1986 Fleer Classic Mini Cards & Stickers

In 1986 Fleer issued its first miniature card set which contained 120 cards with the same design as the regular 1986 set, but with a smaller card size and different photos:


The cards were sold as boxed sets:


While the boxes contained a complete set of 120 cards, they did not contain a complete set of stickers. With only 18 stickers in the box there was no way to get all 26 teams unless you bought multiple boxes. To make things even more challenging, there are 2 different sticker designs for each team, making a total of 52 different stickers to have a full master set.

That would mean at a minimum, you would need to buy 3 boxed sets just to have a shot at the full set of team stickers. In reality, it takes many more given the duplication that you inevitably run into.

One of the designs has a blue top portion with a red and white striped border around the team logos:


The other design has a red top with a blue background and yellow stars bordering the logos:

The boxes I've opened have either one design or the other, but not both designs mixed together in the same box.

The mini sets never proved to be very popular, but Fleer issued sets in 1987 and 1988 as well which we'll get to shortly.