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Revisiting the 1984 Fleer Update Print Run: A Closer Look at the Numbers

In my 27th Unopened Market Report, I shared a 2000 Stevens Point Journal article that stated Larry Fritsch unknowingly purchased 5,000 of the 10,000 total 1984 Fleer Update sets produced. I mentioned that the 10,000 figure felt low and would revisit it later. Here’s that follow-up (thanks to a little help from some hobby friends and the Vintage Wax and Packs Facebook group).

Mr. Baseball – Stevens Point Journal, March 2000

BaseballCardPedia has written that the 1984 Fleer Update set’s print run is “believed to be around 12,000 sets.” While no one has confirmed an official number, recent population data helps us triangulate a likely range.

1984 Fleer Update Boxed Set

As of today, PSA, SGC, Beckett, and CGC have collectively graded just under 10,000 Roger Clemens cards and nearly 7,000 Kirby Puckett cards from the set. Even accounting for some level of crossover and resubmissions, the grading totals suggest that almost every existing set has been at least partially broken.

1984 Fleer Update #U-27 Roger Clements – Fanatics Collect

That leaves relatively few complete sets or ungraded singles in the wild. If the print run was 10k sets, and the crossover rate is 10%, that implies fewer than 1,000 boxed sets and raw singles remain, which seems a bit low. Heck, I saw a bunch of raw Clemens at the 2025 National and I wasn’t even looking for them and there are over ten on eBay right now. I can’t imagine any pre-1990 baseball card has a submission rate of over 90% of the print run.

That said, the market doesn’t support the existence of a large number of sealed 1984 Fleer Update sets either. I haven’t seen a dealer with large multiples of sets at shows (5+) and I’ve also never seen a set wrapped from a sealed case. There are six BBCE-wrapped sets on eBay right now, too, and 13 when you click on sold items.

1984 Fleer Update Baseball Case

All told, the data supports a print run higher than 10,000—likely somewhere in the 12,000–15,000 range. Please let me know if you have any better source information on this topic.

Happy collecting!

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