1991 Ultra
Description
1991 Ultra was Fleer’s foray into the premium brand market to compete with Upper Deck and Leaf. The complete base set consists of 400 cards in one series. The set is arranged alphabetically first by team then by player. Subsets include Major League Prospects (373-390), Great Performances (391-396) and Checklists (397-400). Also there was a ten-card insert set called “Ultra Team”. Collector’s terminology refers to the set as “Ultra Gold”.
The cards featured three full color photos on the back making it the first time a baseball card had 4 photos of one player on a card.
Fleer claimed in their original press release that production of Ultra would be limited to 15 percent of the 1991 Fleer Baseball.
The set was originally titled "Fleer Elite" but was changed after Donruss introduced the Elite Series inserts earlier in the year.
Distribution
Foil: 36 packs per box, 14 cards plus one team logo sticker per pack.
Collation data from one box. Base Set Completion: 92% (368 of 400); Duplicates: 128; Ultra Team Insert Completion: 80% (8 of 10)
Reviews
1991 Ultra received a poor review in the December 1991 issue of Beckett Baseball Card Monthly. The set was featured in the “Card Critic” column titled “Ultra Shaky”. Chuck Roethel had several negative remarks such as “a general yawn”, “may not seem as exciting as other premium sets” and “crying for help”. He also bemoaned the absence of rookie cards for Jeff Bagwell, Juan Gonzalez, Scott Erickson & Mike Timlin but still felt Fleer did a decent job with player selection. In contrast, Mr. Roethel gave a glowing review for the Ultra Team subset describing it as “an almost perfect card” and stated, “This is how the entire set should have looked”.
Insertion Ratios
| Cards | Total Cards | Numbered To | Odds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base | 400 | - | ? |
| Ultra Team (Ultra Gold) | 10 | - | 1:4.5 |
Checklist
Base Set
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Major League Prospects
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Great Performances
NOTE: This subset was originally titled "Elite Performances."
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Checklists
<sql2wiki database="carddb"> SELECT num,player FROM cards WHERE (year = 1991) AND (setname = 'Ultra') AND (num > 396); </sql2wiki>
Inserts
Ultra Team (Ultra Gold)
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Team Logo Stickers
Each 1991 Ultra Baseball pack contained a team logo sticker. This was the final year in which all officially-licensed non-Topps baseball card products were required to contain something other than baseball cards (not to include gum) in each pack. Each logo sticker is a 2 1/2" square and there is one sticker for each of the 26 MLB teams.
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