For several decades, manufacturing company Fleer helped define generations of Philadelphians, as well as a prominent industry, writes Matt Breen for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Founded in Philadelphia in 1885, Fleer would later become a cornerstone of the city’s baseball card industry, printing its first baseball cards in 1923. Its productions included a 1986 Michael Jordan rookie card, as well as Cal Ripken’s rookie card in 1982. The company also manufactured candy like Double Bubble and Razzles.
Over the years, many teenagers would spend their summers working at the factory, to the point that Philadelphia writer Frank Diamond said working there “was almost a rite of young adulthood for many who grew up in Olney, Logan, and North Philadelphia.”
Frank Rigler, 65, who worked at Fleer in the summer of 1980, said “everyone knew someone who worked there.”
The trading card industry peaked in the early 1990s.
Ted Taylor, Fleer’s vice president of hobby sales and marketing at the time, said in 1992 and 1993, nearly everything sold.
It all collapsed shortly after, due to thefts, “junk wax”, and the 1994 MLB strike.
In 1995, Fleer announced it would be shutting down its operations in Olney and move from Philadelphia to Mississippi.
Read more about the rise and fall of Fleer and its prominence within the trading card industry in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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