1987 Fleer Box Bottom Cards / Panels

Fleer issued 4 different baseball card panels on bottom their 1987 Baseball wax boxes, and once again included a team logo card on each panel as they did in 1986. The team logo cards feature the 1986 World Champion New York Mets, the AL Champion Boston Red Sox and the other 2 1986 playoff teams - the Houston Astros and California Angels.





The cards are numberd C1 - C16, with the team logo cards serving as checklists:


Here is a look at the top of the box:


Fleer also included cards on the bottom of their Star Sticker boxes, with 2 different panels



The Star Sticker box bottom cards are numbered S1 - S8, with the team logo cards including a checklist:




Fleer even extended the idea to the boxes that were used to sell some of their 44 card boxed sets that were sold by various retail chains. You don't see these boxes available that often since collectors typically didn't buy an entire box of 24 boxed sets, so many of these were likely thrown out by the stores once they were empty.

The 2 boxes that I am aware of that contain cards on the bottom are the 1987 Fleer Limited Edition Baseball Superstars box




and the 1987 Baseball's Best Sluggers vs. Pitchers box:





Some of the other boxed set boxes may have cards on the bottom, but I haven't been able to find any boxes to confirm. Since Fleer issued 9 different boxed sets in 1987, it may be possible that there are other box bottom cards on some of those boxes.

1987 Donruss Box Bottom Cards / Panels

For the third year in a row, Donruss included cards on the bottom of their wax boxes:


Once again Donruss created a card of the completed puzzle that was used as the insert in 1987 Donruss packs with this year's puzzle featuring Roberto Clemente.

The numbering on the cards picks up from where the 1986 set left off (PC4 - PC9) as the 1987 box features cards PC10 - PC12 as well as the unnumbered puzzle:


All 1987 Donruss Baseball boxes featured the same 4 cards.


But just as they had done the previous year, Donruss did have a second set of 4 cards on the bottom of their other major offering that year - the 1987 Donruss All Stars / Pop Up set:



These cards continue the same numbering and are numbered PC13 - PC15.

1987 was the final year that Donruss included cards on the bottom of their boxes. Donruss was the first to come up with the idea, and was also the first to discontinue the practice. Their competitors who quickly followed their lead did not abandon the idea as quickly as they kept producing box bottom cards until the early 1990's which we will continue to cover in future posts.

1986 Topps Football Wax Box Team Cards

Topps issued 4 different Football wax boxes in 1986 with cards printed on the boxes. Unlike the 1985 Football boxes which featured 4 different player cards on the bottom of each box, the 1986 boxes had 1 team card printed on the back of the box. Here are the 4 team cards:


This picture of a 1986 Football wax box shows the full back panel with the team card:


The 4 teams that make up the set are the Super Bowl XX champion 1985 Chicago Bears, their opponent the New England Patriots, and the teams that made it as far as the NFC and AFC Championship games - the Los Angeles Rams and the Miami Dolphins.

The back of the cards list the players pictured in the team photo:


Interestingly, the cards are not numbered.