Staying with the Seattle Pilots theme for one more post, I got an e-mail from Sean last week who came across the article I'd written about the 1969 Fleer Pennants & Stamps and he sent me a picture of a stamp sheet that I had not seen before featuring the Seattle Pilots pennant:
These stamp sheets almost never show up for sale. The only time I've ever seen these offered was a few years ago when I saved this picture from an auction:
That auction did not include the Pilots pennant sheet, so Sean's picture of his sheet adds one more sheet to the list that we can now catalog. These items are so rare that you almost never even see any loose stamps that have been removed from the sheets. I've only ever found one auction for loose stamps which look like this:
The wrapper will show up for sale occasionally:
and the box has shown up once before:
but the stamps are almost impossible to find.
What I find interesting is that even though the Pennants & Stamps release is almost nonexistant, a similar release from Fleer that same year is always available:
At any given time, there are always unopened packs and sometimes unopened boxes of the 1969 Fleer Iron-Ons. Right now on ebay there is one auction for an unopened pack and 3 ebay stores selling packs in addition to a listing for the complete set.
Either Fleer produced the Iron-Ons in much greater quantity than the stamps, or perhaps they just never sold well which is why there is still unopened material available 40 years later. I really wish the Pennant & Stamp packs were as plentiful as the Iron-On packs as I'd be busting 40 year old wax every chance I could pick up a pack as I really like the look of the stamp sheets and would really enjoy putting together a set.
I'd like to say thanks to Sean for contacting me and sending the picture of his Pilots pennant sheet and allowing me to post it for everyone to enjoy. Thanks Sean!
I have a collection of these Pennants that I've been slowly selling off on Ebay over the last year. They are very valuable & have garnered a lot of interested. I can't imagine what it would be like if more people new about these stamps!
ReplyDeleteI guess the rarity is due to the fact that most kids likely placed the stamps on various items (notebooks etc.). I've kept an eye on Ebay, but have yet to see any others since I started selling mine.. I'm a collector so I don't plan on selling all of them but won't be putting together the complete set, which at this point is nearly impossible to do! They really are a wonderful MLB collectible with great eye appeal!