2003 Fleer Rookies and Greats - Boyhood Idols Jersey Relic

Year: 2003

Manufacturer: Fleer

Set: Rookies and Greats

Card Number: BI-RY

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set: Boyhood Idols Game-Used Relics

Relic Type: Jersey

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered, Piece of Authentic

Serial Number: 261/615

I miss the days of collecting in my youth.  Not that 2003 was still my youth, I mean I miss having Fleer and Donruss as real companies competing against each other and trying to one up each other and all the other competitors.  2003 would mark the start of the downward spiral that eventually would lead to the companies demise and in two year's would just be a brand of Upper Deck.  2003 also marked end of Fleer putting out a flagship set, unless you count Fleer Tradition.  But in those final years Fleer gave it a good go and put out some of the nicest trading cards in it's history.  But Rookies and Greats isn't really one of those sets.  It's still a nice looking set. The base set was small, only 75 cards, and there weren't too many inserts to be had and only one base parallel.  

Robin was featured in a couple of the insert relic sets.  The Boyhood Idols insert also had a relic autograph parallel, but Robin is doesn't have a card in that set.  This was a pretty choice card back in 2003 with the swatch being two colors, I'm sure I paid a premium for this card.  It's also got an odd print run of 615.  Why?  Fleer that's why.  As a matter of fact a lot of the inserts in this set have odd numbering.  

2003 Fleer Rookies and Greats - Through the Years dual relic with Scott Podsednik

Year: 2003

Card Manufacturer: Fleer

Card Set: Rookies and Greats

Card Number: TY-RY/SP

Card Type: Insert Relic

Insert Set:  Through the Years

Card Attributes: Relics, Serial Numbered

Relic Type: Jersey and Bat

Serial Number: 050/360

Wow that's quite a header.  I didn't open a ton of cards in 2003.  That was mainly due to my lifestyle at the time and where and how I was working.  That also happens to be close to the pinnacle of product production for sports cards.  I'm not talking about the billions of cards produced in the junk wax era, I'm talking about the fact that in 2003 there were over 100 different baseball products produced alone.  Think about that.  That's at least 2 new products a week, sometimes more of just baseball.  Now factor in that most card companies had multiple licenses if not all 4 and the shelves were packed with products.  The nice thing was most of those products were affordable, but there were just so many.  

Anyways the one thing we got out of the 2000's was dawn of the guaranteed hit! Autographed and relic cards had been around since the 90's.  And they were and are great for the hobby and they were a big hit with collectors.  With anything that's popular you can bet that the companies take notice and will run it into the ground.

What does that have to do with this card?  Nothing.  Other than it's from a set I never rip a single pack of.  Robin has three cards in this set, all relics.  Besides this great dual relic with Scott Podsednik, he has a patch version of this card and a relic card in the Boyhood Idols set. 

Over all the card isn't all that exciting in the layout, but I do enjoy the multiple relic cards that feature players from my team exclusively.  Scott only played for the Brewers two years 2003 and 2004 before moving on to the White Sox where he would help them win the World Series in 2005 and then married a Playboy Playmate.