1982 Fleer Stamps

If you grew up in the 80's, then you probably remember having to choose between Tonka's GoBots and Hasbro's Transformers.  Twenty-five years later it's pretty evident which one became more popular and which one sort of fizzled and disappeared.

But do you remember having to choose between Topps Stickers and Fleer Stamps?

I know I don't.  Over the years, I've seen these Fleer stamps here and there, but back in 1982 Topps stickers were the only option in my neighborhood.  And I spent a nice part of my allowance buying packs and filling up my album.

Nevertheless... I'm sure some collectors around the world were given a choice.  And since Topps produced sticker albums for almost a decade, while Fleer only produced stamps for two years... I'll go out on a limb and say that Fleer's stamps were our hobby's version of the GoBots.

So let's take a few seconds to refresh everyone's memory on the product.  There were 242 different stamps distributed in packs that had a suggested retail price of 25¢.  Fleer also sold stamp albums to house these stamps for 25¢.

Each pack contained one logo sticker and a strip of 10 stamps.  According to Beckett, there are 25 different stamp strips.  That means that a handful of these stamps were double printed like Rich Gossage, Steve Rogers, and Lou Whitaker.  These guys can be found on both strips #G1 and #G25.

Okay, let's get to my pack.  Here's the strip that I pulled:

Strip #G7

Each 10 stamp strip measures approximately 2.5" x 18", which makes each individual stamp around 2.5" x 1.8".  In other words... two stamps is about the size of your standard trading card.  Since my scanner isn't large enough to scan the whole strip, I broke it down into three separate parts.

#230 John Castino

#129 Matt Keough

#8 Bill Russell

Not a bad start.  First up... the 1979 AL Rookie of the Year, the 1980 AL Comeback Player of the Year, and the guy who has played the most games in Los Angeles Dodgers history.

#234 Damaso Garcia

#160 Steve Kemp

#41 Cesar Cedeno

#69 Bob Horner

Next up... a pair of all-stars from the Dominican Republic and a pair of  #1 draft picks.  Garcia represented the Blue Jays in 1984 and 1985 all-star games, while Cedeno made the team four different times with the Houston Astros during the 70's.  Kemp and Horner (who were also MLB all-stars) were the first players chosen in the 1976 and 1978 amateur drafts.

#200 Len Barker

#11 Tom Seaver

#132 Rollie Fingers

And finally... Fleer saved the best for last.  Two fellas enshrined in Cooperstown and the guy who threw the tenth official perfect game in MLB history.

I was hoping to pull strip #G16 that contains five hall of famers including one of my favorite players of all-time...Rickey Henderson.  But you can't win them all.  At least the logo sticker I pulled featured my favorite team:

The back of the sticker contains one of the thirty-two different puzzle pieces.  When assembled, it produces a picture of the 1981 MLB All-Star Game at Cleveland Stadium.  If you're interested in learning about these stickers, click here.

So... what do you think?  Are you more of a Topps Sticker Album kind of person?  Or a Fleer Stamp Album person?

Happy Sunday and sayonara!