2016-17 Fleer Showcase Box Break #2
Yeah, I know. Not long ago, I wrote about the price of cards being too high, but I also said that if you wait long enough, you can find it for the price that you’ll pay. Thus, this box of 2016-17 Fleer Showcase ended up in my lap. Sal already went though the particulars, so I’ll just let you in of the “hits” of my box.
Starting off with the Red Glows, there’s Roman Josi, Frederik “I’m not going to die in Cam Ward’s Shadow, I’ll just re-enter the draft” Anderson, and David Backes. Not a terrible batch, I’d keep anyone of those guys on my team. Moving on.
Planet METAL!! Erik Karlsson \m/!!!! Kinda neat, interesting die-cut; but like Sal said in his post, it’s a little lacking. The sun-cracked edges of this so-called planet doesn’t really feel all that Metal. I should hear the opening riff to Michael Schenker’s Into The Arena when I look at it. Meh, try again.
Scoring Kings: Filip Forsberg: The lightning graphic would be really cool behind a Tampa Bay player! But it’s not. It would also look a lot cooler if they got a shot of Filip were he doesn’t look like a blow up doll getting ready to crowd surf over a the heads of the audience at a late 70’s Village People concert! But maybe I’m being too picky.
Metal Universe: Mitch Marner, Nick Schmaltz, “Don’t get mad, get” Vlad Tarasenko, Shea Weber. Again, not bad cards. The colors pop nicely on the glossy black and gray graphic behind them.
Throwback/BuyBack: Bob Bassen. Um, ok. Defiantly putting the Flair in this Showcase…
Rookies: Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Ivan Provrorov, and a very sparkly Blue Ice of Tyler Motte (197/199). Generally, I like the rookie cards. A big reason is that you can tell very quickly that they are rookie cards! But the double graphic looks like a visual echo that’s done well and again the colors pop. The Blue Ice card, however, is hard to read. Thin, dark blue script on a black ribbon requires you to shift it around to catch the light just right to read the name of the player. But yay sparkles! Maybe next time he can be riding a unicorn! Unicorns are Metal, right?
Hawt Prospect Auto: Danton Heinen, some 4th round pick up for the Bruins. Well, this paid for the box! Next…
Flair Showcase: Conner McDavid. Never heard of him. I laugh because they use the same picture of him three times, twice on the front, and then the same head shot on the back (and I realize they did the same on the rookie cards, cheapening them a little in my mind). Do they have to pay the player for every different picture they use of them, so they just recycle them as much as possible? Asking for a friend.
EX-2017: Connor McDavid again! OK, this card I’m actually initially impressed with. Working our way in, it has a shiny green metallic border with a cloud pattern (I guess?), gold foil name and team sitting on top of the players action pose that’s non-metallic and lends to a nice 3-D illusion. But it gets better, because behind the player is a clear plastic window with an opaque majestic mountain scene because…. Because Hockey McJesus, that’s why, and he’ll bring honor and the Stanley Cup back to Canada. Sure, let’s go with that.
Theeeen you flip it over. Since it’s a see-though window and you have the silhouette of the player to deal with on the back, Upper Deck had to do something. Rather than just have a black shadow with some arbitrary factoid about the player, UD just used the same image of the player backwards. So, the team crest is backwards, his Captain’s C is backwards and his soon to be retired 97 is backwards. And, for some reason that truly escapes me, they put an Oilers logo (non-reversed) right below the same chest crest over his crotch! Yo D, I heard you loved some Edmonton, but I didn’t know you LOOOVED Edmonton! I seriously, cannot, for the life of me, figure out why they did this.
Finally, a Precious Metal’s Gem of Mitch Marner. It looks exactly like his Metal Universe card from above, but red metallic and stamped 005/150 on the back. At least looking it up on eBay this card pays for most of this box.
All in all this wasn’t a bad box. It was worth it for the sale price that I paid, but not too much more. The base commons are OK looking cards and there were a handful of players from every team which is nice rather than just getting a bunch of cards from whatever teams are the DARLINGS (too soon, Sal?) of the NHL that year. There are autograph patch cards numbered to 135 or less that look pretty nice, as well as Quad Prospect cards for 18 teams. I guess the other dozen teams don’t have jack squat in their prospect pool? Although I question that logic since the Hurricanes card which features a 30year old rookie, an AHL defenseman on the brink of breaking out but keeps getting passed over, an equipment manager who got to play 7 seconds of a game this season, and some dude I’ve never heard of, so I don’t know how this qualifies as “Prospects.”
I’ll let the score stand at 3 out of 5 pucks.
Jim Howard is a Carolina Hurricanes fan and reformed baseball card collector who is trying to keep the hockey collection from becoming overwhelming. And while he wishes he could give Crosby the business with his mitt, he is in fact NOT the goalie for the Red Wings. ■
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This reminds me that I really need to finish writing up my Box Break Review for my own blog, it was the first NHL box I ever did and that was back in April. I was not lucky enough to pull a buyback though.
I’d like to read that some time.