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Fleer Retro Basketball

gc1213gc1213 Posts: 154
in Trading Cards & Memorabilia Forum
I know this board is primarily for older cards but I came across this product when I stopped by a local card shop (probably the only one left in NYC). Looks like a pretty interesting box but the buy in seems insane for new cards. Just wondering if anyone knows anything about this...

Comments

  • ToroToro Posts: 1,515
    The prices are "ridonkulous". Sure they guarantee 7 auto hits or something per box and there are retro 90's inserts in them but at the $700 they are going for....hitting an MJ in a college uniform doesn't do it for me. The main reason many 90's Jordans are going for sky high prices are, one, he is in his Bulls uniform and two, it was during his playing days. Look at the last decade Jordans.....not even close and will never be close to what the 90's inserts go for.....why would these be any different in the long run?
  • HallcoHallco Posts: 3,676 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I watched a couple of youtube videos of people ripping packs of this stuff...not bad looking cards. I agree that I don't really care for the players in their college uniforms, but that might be something that other collectors like.
  • gc1213gc1213 Posts: 154
    I saw a box at $500 and it seemed like an a seriously steep buy in. I wasn't sure what was up with the college uniforms either... I assumed that there were some in NBA and NCAA uni's but guess not. Looked like a nice product but at that cost I would rather hunt down unopened 90's for the real inserts or keep buying up all the 80's Jordans.

    What 90's boxes yield the better inserts? I know the refractors, Team Leaders Scoring Kings etc, but where did these Precious Gems and such come from?
  • byronscott4everbyronscott4ever Posts: 932 ✭✭✭
    1990s basketball inserts of Jordan especially have gone for big bucks lately. Most of these hot ones were done by Fleer. The Precious Metal Gems (PMGs) were in the 1997-98 Fleer Metal and were very hard pulls. There were 90 serial numbered reds and ten serial numbered greens (greens were 1/100, 2/100 and reds picked up at 11/100, etc) and when they took off, the wax prices for that product went up as well even though the odds were stacked against you pulling one. I believe an overseas Jordan collector has the majority of the original greens, crazy. So when Upper Deck bought the rights to Fleer's property, they took over the rights to these insert names as well. This product was delayed many times, I think finally coming out 9 months after the original release date. Upper Deck capitalized on the retro craze by recreating the designs of popular cards done by Fleer and did them with college uniforms as they have no NBA license. Boxes came out at $200-300 I think and then went crazy and way up and collectors who pulled PMGs of key players like Lebron or Jordan made thousands. The prices have cooled down a bit but the product still is very popular. The funny thing is that it features not so great photos, plenty of sticker autographs, hardly any of the rookies are any good (because Panini locked them up to exclusives) and based on what I have heard from others, even the copied designs aren't as great looking as the originals. On top of that, Upper Deck increased the PMG print run to have 150 reds, 50 blues and ten greens so there are more PMGs in the product and they seem to come up in every box. Long story short, UD will do this release again and up the price I'm guessing and people will jump on board, especially if they made money on this product.
  • jlzinckjlzinck Posts: 910 ✭✭
    Bought 1 mini box when they came out for $120

    Got a Jordan Insert and undersold it at $200.

    Sold the 3 auto and the other insert for $30.

    I was happy with it........
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