Barry Larkin Collection 818: 1990 Fleer - #423 - Canadian version

Barry Larkin

Year:  1990
Brand:  Fleer (Canadian version)

Card number:  423

Let me use BaseballCardPedia to help explain the 1990 Fleer Canada set...

For the first, and only, time, Fleer produced a version of their annual flagship baseball set for the Canadian market. 1990 Fleer Canadian Baseball is a full 660-card parallel of the regular 1990 Fleer Baseball set, but unlike similar Canadian sets of the era (e.g. O-Pee-Chee) there is no French text on any of the cards -- only English. In fact, with the exception of the line "FLEER LTD./LTEE PTD. IN CANADA" on the card backs, there is hardly any difference between the two sets.

1990 Fleer Canadian was distributed exclusive in 48-pack wax boxes (12 more than the U.S. edition) with ten cards and a team logo sticker per pack.

Although these Canadian cards were undoubtedly produced in much lesser quantities compared to the U.S. issue, the fact that the versions are so similar has kept the demand down over the years. Most collectors probably aren't even aware of this issue.

I had never heard of this set until I was entering my Barry Larkin collection into the TCDB database.  It was only then that I saw this set...and realized that I didn't own any of the Canadian cards despite having a number of duplicate 1990 Fleer Barry Larkin cards in my possession.  Luckily, I was able to complete a quick trade on the site for this version of what otherwise looks identical to Barry's "regular" 1990 Fleer card.

If nothing else, I've learned that there is still a ton of stuff I don't know about baseball cards, even from back in 1990 when I was a kid and collecting fairly heavily!  I think that's part of the fun of collecting though...and it is certainly the aspect of collecting that sets like the modern Topps Allen & Ginter try to recreate year after year.