1960 fleer set

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Posted By: Vanessa Phipps

Any opinions on the 1960 fleer set? I recently purchased on which will grade very high, and was just wondering how the set is looked upon by the collecting world. I reall would like to make it a master set someday with the #80 2 card variation, but I am finding that to be a very difficult task. Anyone seen that card for sale?


Rock on Dudes!1 Fire Houston Nutt!!!

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Posted By: ray

Vanessa,

Congrats on obtaining your new set!

I'm not an expert on this set, but I can tell you this:

There are actually 3 different "#80" cards...

Collins/Martin
Grove/Martin
Tinker/Martin

I'm not sure which is more rare than the other, but all three are definitely very rare.

You can rest assured it'll take you a good long while to find one, let alone all 3. Good luck finding them, though, and welcome to the board!

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Posted By: Anthony

Grove/Martin would be considered the easiest, but that is a relative term. All 3 are incredibly tough, and it's rare to see more than one of them every couple of years. Add it to the difficulty they are usually found either hand cut or cancelled, with a big chunk out of them.
As for the set itself, the first 79 cards are very easy to find with sharp, pristine corners. I suspect that there were hoards undistributed that later found their way into the hobby. The trick is to find them centered, as that is the key issue with this set. Raw they won't bring much, graded you'll do OK with 8's, 9's will bring a decent return, a much bigger return if it's one that the main guy on the set registry needs.

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Posted By: dennis

i can tell you that when it came out in 1960 i bought packs as an eight year old and thought that baseball in the early days was played by a bunch of old men. when i got back into collecting i purchased a complete set (mint) from pat quinn(wonder what he's up to) for about $50 in the early 1980's. he had more than a few. the player selection is very good and the ted williams card was current as he was still active that year,so it still is a bargain even, if it has the largest borders to ever appear on a card.

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Posted By: Al

There was only one active player in the set, Williams, who I think was in his final year

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Posted By: William

I have have handled two 1960 Fleer #80 cards in 1997 & 1998.

One was canceled with Collins on the front.

The other example had Grove on the front. The Grove card was interesting due to the fact it was purchased out of a wax pack. I have always heard or read they were not distributed.

This particular card was purchased by a card shop that mostly dealt with new cards. A lady brought in a stack of 1960 Fleer and the #80 card was in the deal.

The shop asked me about the card and we worked out a price. I sold the card at the 1997 Cleveland National.

The reason I say the card was pulled from a pack is due to a lady who brought in the stack of 1960 Fleer in a shop and there was a sizable wax stain on the back of the card.

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Posted By: Paul

Does anyone have any idea why Williams has such big borders? Even if the photo they were using was cropped, they could have blown it up or used a different photo. It's not like there was a shortage of Williams photos.

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Posted By: Anthony

I think my Grove/Martin was pulled from a pack as well. It's a bit oversized and has a tiny bit of stain on it.
Somewhere I've got an old issue of The Trader Speaks and it talks about the Tinker/Martin being pulled from a pack.

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Posted By: Al

I have a Grove, but it looks hand cut to me and so I assumed that it did not come from a pack. Did the ones with the stains look hand cut ?

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Posted By: Vanessa Phipps

I am really wanting to buy the variations. Does anybody have these for sale?

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Posted By: Anthony

If they did come up for sale there would be a lot of competition for them. The last Grove/Martin was on ebay earlier this year, it was a very rough PSA 5 and sold for about 2K. A Collins/Martin with a huge chunk taken out of it went for 8K a few years ago. And about 5-6 years ago a hand trimmed example of each, also very rough, went for about 3500K each. They ended up in PSA "authentic" holders.
These 3 are on a lot of wantlists.

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Posted By: dennis

funny the back is the difference so the frt is the same as the regular grove. anthony did'n't you post the back in another thread?

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Posted By: Anthony

Yup, thought I did somewhere. Here it is again

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Posted By: Anthony

I"m sure a Martin/Martin does not exist, but they must've had the artwork for it somewhere.

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Posted By: dennis

i always assumed that this was sold in 1 series. kind of surprising just how rare that #80 is. i wonder if it was printed on one sheet? anyone ever see or hear of a full sheet of these?

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Posted By: Anthony

I"ve yet to see a full sheet, and I"ve got auction catalogs going back over 10 years.
There was a seller a few months ago selling a lot of 3 card panels though. None with #80 though.

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Posted By: Vanessa Phipps

That card is beautiful!!! I will now be on a quest to secure one of those!!! My set is really going to grade high! I think I will definitely go for the master set!!!! I know it will cost me a lot, but this set is so nice and I got it at a great price. Therefore I think it will be worth it to go all the way!!!! Thanks Anthony!!!