http://www.sportscollectorsdigest.com August 16, 2019 / Sports Collectors Digest 33
byScottMcKenzie
T
here I was, at the 2016 National in
Atlantic City. My wife and young-
est daughter were at the beach and
I was walking to the Convention Center
with money to spend and checklists to
whittle down. Nothing could have been
fi ner. Except maybe to fi nd a few of the
cards that I was hunting.
You see I’m trying to do the improb-
able. Notice I did not say “impossible,”
although that may be more appropriate
and a more correct word to select. I am
trying to put together a “regular guy’s”
version of a master set for the 2004 Fleer
Baseball Greats of the Game product.
When I say “regular guy” what do I
mean? I mean that I’ll take out all of the
1/1 cards and as a matter of fact, I’ll
remove everything more rare than “of
10” from my quest. Believe it or not, that
removes 60 cards from the set – the fi rst
24 “big boy” cards are from the Greats of
the Game series. And when I say “master
set,” I mean an example of every card
available for a regular guy.
Let’s talk numbers, since this set
evolves the more you dig. There are two
series in this set, the Greats of the Game
edition and the Cut Signature edition.
Greats of the Game
There are 80 base player cards, each
with a blue border parallel, bringing the
total to 160 cards. Sixty-one of these base
cards also appear as a Gold Border Au-
tograph (GBA) variation. That brings the
total up to 221 cards. Here lies the fi rst
interesting twist of the set. I believe that
the GBA variation (GBA-PR) of the Phil
Rizzuto base card (#18) and the GBA
variation (GBR-KP) of Kirby Puckett
were issued as redemption cards.
This set was produced as Fleer was
experiencing signifi cant fi nancial trouble
and on its way to being purchased by
Upper Deck. Many accounts tell of an un-
organized (at best) redemption program.
Many of these redemption cards ended up
being sold at the liquidation sale in 2005
or distributed after the sale. These are dif-
fi cult cards to come by. I have been able
to obtain the Puckett GBA card and I was
fortunate enough to have Scooter sign my
base card but I’m still searching for the
GBA Rizzuto redemption card.
There is a 10-card Battery Mates
subset found in the Greats of the Game
edition, featuring prolifi c pitcher/catcher
combos. Eight of these come as a single
cut signature variation and six more carry
a dual cut signature variation. That’s 24
for the Battery Mates and moves the dial
on our total to 245.
The Greats of the Game edition also
includes the Glory of their Time (GOT)
subset. Included here are 35 base cards,
32 of which appear in a “silver” game-
used memorabilia variation, 31 come as
a “gold” game-used variation and 13 also
appear as a game-used patch variation.
That’s 111 Glory of their Time cards and
variations, which pushes our total to 356
cards.
If you question my math (or logic) in
the above paragraph let me explain.
It is in the Glory of their Time subset
that I fi nd my second interesting fact.
There are two cards whose game-used
variations come with a twist. Carlton Fisk
(CF1 and CF2) and Jose Canseco (JC1
and JC2) both have a game-used uniform
The chase in on
One collector’s experience chasing after the
2004 Fleer Greats of the Game Baseball set
Card Collecting
Each of the 80 base cards in the 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game Baseball set also has a blue border
parallel card. In addition, 61 of the 80 base cards also appear as a Gold Border Autograph variation.