Issued in the year before the worst strike in baseball history, 1993 Fleer baseball cards are a product of their time.
Namely, they are slick and fancy, but without much character.
And, thanks to a rush to squeeze rookies in as early as possible, ’93 Fleer is ironically devoid of top-tier RCs since most of the big names debuted earlier (or slightly later, like Derek Jeter in Fleer Excel).
Of course, they were also overproduced to the hilt, meaning none of them have a ton of value these days.
The good news about all this is that you can pick up Hall of Famers all day long for less than ten bucks, even in perfect graded condition (PSA 10, for our purposes).
And, 1993 Fleer baseball cards are fairly loaded with Hall of Famers, like …
1993 Fleer Tony Gwynn (#138)
One of the main gut shots from the 1994 strike that still stings fans even today is the thought that Gwynn had a shot at hitting .400.
Through 110 games (117 team games for the Padres), Gwynn hit .394 that summer, and he was on a slight upward trajectory when the players went on strike.
Would he have made it to the magical .400 mark?
The odds and record books say no, but Gwynn was a driven man and, with the chance to make some history, you know he would have poured his soul into the chase.
That 1994 run and what might have been are just two reasons Gwynn remains popular with collectors today.
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1993 Fleer Frank Thomas (#210)
Thomas did things in the first half of his career that baseball hadn’t seen since the days of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio.
Things like hit .300 with 30 home runs, 100 runs batted in, and 100 runs … pretty much every season.
In the process, the Big Hurt won two American League MVP awards and set himself on a beeline for Cooperstown.
Oh, and he made himself into a collector favorite.
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1993 Fleer George Brett (#236)
It’s sort of ironic that Gwynn made his run at .400 the year after Brett retired, because the Royals great had been the last to seriously challenge the mark.
Brett’s staggering .390 came in a 1980 season marred by time on the disabled list (hemorrhoids!) that limited him to 117 games played.
That was just enough for George to win both the AL batting crown and MVP, and he helped Kansas City all the way to the World Series.
And … the whole performance elevated Brett to a sort of mythical status that never left during the remainder of his Hall of Fame career.
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1993 Fleer Robin Yount (#260)
Yount and Brett turned in eerily similar careers, starting when they both debuted for recent (1969) expansion teams in the mid-1970s.
From there, they both snagged single rookie cards in the iconic 1975 Topps set, both won AL MVP Awards (two for Yount), both smashed their 3000th hits in 1992, both retired in 1993 …
… and both breezed into Cooperstown in 1999.
While Yount never held quite the hobby sway that Brett did, he wasn’t far behind … and he still isn’t.
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1993 Fleer Kirby Puckett (#273)
By the time this card was issued, Puckett had won two World Series with the Twins and a batting title of his own, in 1989.
The dude who looked like a fire hydrant and played with pure joy had been a fan favorite for nearly a decade, but he was also nearing the end of the line, though we didn’t know it at the time.
After hanging up his spikes due to health issues in 1995, Puckett continued to loom large in the hobby and was a first-ballot Cooperstown selection in 2001.
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1993 Fleer Don Mattingly (#281)
By 1993, Mattingly was deep into his injury-induced decline phase that would eventually lead to his early retirement at age 34 in 1995.
He did manage a final mini power burst (17 home runs) in ’93, but that balky back of his was just too far gone.
Not that any of that really mattered to collectors … Donnie Baseball and his 1984 Donruss rookie card rewrote all the hobby rules and helped precipitate the boom of the late 1980s and 1990s.
For better or worse, we wouldn’t be where we are without Mattingly, and collectors still mostly adore him today.
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1993 Fleer Ken Griffey Jr. (#307)
After a few years of teasing us with glimpses of his full potential, Junior burst into baseball beast mode in 1993.
Tagging 45 home runs and leading the American League in total bases (359), Griffey served notice that he was every bit as talented as we always dreamed he would be.
Over the next 15 years or so, he went ahead an built out a case as one of the handful of greatest players of his generation and drove his 1989 Upper Deck rookie card to the top of the hobby Mount Olympus.
All of Griffey’s other cardboard came along for the ride, too, including lesser issues like this 1993 Fleer card.
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1993 Fleer Dale Murphy (#496)
Like Mattingly, Murphy followed a burst of 1980s brilliance with a steep decline in the 1990s.
The two-time MVP as a member of the Braves spent the first three years of the new decade with the Phillies, then landed with the expansion Rockies in 1993.
That would be his last hurrah in the Majors, and, though he missed out on the Phils’ World Series run, Murphy appeared in liberty burgundy on cardboard all summer long.
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1993 Fleer Cal Ripken Jr. (#551)
When this card was issued, Ripken was halfway between winning his second AL MVP award (1991) and breaking Lou Gehrig‘s record for consecutive games played (1995).
Cal was already a hobby staple, though, and all his cards — even 1993 Fleer — remain collector favorites today.
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1993 Fleer Nolan Ryan (#690)
Even though it seemed like he would pitch forever, Ryan finally retired following the 1993 season.
But he gave us one last shot of his greatness that summer, and this 1993 Fleer card was there for every pitch.
Today, it’s a small part of the Ryan fabric, but historic for having been born at just the right time.
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Check out our full catalog of posts about the most valuable baseball cards in the hobby.
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