1971 Fleer World Series

[LuckyLarry]

Today in the .25c bin I "finished" both my '70 and '71 Fleer World Series sets. The '70 set has light blue backs, and the '71 set has black backs. A really fun set of cards!
But did I really finish the 1971 Fleer set? The Standard Catalog lists them as "1971-1980 Fleer World Series" as it appears the original printing was updated to add cards #69 (1971 WS) through #75 (1977 WS).
The re-printed cards #69-#75 show up on eBay BIN around $125?
Larry

[savedfrommyspokes]

I considered my 71 set complete at 68 cards as that was how many cards were in the original issue....I have not come back and added the last 7 to officially "complete" the set.

[mikemb]

I also consider mine complete at 68 cards.

[ALR-bishop]

You can consider it complete...but it isn't .

I think I remember an earlier thread discussing the later issued cards. I do know it is covered in the Fleer Sticker Blog. Am out of town or would post link. You just can not ignore the Clemente update card

[toppcat]

Hi Larry-

I love these sets and have a complete 70 and almost complete 71 (not counting the updates) and just bought a 1980 sticker set and a standalone 71 with the Clemente graphics. Those updates are quite difficult and expensive as you know; Clemente is a major variant but I may just stick with the 80 stickers for the rest of the updates.

Here is the Fleer Sticker blog link, worth a read: http://fleersticker.blogspot.com/sea...1+world+series

And don't forget the 1967 B&W Laughlin set that started all of this.

[laughlinfan]

The Fleer Sticker blog does a nice job explaining the "update" series. I first found a Clemente card about 25 years or so ago thumbing through some Fleer WS singles at a show, and was dumbfounded - "How can this be?" Of course that was pre-internet (for wide use) and several years before eBay, so I had a good mystery to try to figure out. The Clemente card is one of my all time favorites, and really reignited my interest in Laughlin cards, which I had collected as a kid when they were originally issued.

Back to the original question, though! I would say your 1971 set is complete. The 1978 Fleer/Good Humor set I would consider to be a separate set of 75 cards. As the blog states, they were sold through Good Humor outlets (trucks?) in 1978, and then the remainder by Bob after the promotion was over. Although clearly sold in packs of some sort, since I have several with wax stains, I have never seen a box or wrapper (maybe someday)! I think these were originally distributed only in the NY/NJ/PA area. I used to be able to pick these up off eBay, on the few occasions that they showed up, and I think every time the seller was from one of the three states. All 75 cards from the 78 set have a different card stock than the 71 set, and can be easily distinguished when looking at the backs side by side.

So, if you are a WS set completist, you would need the following:

1967 Laughlin set
1970 Fleer set
1971 Fleer set
1974 Laughlin second print run
1978 Fleer/Good Humor set
1980 Fleer sticker back set

Hope this helps! Happy collecting!!!