Monday, January 18, 2010

1985 Fleer NFL Team Action Football Sticker and Card Sets

For its 10th annual NFL Team Action Football cards and stickers in 1985, Fleer greatly increased the number of cards in a pack (going from 7 cards in 1984 to 15 cards in 1985 as they so prominently mention on the pack), but unfortunately cut the number of stickers in a pack from 3 to only 1. Since 1979, Fleer had always included 3 stickers per pack (and actually had 4 in 1978). The 1985 sticker set is probably the most challenging to complete given the sticker count went down by 67%. The stickers once again feature the same design as the 1982, 1983, and 1984 sets, with the only difference on the front being the border color which changed to blue. Otherwise, the helmet designs are the same, and the 5 sticker variations found in the 1982 - 1984 sets are once again included (Colts small / large letters, Bengals facemask, Packers ear hole, Giants TM, and Seahawks helmet color).   SEE UPDATE BELOW - I don't think the Giants missing TM version exists) I'm still looking for the Packers variation with no black outline around the earhole and I'm also still trying to track down the Giants helmet without the TM (see update below - I don't think this variation exists) As I said earlier, this is a very hard sticker set to put together! The backs changed in 1985 as they no longer feature the team's schedule but rather a contest form: For the first time there were 3 cards per team instead of 2. Along with the Offense and Defense cards that had always been part of the set (now labeled as "On Offense" and "On Defense"), each team got a 3rd card which simply was called "In Action". These "In Action" cards had schedules on the back that used to be on the backs of the stickers. While it was good to have a 3rd team card with the schedule, and the 3 cards per team layout looks good in 9 pocket sheets, in order to accommodate the additional card for each team Fleer abandoned the subset which they had produced each year since 1976 which featured all previous Super Bowls and instead only devoted 3 cards to the previous year's Super Bowl as well as one card for the Pro Bowl. The set size remained at 88 cards which is where it had been since 1981. Here is a look at the card backs, where you can see the schedule cards mentioned earlier: One interesting thing to note is that the card design bares a slight resemblance to the classic 1972 Topps Football set: 

 

Update Feb 2022: 

I'm come to the conclusion that there isn't a 1985 Fleer New York Giants helmet sticker with a missing TM. 

When I indicated that I thought that all of the 1982 -1984 variations were continued in the 1985 set, it was an educated guess.  I assumed it existed because all of the other variations from the 1982 to 1984 sets carried over to 1985, and I didn't think Fleer would have bothered to fix the missing TM issue, but perhaps someone caught it and they did fix it for 1985.

I've been looking for it for over 12 years and haven't found one.  Other collectors who have been looking for the variation haven't found one either. 

While the 1985s are a bit harder to find than the other years, they aren't that scarce.  One certainly should have turned up by now.  Since nobody seems to have found one, I think its safe to say that it doesn't exist.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Are you still looking for the Packers variation and is this the one you were/are looking for?

[IMG]http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k102/stephenheger/packers.jpg[/IMG]

stephenheger@gmail.com

Tea Sea said...

I'm beginning to wonder if the Giants helmet without the TM exists in the 1985 edition. I have had multiple ebay searches set up for a long time, and one has never surfaced. Mike Cady at https://baseballcardvariationsguidebookvol2.wordpress.com/ has apparently not seen one, either, as it is listed as "Pending verification" on his checklist for the 1985 set.

I have every fleer baseball and football sticker released from 1977 to 1991, with the exception of this one. About ready to concede that it doesn't exist.

Fleerfan said...

I have also not found one yet. I originally assumed it existed because all of the other variations from the 1982 to 1984 sets carried over to 1985, so I didn't think Fleer would have bothered to fix the missing TM issue, but perhaps someone caught it and they did fix it.

I'm in agreement that it likely doesn't exist. I've been looking for it for over 10 years, have bought multiple lots of 1985 stickers, and haven't found one.

Based on your feedback, I will update the blog to say that it likely doesn't exist and will reach out to Mike to see if he wants to remove it from his listing.