Thursday, December 22, 2022

A New Look for 1991 Fleer

Longtime readers of Baseball Card Breakdown know I'm no stranger to getting weird with cardboard. My latest quirky venture is modifying 1991 Fleer base cards.

Yep, real 1991 Fleer cards but without the bold yellow! Utilizing a lengthy, solar-powered process, I've developed a method to modify '91 Fleer borders into a creamy color that's easier on the eyes. I think they look great! The yellow borders have a tendency to overpower the cards, but with a more neutral border, the design and photo take center stage. I call them "white border mods" for simplicity, but it's really more of an off-white tone where they end up, looking similar to the light border Pro-Vision cards from the factory set of '91 Fleer (and the basketball Pro-Visions that year).

I think of it like a fresh remix of an old classic, providing a new perspective on cards that are often regarded as just about as "junky" as junk wax gets. I ripped my share of Fleer packs as a young collector back in 1991, so the set's got some sentimental value for me. I know most collectors stick up their nose at '91 Fleer, but I'm hoping these mods might help folks find a new appreciation for the cards.

I made a bunch this year and brewed up a plan to do a "holiday surprise" mailing blast in time for Christmas. In past years, I've sent out special customs, or tree ornaments made from cards (LaMarr "Ho Ho" Hoyt one year, Benito "Santa"iago another), and one year was homemade rip cards with a mini magnet custom hiding within.

It wasn't easy, but I made it to my goal of finishing twenty-five '91 Fleer mods to mail out to hobby buds of mine, all with festive doodle overlays to kick them up for the holiday season. I hope people like them, but we'll see what kind of response they get. I'm sure the concept is not for everybody, but again, I think they're pretty cool.

I took photos of all 25 decked-out cards before mailing them, and plan to share those pix on the blog in a special Christmas Day post.

Sadly even with so many of them, I wasn't able to hit all my hobby buds. My apologies to those I left out. No Braves or Astros finished in time, nor Barry Larkin, Dan Gladden, Dave Winfield, or Mark McGwire... all which were earmarked for trader buddies but as luck would have it, those cards didn't complete the process in time. (It's often a crapshoot with these things.) Those will likely be done around springtime.

Here are a few more finished mods to check out:





And there you have it: 1991 Fleer white border mods!

I have a few extras I've now added to a section on my Trade Bait page, and should have more to add once some of the few that are currently in production eventually wrap up.

Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!

19 comments:

  1. Great idea and the results are awesome. Happy to be one of the fortunate recipients.

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  2. Got mine yesterday, totally awesome!! Thanks for thinking of me.

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  3. These are so cool, and what a great idea. Thank you for the Tino! I am definitely counting it as another unique card of his in my collection.

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  4. "What the heck is this?" was my first thought when I saw mine. I thought it was some parallel I never heard of before. ... I have no problem altering '91 Fleer. '91 Fleer should've thought of that before they foisted it on collectors.

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  5. Got one of these in the mail today. Thanks Gavin!

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  6. Got my special '91 Fleer in the mail the other day - certainly brought a smile to my face! Thanks again!

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  7. Got mine yesterday, great job and thanks!

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  8. i had the same reaction as night owl and went to comc to try to figure things out just in case it wasn't a solar based fading! thank you for including me. happy birthday and merry christmas gavin!

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  9. zomg this is great. Am absolutely tempted to try this myself now with both 91F and 90D. I'm assuming you masked the photo. How'd you hold the mask in place?

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    1. Though come to think of it, 90D would lose the player names this way so maybe not…

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    2. Did you get the card I sent you, Nick V? Yeah, I also had a '90D card "out", but it didn't do much. but yeah, the mask is the tricky part. I still haven't perfected it, but have been tryin' different methods. Maybe one day I'll have it down enough to do a how-to post.

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    3. Oh no! I did not. Methinks you might have had an old address… (I moved a few years ago)

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  10. I like my card, thank you! Though I'm perfectly happy with the yellow the way it is, it is a fun parallel.

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  11. This is like the real-life versions of the digital customs that Greg (Nine Pockets) made last year(?). It's bad that Fleer hadn't been doing parallels back in '91, because these would've been awesome.

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  12. I'm one of those collectors that actually embraces the yellow borders... but I was stoked to receive one of these customs. The decorated slip cover was a very nice bonus... as well as the ornament. Happy holidays Gavin! Heard the roads in Portland are slick. Stay safe... and warm buddy.

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  13. These are masterpieces - This is genius - 91 Fleer should have been white bordered

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  14. Late to the party here, but as a staunch defender of the yellow gems that most hate, I have to disagree. I think the white/cream borders makes the cards look so boring that I almost fell asleep finishing viewing your post. Kidding aside, and no offense to you for making and liking them, but they just do not look appealing at all to me. Without any other shapes, graphics or designs to go with the main image and basic text, they are about as milquetoast as I could image a baseball card to be.

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