30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Friday, April 3, 2015

Cheap Cool Cards #43: 1961 Fleer Baseball

Are you a fan of vintage baseball cards?  Do you collect hall of famers?  Are you a penny-pinching, bargain bin hunting collector like myself?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then 1961 Fleer baseball cards might be for you.  A few years ago, I picked up this Mickey Cochrane off of COMC for $6:


If slabbed copies aren't your thing... you can buy raw copies on COMC for under $2:


That's not bad for a fifty-four year old piece of cardboard featuring one of the greatest catchers of all-time.  To top it off... the set's design is solid.  The stars, stripes, and pennant on the front give this set an America's favorite pastime vibe, while the card backs feature a brief summary about the player and their career totals.  I also really like the way Fleer utilized a trophy cup to number their cards.

It's your turn folks...


What are your thoughts on 1961 Fleer baseball?  Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Happy Flashback Friday and sayonara!

6 comments:

dominicfdny said...

I love the 61 fleer. I got the ted Williams from the set off eBay for like 8 or 10 dollars terffic set

carlsonjok said...

Even though I am working on the set, it isn't among my favorites. It was definitely an improvement over 1960 Fleer, which looked like a kids craft project. But, like you said, it is a set that allows you to have affordable cards of some of the all-time greats.

Mark Hoyle said...

I like both Fleer sets. I agree the 61 set is better than the 60 set. Mickey Cochrane grew up in my neck of the woods. Couple towns over from where I live

BobWalkthePlank said...

Thumbs up!!!! I only have a couple, but love them.

Nick said...

This set is one of the better-kept secrets in the vintage market. They're really cool, and I consistently find them in bargain bins at card shows.

Commishbob said...

I got some packs of the '61 as a gift from my uncle who owned a pharmacy. I remember that I was disappointed because as a kid I really didn't know the players on the cards. They had stickers in the packs as inserts as I recall.

Much later i used cards from these sets in my Hall of Fame player collection when it became very obvious that I had no chance of getting original cards for so many of the inductees. I still have a few someplace. I loved both of the Chief Bender cards, He looked like my grandfather.