1974 Fleer NBA Basketball Cloth Patch Stickers

A year after Topps inserted NBA & ABA logo stickers in their packs of Basketball cards, Fleer got into the Basketball market with a set of NBA cloth patches:


Unlike the Topps sticker set from 1973-74, this set was exclusively an NBA set, so no ABA teams are included.

Each team had 2 stickers - a plain logo patch and another patch with the team's logo on a basketball with the words "Property Of". In addition, there were 2 NBA logo patches.

Here is a look at the complete set:









And thanks to Craig, here are the Jazz & Bullets "Property Of" stickers that I don't yet have to round out the set:


The spots that appear on the above stickers are due to the glue on the back of the patches that have stained the patches and the sticker backing. I haven't seen many examples of these patches without some type of glue stain.

The packs also included a card set entitled "The Shots":

As was the case with Fleer's Baseball and Football cloth patch releases, the cards that were included in the packs (to give the packs a solid piece of cardboard inside to keep the pack from being too flimsy given the cloth patches are not very rigid) are never mentioned on the wrappers:



Here is a picture of the contents of a pack to show the size of "The Shots" card in relation to the stickers:


As this picture shows, much of this unopened material has been damaged by being in contact with the gum for over 30 years.

To finish our review, here is the wax box


and a full box of packs just waiting to be busted (have fun peeling the gum off the backs of the patches!)


1974 was the only year that Fleer issued cloth patch Basketball stickers. Fleer would return in a few years with Hi-Gloss Basketball stickers which we'll review shortly.