want to highlight.
Mike Aronstein Sorting 1963 Topps Baseball Cards
First, in a separate venture in 1975, Aronstein produced the Sports Starts Publishing Company (SSPC) 630-card set, which featured current players. Topps sued and settled, but demand for the ~10k sets that TCMA distributed showed how much room there was in the hobby for competition. And second, because of that success, in 1980, when the Topps monopoly ended, TCMA became the exclusive distributor for Donruss baseball cards.
Key TCMA Sets and Cards
1981 TCMA NBA Cards
1972 TCMA The 1930’s
This set has over 500 cards and was one of TCMA’s first ventures. Because the “set” was issued in 21 series of 24 cards each, the designs have some variety. Most cards are black-and-white except Series 18-19, printed in blue. TCMA reportedly printed ~1000 sets, with the key cards being hobby icons Lou Gehrig and Joe Dimaggio.
1973-80 TCMA All-Time Greats Postcards
1973-80 TCMA Robert Clemente All-Time Greats Postcard
These postcards represent one of the longest collectors’ series issued by TCMA. Six series of unnumbered cards were issued, so you will usually see them checklisted alphabetically.
1973-78 TCMA League Leaders
1973-78 TCMA League Leaders Jackie Robinson The 1940’s
These League Leaders cards were the same postcard size as the All-Time Greats and honored statistical leaders in each league from the 20s through the 50s. The key card is Mantle’s.
1977-80 TCMA The War Years
This set is one of the pricer sets of cards and featured players on MLB rosters circa 1942-46 when sets weren’t being produced.
Team Sets
1975 TCMA All-Time New York Yankees PSA Graded Set
I already mentioned that TCMA released a ton of Team Sets; I was really into the 1975 TCMA All-Time New York Yankees set when I returned to the hobby as an adult (they also had sets for the Giants and Dodgers All-Time greats the year)
TCMA Minor League Cards
TCMA produced many great minor league cards, including the 1981 Pawtucket Red Sox Wade Boggs card and the 1981 Rochester Red Wings Cal Ripken Jr. card.
1981 TCMA Pawtucket Red Sox #15 Wade Boggs
1981 TCMA Rochester Red Wings #15 Cal Ripken Jr.
TCMA also produced John Elway’s 1982 Minor League Baseball card and one for Rickey Henderson in 1979, featuring him on the Ogden A’s.
1982 TCMA Oneonta Yankees #13 John Elway
Wrap-Up and Further Reading
It’s not always easy to find every TCMA card you want, and I’m not sure there’s a complete checklist of everything they created that’s easily accessible, but the company and its sets are really important in hobby history for influencing the boom that started in the 80s.
I’ll continue to highlight Aronstein, TCMA, and its sets in future articles and deep dives in the future, but first, be on the lookout for collector issues articles focusing on Larry Fritsch and Mike Cramer in the next few weeks.
