Fleer Showcase picks up where 2012-13 Fleer Retro left off. Showcase is your typical mid-range Upper Deck hockey card set, with 100 base cards to collect. But 2013-14 Fleer Showcase also has inserts designed after 1990s Fleer sets — just like Fleer Retro did two years back, making it a spiritual successor to Retro.
For those who don’t know, the Fleer Showcase brand was used on baseball, football and basketball trading card sets from 2000 until around 2005. This is the first time that the Showcase name has been applied to hockey cards.
Companies have been known to recycle photographs on trading cards in the past, but Upper Deck probably saved a ton in photographers’ fees during the 2002-03 season by reusing the same photo of Tony Amonte over and over. Amonte signed with the Phoenix Coyotes in July 2002, and when Upper Deck got their hands on a photo of Amonte with the ‘Yotes, they really got their money’s worth out of it.
Earlier this year, Upper Deck released a team-centric set called the Edmonton Oilers Collection. The set focuses on the greatest players in Oilers’ history — even including some players from the team’s WHA days. A box contains 10 packs, and each pack has 10 cards. The front of the box boasts that you will “get a full base set in every box!”
Topps released its 2014 Baseball Archives set this week, and usually I don’t pay attention to baseball cards. But Topps did something with this set that really annoyed me: they used a classic hockey card design in the new Archives baseball set — specifically, this design:
“Check me out, dawg. I’m retro!” [Picture: Ebay]
Yes, that is the classic 1971-72 Topps and O-Pee-Chee design, re-purposed for a 20-card insert set of baseball cards — cheapening it in the process.
Everyone who reads this blog knows how much I love the 1971-72 design. It is the best hockey card design from the 1970s. (If you don’t believe me, read this first and then we’ll talk.)
Best. Design. Ever.
Using this design for a baseball set would be like putting Sidney Crosby on a 1952 Topps Baseball card, or Alex Ovechkin on a 1989-90 Hoops Basketball card.
Inconceivable!
Five years ago, In The Game created a set of trading cards called 1972: The Year In Hockey which was reminiscent of the 1971-72 Topps/OPC design. I don’t know the full story, but I understand that In The Game got into a legal entanglement with Topps for making cards that also used ovals, bright colors and puffy letters. As if Topps invented — or outright owns — any of those design elements.
A card from the 1972: The Year In Hockey set by In The Game
The 1972 set by In The Game was a hit with old school collectors who either bought cards in 1971-72 (that was before I was born), or collected that set later on. Making a new hockey set look like an old hockey set makes sense — especially when done right.
Anyway, would the type of collector who buys Topps Archives Baseball cards really give a damn about baseball cards that look like old hockey cards? I think they’d be more excited about new baseball cards that look like old baseball cards. Or the insert cards based on the Major League movie. I’m not even a baseball fan and I want those cards!
2014 Topps Archives insert cards [Picture: Ebay]
But these cards…irritate me.
Frankly, I”m tired of card companies re-using old designs because they don’t even do it right anymore.Think about Upper Deck’s half-hearted release of Fleer Retro last year. Some of the “retro” cards were great, but many of the inserts were dumb because they weren’t even based on hockey designs, like Intimidation Nation (based on a football set) and the God-awful Noyz Boyz (based on basketball cards).
Yes, Topps made hockey cards in 1971-72, and can use that design all they want. They can use it on baseball cards or FIFA World Cup cards or Spongebob Squarepants cards or whatever the heck they make these days.
But just because they CAN doesn’t mean they SHOULD.
Happy Friday! Hope you are enjoying the playoffs — even if your favorite team has already been eliminated. Here are five interesting, odd or irrelevant hockey pictures to tide you over until tomorrow night’s game. Continue reading “Five-Photo Friday: May 23, 2014”
It’s goalies, more goalies and only goalies. Between the Pipes is back for its 12th year, and is poised to please fans of old school ‘tenders, current players and NHL hopefuls. A box contains 18 pack, and each pack has nine cards. Here’s what I got in my recent box break. Continue reading “Box Break: 2013-14 Between The Pipes”
Steve Galvao is a good old Canadian kid who grew up loving hockey and collecting hockey cards. To see more of Steve’s work, visit his website, the Shoebox Collection. You can see his earlier blog posts here.
Steve Galvao is a good old Canadian kid who grew up loving hockey and collecting hockey cards. To see more of Steve’s work, visit his website, the Shoebox Collection. You can see his earlier blog posts here.
Steve Galvao is a good old Canadian kid who grew up loving hockey and collecting hockey cards. To see more of Steve’s work, visit his website, the Shoebox Collection. You can see his earlier blog posts here.
Fleer Showcase picks up where 2012-13 Fleer Retro left off. Showcase is your typical mid-range Upper Deck hockey card set, with 100 base cards to collect. But 2013-14 Fleer Showcase also has inserts designed after 1990s Fleer sets — just like Fleer Retro did two years back, making it a spiritual successor to Retro.
