1999 Fleer Tradition

Description

1999 Fleer Tradition was a 600-card single-series set released in March, 1999. The base set used a full-color, non-bordered design with a gold foil-stamped nameplate that ran along one side of the card - this design mirrored the Mickey Mantle insert set from the previous year. The base set included one subset - Franchise Futures (576-590) - and Checklists (591-600). Unlike last year's set, 1999 Fleer Tradition Baseball was released in a single series and had no short-prints.

In December, 1999 Fleer released the "Millennium Edition" factory set -- the first time a Fleer/Fleer Tradition factory set had been issued in seven years. Limited to only 5000 sets, the Millennium Edition featured all 600 cards from the Fleer Tradition base set plus 20 selected cards from 1999 Fleer Tradition Update. It was sold primarily through the Shop at Home television network.

Distribution

Hobby: 36 packs per box, 10 cards per pack

Retail: 20 packs per box, 10 cards per pack (MSRP: $1.99)

Retail Blaster 1: 12 packs per box, 10 cards per pack

Retail Blaster 2: 21 packs per box, 10 cards per pack (MSRP: $28.99)

In Hobby boxes, the one-per-pack Vintage '61 inserts were usually the 6th card in the pack while other inserts (Rookie Flashback, Stan Musial Moments) were usually the 5th card in the pack. Starting 9 parallels were also usually the 5th card in the pack.

Insertion Ratios

Cards	Total Cards	Numbered To	Hobby Odds	Retail Odds
Base	600	-	?	?
Vintage '61	50	-	one-per-pack	N/A
Warning Track	600	-	N/A	one-per-pack
Starting Nine	600	9	?	N/A
Rookie Flashback	15	-	1:6	1:6
Going Yard	15	-	1:18	1:18
Stan Musial Monumental Moments	10	-	1:36	1:36
Golden Memories	15	-	1:54	1:54
Diamond Magic	15	-	1:96	1:96
Date With Destiny	10	100	?	?
Stan Musial Monumental Moments Autographs	10	50	?	?

Checklist

Promo

J.D. Drew was one of The Hobby's most highly regarded prospects and was the face of 1999 Fleer Tradition Baseball. For preview and promotion purposes, Fleer distributed a promotional sample card that was identical to Drew's base card and had "Promotional Sample" stamped on the front and back of the card.

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Diamond Skills Commemorative Sheet

For the second consecutive year, Fleer carried out its national Diamond Skills youth baseball program. To promote the program, Fleer issued an 8-card sheet featuring various stars within 1999 Fleer Tradition base set. Hobby shops that participated in the Diamond Skills competition received the 8-card sheets to distribute to youths that participated in the program.

On the sheet's top margin, the winners and runners up in the previous year's Diamond Skills competition were given a mention. Notably, a youngster named Eric Hosmer finished in 2nd place in the 7-8 age group in 1998. Hosmer would go on to have a pretty decent Major League career with the Kansas City Royals and San Diego Padres.

Mark McGwire / Sammy Sosa / Kerry Wood / Derek Jeter / Alex Rodriguez / Nomar Garciaparra / Ben Grieve / Chipper Jones

Diamond Skills Competition Cards

Base Set

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Franchise Features

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Checklists

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Parallels

All 600 base cards are available in the following parallels.

• Warning Track Collection (one-per-pack; retail only)
• Starting 9 (serial-numbered to nine; Hobby only)

Vintage '61

Each Hobby pack contains one Vintage '61 card which partially parallels the first 50 cards in the base set. Each card is done in the style of the 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats.

Millennium Edition

5000 Millennium Edition factory sets were produced by Fleer and sold in December, 1999 -- primarily to the Shop at Home TV network. Each set came shrink-wrapped and sealed with a gold sticker that was serial-numbered to 5000. Each set contained the entire 600-card Fleer Tradition base set set plus twenty cards from the 1999 Fleer Tradition Update set -- cards U1-U10 ("Rookies") and U141-U150 ("Highlights") -- which for this set are sequentially-numbered 601-620.

All 620 cards from this factory set contained a special gold foil "Year 2000" logo. Unlike the set, individual cards were not serial-numbered.

Inserts

Rookie Flashback

This 15-card set recognized the progression of fifteen young stars from their minor league beginnings to their major league accomplishments in the 1998 season, and can be seen as an extension of the long-running Rookie Sensations insert set.

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Going Yard

This 15-card set featured the top power hitters in the game at the time on a fold-out card that highlighted the longest home run of that player's career.

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Stan Musial's Monumental Moments

This 10-card set featured highlights of the life and career of Hall of Famer Stan Musial. The design (and concept) is identical to the Mickey Mantle Monumental Moments insert in last year's Fleer Tradition.

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Golden Memories

This 15-card set (which has been an insert or subset in the Flagship set over the decade) highlighted player accomplishments achieved in the 1998 season.

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Diamond Magic

This 15-card set highlighted top players in the game and featured a special plastic wheel embedded into the card that, when turned, gives off a multi-colored kaleidoscope effect behind the player image.

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Date With Destiny

This 10-card set highlighted players that seemed destined for the Hall of Fame. Cards were embossed and die-cut to resemble a Hall of Fame plaque and card-fronts were printed on brown holographic foil with a serial-numbered stamp. Each card is numbered to 100 copies.

NOTE: In the early 2010s, a number of non-embossed, non-die-cut, and non-serial-numbered Date With Destiny cards emerged on the secondary market. It is believed that these cards were backdoored after Fleer's bankruptcy in 2005.

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Stan Musial NSCC Commemorative

This 5-card, over-sized (3 1/2" by 5") set was distributed to attendees of the 20th Annual National Sports Collectors Convention in Atlanta in July, 1999. The cards were packaged in complete set form within a sealed clear plastic cello wrapper. An unnumbered Cover Card (bereft of any player images) that displayed the 20th National Convention logo on front and a checklist on back was the top card in each cello pack. Card NC1 was a parallel of Musial 1999 Fleer Tradition base card and is the only standard-sized card in the set. Cards NC2-NC4 are over-sized cards featuring selected cards from the 1999 Fleer Stan Musial Monumental Moments insert.

NNO Cover Card

NC1 Stan Musial (1999 Fleer Tradition Base Card)

NC2 Stan Musial (Donora)

NC3 Stan Musial (1948)

NC4 Stan Musial (HOF)

Autographs & Game-Used

Stan Musial Monumental Moments Autographed

Stan Musial autographed 50 copies of each of his ten Monumental Moments inserts in blue ink and hand-numbered each copy. For distinction and certification, each autographed card featured an embossed Fleer logo.

Fleer/Fleer Tradition
Pre-License Era: 1959 Fleer Ted Williams - 1960 - 1961 - 1963
Triopoly Era: 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - 1987
Junk Wax Era: 1988 - 1989 - 1990 - 1991
Marvel Entertainment Era: 1992 - 1993 - 1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1997
Fleer Tradition Era: 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005
Upper Deck Era: 2006 - 2007
Update Sets: 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989 - 1990 - 1991 - 1992 - 1993 Final Edition - 1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2002 - 2003
Other Fleer/Fleer Tradition Brands: 2002 Fleer - 2006 Fleer Tradition