Thursday, February 4, 2016

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #11 1992-93 Fleer

A set I'm not sure why I like so much...but I do.

#11: 1992-93 Fleer

Why I like it: I like the design. It's color coded with simulated basketball textured boxes for the player's name and team. The back design is my all-time favorite in the hobby. (I think!)

Set size/completion: 444 cards, I have 443 of them. 99.8% complete according to the Database. I am missing only #344, Scott Brooks, to have the complete collection. (I only have one version of the #4 Jon Koncak card, but I don't consider variations necessary for a complete set.)

This is a set that looks better in person than it does in scans. For some reason they scan darker than are, and this is a set that must be scanned only with cards from the same set. The gold border doesn't scan particularly well either, and it is very much condition sensitive. In writing up these posts, I realize that in actuality this should probably be #13, with 1997-98 Ultra and 2012-13 Hoops ranking above it, but I'm not going to re-write these posts to change it! And besides, my ranking changes all the time. Sets that would have been in my top 5 at one point in my life now does not make the top 20, or even come anywhere near close to it. I can't guarantee that next year at this time the ranking won't change significantly- and not by new sets being issued, but just how I'm feeling at that time.

I think the back of the card may be my favorite of all time...although I have not really thought too much about that. The basketball pattern is great, the color coding, the large photo in the shape of the "key". I'm not really too sold on the pink, which Fleer used for several years in the stat area, but it's not enough of a detraction to bring the back down.

There were not a lot of inserts in the set- but there are a lot of promos.

Inserts include All-Stars, Rookie Sensations, Sharpshooters, Team Leaders and Total D, as well as a Larry Johnson set that also has an autograph parallel. The inserts are not too spectacular, All-Stars is my favorite. I have not scanned any of several of them yet.
 All-Stars
Sharpshooters
 Larry Johnson
Team Leader
Rookie Sensations

There are quite a few promo sets associated with 1992-93 Fleer. The most prominent is the Drake's set, which looks just like the base cards, but have different numbers. There is nothing at all to let you know it's the Drake's set EXCEPT the number.

The standard Shaquille O'Neal card is #401.

There is also a Tony's Pizza set, which again looks exactly like the base set, only they carry no number at all.
The standard Petrovic card is #147.

There is also a promo set for Spaulding, and several team-released sets as well. There might be some I don't even know about, either!

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