(Zack) Wheat Wednesday: The First Ever Fleer Baseball Cards Came Out in 1923

Today's featured piece of cardboard is one of the absolute rarest Zack Wheat items I have ever come across. Prior to purchasing it, I did not even know the set itself existed. A couple of years ago I connected with a guy on Instagram who told me his friend had this card and it was available. After researching it to learn anything and everything I could, I was given a price and happily paid up.

The 1923 Fleer Baseball set is similar to many strip card sets of the time -- an existing set was used to promote a variety of companies. The W515-1 and W515-2 sets morphed into the first ever Fleer baseball cards when the company put its advert on the backs of some of these.

Other than knowing I would likely never see the Wheat again (POP 1) it's also wildly miscut which is extra cool. Add on the player whose elbow and face you can see is fellow Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby....and I had to have this at all costs.

The all-important reverse is above, and they were printed upside down. Fleer included the cards in packages of "Bobs and Fruit Hearts." This bad boy will never leave my collection!