2006 MLB Card Series Review Thread

[Smileyman9]

Has anybody bought any of the new 2006 MLB series of cards yet?
I was thinking maybe for the sake of fishing out the dud's we could help each other out by sharing info (like what you got, what your thoughts were, what did you like/hate etc).....

I just got my preorder of Fleers 2006 edition of Greats of the Game,
I'll be honest - for $130 I'm somewhat disappointed.

First off, the concept of the series is all old timers, it's a neat series to kind of go back to see the great players of the past.

The box itself has 15 packs, 5 cards per pack...2 Autograph Cards, 2 Memorabilia cards per box (I don't believe that's an average as much as a fact).

What did I get?
My 2 Autograph cards were Yogi Berra & Bobby Doerr *(of course, on a sticker...I hate the sticker thing). The two memoribilla cards were Carlton Fisk, I got a piece of his pants...which seems somewhat lame...I can't wait until they end up having to use socks and jockstraps And then Maury Wills and a piece of his bat (I'd have rathered a shoelace).

What's not to like about this series...
1) Lack of print/run info on the special cards. After going to Fleer's online checklist I found that the autograph cards do not have a print/run number listed online either...leading me to believe that I am the proud owner of possibly 1 of 1,000,000 Yogi Berra Autographic's cards. Granted, maybe Fleer just hasn't gotten around to putting the real number produced up there. Obviously if they have no print/run numbers for the autograph cards, then this series takes a big plunge

I have the same issue with the Memorabilia cards, total lack of numbering on the card is somewhat of a turnoff to me for some reason. After checking it online I believe all plain memorabilia cards have 2 versions of it (one fabric, one bat I presume) - both of which had a 30 card run.

2) Non-differential numbering. Obviously one won't mistake a non-memorabilia card for one that has a piece of fabric or bat on it...but for love of god change the freaking numbering. Why label 3 different cards all BOS-CF? (one that's just a plain Carlton Fisk card, one that has pants in it...the third one I presume bat).

What's to like?
1) Well, in some cases these guys might be dead and all are retired so as far as memorabilia cards are concerned this would imply limited quantities. For those seeking the thrill of pulling an expensive card (I think I'd have wet myself had I come upon the Babe Ruth card) this seems like a decent series to invest in. Obviously check out the checklist on Fleer before investing the cash.

2) Revisiting the past is fun - if you're just in collecting for the sake of collecting, I think it's a great series to jump backwards with. I don't know a lot about baseballs past, in fact before today I didn't know who Maury Wills was...so from that perspective it's a plus.

Final thought -
As a only past great player series it's decent - I'm still not sure if I got hosed by spending $130 on it or not...
If you like the past and the present mixed in one set, I know Upper Decks 05 Artifacts series had that going for it, I presume 06 will too.

If you have any questions about the series I'll do my best to answer...I'm still on the fence on whether or not it's a decent series so I'm thinking I give it a 7 out of 10 with that score drastically dropping if it turns out that the autograph cards don't have a print/run number.

[Madison]

Very nice writeup!

I'd contribute, but I haven't collected in awhile. Just got way too expensive for my tastes.