Thursday, November 27, 2014

Sportflics - Overview of Sets from 1986-90

In 1986*, a revolutionary (for its time) new baseball card set emerged for the first time. Taking advantage of lenticular printing to create "magic motion" (or 3-D imaging), Sportflics brought to market a new competitor to the baseball card market. Lenticular printing was hardly a new concept but it normally had been confined to special releases. Expected to be another option to the readily-available Donruss, Topps and Fleer products, in a real sense Sportflics never did become mainstream. I remember buying packs of Sportflics on occasion but never having much success finding values for these cards in the major price guides like Beckett and Baseball Cards.
  
Because so few cards came in a pack (most commonly just three cards), putting together a complete set was a difficult task (you would need to buy at least 70 packs if not closer to 80 to 100 packs considering collation). It would have been easier just to buy a complete set (which typically was approximately 200 cards). In addition, the cost of a pack was typically 25-50 cents more per pack than the competition. Expending $150-250 to build a set simply was not practical.

I gave up trying to put together any of these sets long ago. While the cards had a certain appeal given their uniqueness compared to the standard cardboard, few dealers or card shops had enough of the product to assist in set building. Years later, I have found some amount of luck locating complete sets here or there (mostly online through ebay or via Craigslist postings). I normally prefer not to pay too much for these sets because I think the supply still outstrips the demand.

After 1990, Sportflics ceased production for a number of years. The product would revive in the mid-1990s but not have the staying power of the myriad of other competitors. Below is a comprehensive list of Sportflics products released during its "hey day". If I am missing any sets, please let me know. Thanks.

* Sportflics did produce a prototype set as a test in 1985. It contained just 6 cards and it was an extremely limited release.
    
1986    Sportflics Base Set 200 cards
1986    Sportflics Base Trivia Set 133 cards
1986    Sportflics Rookies Set 50 cards
1986    Sportflics Rookies Trivia Set 34 cards
1986    Sportflics Decade Greats Set 75 cards
1986    Sportflics Decade Greats Trivia Set 51 cards
1986    Sportflics Startistics Trivia Set 51 cards
  
1987    Sportflics Base Set 200 cards
1987    Sportflics Base Trivia Set 136 cards
1987    Sportflics Rookies Set 1 25 cards
1987    Sportflics Rookies Trivia Set 1 17 cards
1987    Sportflics Rookies Set 2 25 cards
1987    Sportflics Rookies Trivia Set 2 17 cards
1987    Sportflics Startistics Trivia Set 51 cards
1987    Sportflics Dealer Panels 4 panels
  
1988    Sportflics Base Set 225 cards
1988    Sportflics Base Trivia Set 153 cards
1988    Sportflics Game Winners Set 25 cards
1988    Sportflics Game Winners Trivia Set 17 cards
  
1989    Sportflics Base Set 225 cards
1989    Sportflics Base Trivia Set 153 cards
   
1990    Sportflics Base Set 225 cards
1990    Sportflics Base Trivia Set 153 cards

No comments:

Post a Comment