Fleer

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The success story of Fleer Trading Cards dates back to 1849 when Frank H. Fleer began his bubble gum business. After success in bubble gum, Fleer decided it was time to begin producing trading cards. In 1923, Fleer created its first "trading card," 120 "famous pictures" (referred to as W515) packed with every 5-cent pack of Fleer's Bobs & Fruit Hearts. Babe Ruth's picture was among the stars, but because the set is so rare, no one knows all of the players who were included in the set. In 1935, Fleer packaged a Cops & Robbers trading card set with bubble gum. Fleer's first complete entry into the baseball card industry was the popular 80-card 1959 Ted Williams set followed by Baseball and Football Greats from 1960-63. The first complete professional basketball card set was 1961 FLEER Basketball.

Throughout the 20th century Fleer produced innovative trading card sets, and through aggressive new product development is leading the charge into the 21st century. Fleer has been producing MLB licensed trading cards consecutively now since 1981, NBA cards since 1986 and NFL cards since 1990.

In 1995, Fleer acquired SkyBox International Inc., a trading card company located in North Carolina and known for their innovative NBA and Entertainment products. The new company was called Fleer/SkyBox International Inc.

With successes constantly growing for Fleer another was on the way. In February 1999, Fleer was bought by a partnership formed by Alex and his son Roger Grass. The Grass family has expanded Fleer's product line by offering collectors a wide selection of products, with an emphasis on offering the most value per pack.

In June 1999, capitalizing on the popularity of the WNBA, Fleer became the exclusive licensee of WNBA cards.

As the company headed into the new millennium, Fleer completely overhauled and redesigned its website, www.fleer.com, into the most comprehensive and interactive site in the hobby.

With strong product comes strong athlete representation for your products, and in the spring of 2000, Fleer signed NBA superstar Vince Carter to an NBA spokesman deal making him the company's leading NBA spokesman, gaining exclusive rights to all game worn NBA jerseys, shorts, pieces of memorabilia from his University of North Carolina days and more.

With the signing of Vince Carter in the NBA, Fleer now turned to Major League Baseball for another superstar spokesman. In the summer of 2000, Fleer Trading Cards announced the signing of New York Yankees' all-star shortstop and three-time world champion Derek Jeter to an exclusive spokesman deal for its complete line of Major League Baseball cards.

The summer of 2000 was the summer for Baseball Card Flipping as Fleer presented its second annual nationwide Fleer Baseball Card Flipping Challenge. Over 400 hobby shops across the nation participated in the events, which culminated in a six-city MLB stadium tour. Ever since, Fleer has been bringing the MLB Card Flipping Challenge to multiple ballparks throughout the country and now visits 10 each season.

In January 2001, the Fleer family expanded its umbrella with the purchase of White Rose Collectibles, one of the most successful die-cast manufacturers in the country. Currently operating as Fleer Collectibles, Fleer has expanded the die-cast product line in a way that has never been done before. Innovative items such as stealth bombers, fighter jets, helicopters, monster tucks, tractor-trailers and many other popular vehicles in American culture are just a part of Fleer's very diverse and extensive sports licensed die-cast product lineup. Look for Fleer die-products all year long at fleercollectibles.com.

Fleer followed the purchase of White Rose Collectibles with another major announcement concerning the company. With the first release back in April of 2001, Fleer became the exclusive manufacturer of WWE Wrestling cards. Fleer brings World Wrestling Entertainment cards to a higher level with the most innovative trading cards ever manufactured. In addition to spectacular base-card photos and designs, Fleer offers tons of unique event-worn memorabilia, along with numerous autographs from WWE superstars.

With a rich history of successful entertainment licenses (stemming from the early 90's) that produced smash hits such as The Lion King, Toy Story, Star Trek, and many more, Fleer launched Fleer Entertainment.

Fleer's Entertainment line has continued to thrive in 2003 by obtaining the license to become the exclusive manufacturer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards. They're back and better than ever. Fleer has been working with 4Kids Entertainment to put out the best product possible for Turtle fans. Fleer has also recently obtained the license to exclusively manufacture Transformers cards in 2003.

For TMNT and in a few selected sports licenses (MLB and NFL), Fleer has created and manufactured a Three Dimensional trading card. These 3D cards are printed on a hard plastic card, and can be punched out to build unique and collectible models of Turtles, MLB players, and NFL fighter jets.

Fleer's most recent announcement, is that they have now officially entered the CCG (Collectible Card Game) world with the highly anticipated game, Ophidian 2350. Ophidian 2350, which releases in August of 2003 takes CCG's to a place where they have never been. Ophidian, which is a futuristic gladiator combat game, introduces a new game engine to play CCGs and is groundbreaking for the category. More information can be found on this product at www.ophidiangames.com.

On the sports card side of things Fleer continues to manufacture quality products at affordable prices. Just recently, Fleer has made plans to incorporate even higher technology in trading card sets along with many more autographs across all Fleer brands.

Looking into the future Fleer is committed to producing the finest products in the hobby. Collectors will continue to see innovative basic card sets and dynamic inserts as well. Fleer is also committed to offering the best game-used and autographed cards at the best ratios possible.

The company had been dealing with financial shortfalls for several months and on May 16th, 2005 shut down operations. Just prior they had cancelled plans to attend the 2005 NFL Players Rookie Premiere photo shoot in Los Angeles. One of the company's printers refused to release products due to unpaid bills.

Fleer looked for potential buyers in 2004 and several other card companies submitted offers. Mr. Grass did not sell and the company invested in product improvement and promotions. Fleer is the second-oldest trading card manufacturer dating back to the 1920s. It has been a licensee of baseball since 1981, football since 1990 and basketball since 1986-87 and a WWE licensee.

The company did business under the names Fleer Trading Cards and Fleer Collectibles and was located at 1120 Route 73, Suite 300, Mt. Laurel, N.J. 08054.