1981 Fleer Baseball Card Variations

Topps had a monopoly on producing baseball cards for many years.  The Fleer Corporation sued Topps and won.  They were awarded monetary damages that were tripled due to the nature of the case.  The amount they were award was $1.00 that was tripled to $3.00.  Ok, so 3 dollars was not a big deal but they also won the right to produce baseball cards in 1981.  Donruss also produced cards in 1981.

The first printing of Fleer cards were filled with errors and they corrected some of them in a second printing, creating many variations.  Some say the errors were caused by their rush to get cards to market, others say it was planned to promote sales.

I'm working on completing all the variations.  I have most and the good thing, as compared to the 1971 Topps variations I just completed, is that these cards are much more plentiful and hence are a lot less expensive.  Most can be found for 50 cents or less.

Here are some variations.  This first one involves Billy Travers and Jerry Augustine.

The first card is Billy's correct card.  The last one is Jerry's correct card.  The middle one has Billy's name and stats on the back but has Jerry's picture and card number on the back.

Here are 2 cards of Kurt Bevacoua.  The first card has a reversed photo and the second card is the corrected version.

Finally, here are two variations of the Graig Nettles Card.  The fronts are the same but in the first printing, Fleer incorrectly spelled his name as Craig on the back.