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The "did you know" thread

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TCMA

New member
Jan 28, 2016
8
0
Fleer, like Topps, began life as a candy company. I think where Fleer forgot their basic business planning (regarding diversification) is that in the 1990s, they sold off their candy operations to focus solely on cards. Topps has always had the candy side of their business to keep money flowing in, even if it was just Bazooka and Ring Pops. I think Fleer's failure was self-sabotage by losing their non-card related revenue stream and thinking they could succeed just by riding the current wave of trading card fad.

[MENTION=4047]mrmopar[/MENTION] yes, I'm a member over at Net54 (aren't we all on all the same boards these days?), and have tried to pry details out of Mr. Aronstein to very limited success. I'm glad he's a member over there, and I've really enjoyed reading his account of the hobby around his father's business, but he really doesn't answer all that many questions.

Hey, just seeing this now. Seems I didn't have my thread subscription setting turned on. Fixed! I'm more than happy to answer any and all questions you might have. Don't hesitate to contact me here or through Net54 with your questions, especially if I haven't answered something you may have asked previously.
 

TCMA

New member
Jan 28, 2016
8
0
Some minor league baseball card trivia...

TCMA also produced the SSPC sets from the 1970s, and eventually they partnered with CMC (around 1987) to produce minor league team sets when it became too expensive to do it on their own.

Ultimately CMC absorbed TCMA's minor league team set production. I don't know that there was any transfer of properties here or if CMC simply took over when TCMA bowed out of the card market. In late 1990, Impel Marketing bought CMC.

What was TCMA is now the company PhotoFile that produces licensed photos for most of the big sports leagues.

Fleer bought out ProCards in late 1991.

Impel Marketing, who produced the Line Drive minor league sets in 1991, became Skybox International, which was bought out by Fleer (which was briefly owned by Marvel Entertainment)

Upper Deck picked up the scraps of Fleer after Fleer's bankruptcy.

With all that said, it would be interesting to know whether or not Upper Deck actually owns the collective trading card assets of TCMA, CMC, ProCards, Impel and Skybox.

Believe it or not but TCMA Ltd. actually still exists as a company and I do business under that name. Mostly acting as a distributor for Photo File products. As my father was the founder of Photo File, his material used to create the TCMA cards was left with them when he was eventually bought out in the mid-late 90's. Some of the original photos used to create both TCMA and SSPC cards are still in our personal archive and some are in the archive at Photo File.

Back in 1972 the first original cards featuring photography that my dad produced under TCMA was a set called "The 1930's." This set was created using glass plate negatives shot by press photographers at New York ballparks in the 30's. These were part of a huge hoard of glass negs my dad discovered at an antique dealership in 1969. I'm currently working on creating an all-new postcard series utilizing the same glass plates. We're actually VERY close to going to print on the first series of 20 images.

Samples of the new cards are below. Keep in mind these are just rough, hand-cut samples but you can see how sharp the image are. It's astonishing how much detail these photographers were able to capture on glass:

32510955093_b4a724eaab_z.jpg33197461221_27a9318c85_z.jpg33325147465_92656c124d_z.jpg
 
Last edited:

magicpapa

Well-known member
Aug 7, 2008
10,057
1,347
Hey, just seeing this now. Seems I didn't have my thread subscription setting turned on. Fixed! I'm more than happy to answer any and all questions you might have. Don't hesitate to contact me here or through Net54 with your questions, especially if I haven't answered something you may have asked previously.

whats up with theses?
DSD_2745.jpg


 

cbrandtw

Active member
Sep 12, 2008
1,573
1
Daphne, AL
Drop some knowledge

In the 80s, Panini use to make stickers for Topps

The first Rated Rookie designation appeared on the backs of certain '83 Donruss cards

The first Finest product was not '93 Baseball. It was a small factory set of football issued in 1992.

There's only one Baseball Hall of Famer pictured in a Yankees uniform on his Topps RC (Cox).
All the other notable HOF Yankees rookies either appeared before '52 or with a different team.

Topps stated in 1992 that If 92 Bowman bombs, they will cancel the brand.
How different would the RC market be without it?

1993 Finest packs had an srp of about $3 but shortly after release they were selling for $15-$20 a pack.

Please shed some light on the '83 Rated Rookie . Thanks


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BBCgalaxee

Well-known member
Sep 9, 2011
6,475
59
I don't know how they were picked but here's an example a rated rookie from 1983

1492310841033.jpg

Whoever thought of moving it to the front made a very smart move.

DTA
 

BBCgalaxee

Well-known member
Sep 9, 2011
6,475
59
Keith Olbermann took several photos for 1981 Fleer.

Fleer Ultra was originally going to be called Elite until Donruss threatened legal action.

DTA
 

rsmath

Active member
Nov 8, 2008
6,086
1
Keith Olbermann took several photos for 1981 Fleer.

Didn't Keith also write a lot of the textual info on the back of some cards as well?

considering it seems like Keith has nothing better to do with his time, maybe he should approach topps and offer to write the info texts on the back of cards if he isn't still doing it.
 

TCMA

New member
Jan 28, 2016
8
0
Didn't Keith also write a lot of the textual info on the back of some cards as well?

considering it seems like Keith has nothing better to do with his time, maybe he should approach topps and offer to write the info texts on the back of cards if he isn't still doing it.

Yes, he wrote the backs for all the cards in the 1976 SSPC set.


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