2003 Fleer Showcase

Year: 2003

Card Manufacturer: Fleer

Card Set: Showcase

Card Number: 98

Card Type: Base

With Robin retiring in 1993, he unfortunately (or was it fortunate?) missed the rise of the insert and parallel craze of the late 90's and early 2000's, at least as an active player.  Once the HOF and tribute sets started coming out Robin got thrust right into the mix.  I may be one of the few that really enjoys a lot of the parallel sets.  For me as a player collector I know I'll never own the majority of the high end cards produced for Robin, but with all the inserts and parallels, and parallels of the inserts, I'll always have stuff to try and chase and to me that's a lot of the fun of collecting.  

The 2003 Fleer Showcase set is one of those great early mid 2000s sets that has a great checklist featuring stars of the day and HOFers and retired players.  Plus this set has some really cool insert and relic sets.  I'm a sucker for gimmicks.  This set does have a couple base parallels, one very attainable and the other not so much.  I really like the overall simple design and I like the photo used for Robin's card.  

2003 Fleer Showcase Base

Year: 2003

Manufacturer: Fleer

Set: Showcase

Card Number: 98

Card Type: Base

Fleer Showcase is an interesting set, as with a lot of product put out by Fleer near the end of its life.  Hobby boxes had 3 types of packs Leather, Lumber, and Jersey.  Each 24 count box had 8 packs of each.  Only certain base cards were found in certain kinds of packs.  Robin's card, #98, was found in the Jersey packs. Almost seems that these base cards should have been serial numbered.  There are two base card parallels, Legacy numbered to 150 and Masterpiece numbered to just 1.

I think the design is suppose to mimic those old cabinet cards from a 100 years ago and it's not a bad looking card, simple.  The backs are pretty sparse.