Topps and Fleer - sharing images?

[Rich Klein]

Kind of Sort of.

Remember card companies purchase photos from free lance photographers. The photographer sends in slides and the card companies pay for them.

In this case, both companies chose the same photo to purchase for use in their set.

Rich

[ALR-bishop]

In this case Topps sure did a better job producing it

[deweyinthehall]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

In this case Topps sure did a better job producing it

No doubt - the 1982 Fleer set in general looks as if the images were taken by the photographers' kids on Take Your Child to Work Day...

[Mike D.]

I think both the Topps and Donruss update sets in 1986 used the same photo for Bo Jackson.

[Mike D.]

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

No doubt - the 1982 Fleer set in general looks as if the images were taken by the photographers' kids on Take Your Child to Work Day...

Or maybe the Fleer is a 1982-era photocopy of the Topps image.

[Rich Klein]

Some of those 1982 Fleer Cards have TERRIBLE photography. The 1981 set, while rushed to production, actually had nice photos. 1982 not so much. This is my favorite bad photo.


1982 Fleer - [Base] #387 - Jack Clark
Courtesy of COMC.com

[judsonhamlin]

Going back to 1961, Topps and Fleer used the same photo for Tom Flores. Not sure if that's the oldest example but can't think of any during the Bowman/Topps years.

[steve B]

The photography for the 82 fleer set was actually very good, at least partly.

One of the guys who was a freelance photographer and sold photos to Fleer that year was a semi regular customer at the same card shop I hung out at. I got to see some photos from the same series in person and they were really good. I should have written his name down and tried to buy a couple prints.
It was cool going through a bunch of cards fresh out of the packs while he pointed out which ones were his. ( One of the very few times I opened cards in the shop, I almost always wait till I get home. )

Fleers printing and production in 82 though..... Not as good as the photos. If you look at a bunch of them you can see the tape they used to hold the negatives on either the original or the mask.