Quote:
Originally Posted by ALR-bishop
Topps did not enjoin the Fleer 63 effort. There are several FTC proceedings in that period that discuss Fleer's complaint's about Topps' anti competitive behavior. Topps mostly prevailed. There are also sales figures in them indicating the Fleer 63 set did not sell well. A second series was originally planned and dropped.
The Topps contracts with players were exclusive only as to marketing the player's image with gum and confections, hence the Leaf 1960 marbles and Fleer 1963 cookies. It appears when it came to horrible gum or tasteless cookies, the market picked gum
I agree with you Mike that the 63 Fleer set is a very nice set, but like the great Bowman 1953 Color set which was also truncated, it was not a market success at the time
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Everything I've seen written about the Fleer/Topps issue says Topps forced Fleer to stop. Here's an example:
https://waxpackgods.com/1963-fleer-baseball-cards/
Not having seen the actual legal papers (and not being a lawyer I probably wouldn't be able to translate it to human
, sorry lawyers, I couldn't resist), I've always gone by second hand accounts. I did a quick search for something on it (hence the link above) and came up with squat regarding the 1963 case. I did find a legal document regarding the later suit that Fleer won and which paved the way to the '81 Fleer and Donruss sets.
Oh well, another myth shattered?