Tuesday, November 5, 2013

1988 Fleer NFL Team Action Football Sticker Red Strip Variations

Since my original post on the 1988 Fleer NFL Team Action Football Stickers a few years ago, a few more sticker variations from the set have been discovered. 

The 1988 stickers have the team name on the top which has a completely white background.  However, a few teams can be found where there is a red strip across the top.  While at first it may appear that this is just the result of a miscut sticker, if you take a closer look, you can see that the more common solid white top has a larger white space compared to the sticker with the red strip:



With the help of fellow Fleer collector Albert who has passed along information on some of the variations he has come across, it now appears that there are 12 stickers which can be found with the red strip at the top.


Both Colts variations (with the team name in small letters / large letters) have the red strip

and there are 2 different versions of the Seahawks sticker - one with the Peel arrows in black as normal, and another where the Peel arrows are almost while (as it appears the black did not print).   Here is a closer look at the Seahawks variations:

While this might just be a printing flaw, I am listing is as a variation as I've come across multiple versions of both stickers, which leads me to believe the Seahawks sticker with the red strip was likely double printed on the sheet, and one of the stickers had the normal Peel arrow, and the other sticker had the white variation.   I guess we'll have to wait until an uncut sheet surfaces to confirm.

If anyone is aware of any other stickers from this set having the red strip at the top, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

2 comments:

BOBSCARDZ said...

A debate in process: Would you finally say that the "black and white PEEL" are really Variations?

Fleerfan said...

I'd say its a variation given I have come across a number of examples of both. We would have to see an uncut sheet to confirm for sure, but my guess is that an uncut sheet would show at least 2 Seahawks stickers, one with the normal "Peel" and the other where the black is almost entirely missing.

The variation is unintentional (unlike say the Colts variations where the team name is different sizes, but I do consider it a variation.