My first exposure to Sportflics was to the 1987 set (which may have happened in late 1986 as the cards are marked with that year, and in the blurb on the back of Schmidt's card it says "had an MVP-like season" - not acknowledging yet that he had indeed won the award). I remember when I later saw the 1986 cards I was unimpressed in comparison.
The 1986 edition was a 200 card set, yet only about 140 cards were of single players as they had a slew of "Tri-Star" cards that would feature a single image of three players who were categorized as something like "The Three Best Shortstops". These cards aren't as interesting for many as single player cards, and I seem to recall in the 1986 set that you received one Tri-Star and two single cards.
The bigger issue for me was that on the single cards that one image would be a headshot of the player while the other two provided the "motion". The 1987 set moved away from this and now you'd get three consecutive images of Kirby Puckett swinging at the plate or Nolan Ryan throwing heat. That third image made for a huge difference in the simulated action on the card, and in my enjoyment.
Maybe a good number of people were first exposed to the 1986 set and gave us on subsequent editions?? Had I seen the 1986 cards before the 1987 ones, I may have stopped there.
In the end though, that price to card ratio was probably just too high. And yes, they were the first cards with a color photo of the player on the back.
|