That also happens to be the place where I have a bunch of boxes stuffed with sports and sports card magazines. Besides Sports Illustrated, not to mention a select few from ESPN and The Sporting News, I've accumulated a nice number of back issues of Beckett (mostly baseball)--which I shamefully admit I used to buy for the pricing as much as the articles, though I've since learned my lesson!--and Tuff Stuff, along with other miscellaneous examples. I was paring these down during the cleaning process when I started flipping through some copies of a long-defunct publication: Sports Cards.
I can't remember how long I subscribed to or bought single issues of Sports Cards, but at the time of its existence I relished reading almost everything I could about the hobby. At this point in my adult life, I was preparing to chuck a bunch of those issues, mainly based on the cover subject, when I noticed something striking at the top of several copies, one of which was this very version. "FREE INSIDE!" it blared. "EXCLUSIVE 6-CARD SET FROM FLEER!" Well I certainly remembered receiving free promos and samples from many of these old magazines, especially Tuff Stuff, but my mind drew a blank on this one. And that brings us to the subject of today's post.
Back in 2001, Sports Cards and Fleer got together to produced six six-card sheets done in the style of the latter's 2000 Greats of the Game set, this time featuring modern stars. Each month you got one sheet (perforated, naturally, for "easy" removal, though the cards themselves aren't separated) of stars in alphabetical order (mostly). The backs of the cards featured the player's 2000 stats plus a LOT of blank space. What was cool, though, was that up top you could see the previous and future months' cards thanks to a handy checklist.
I've always been a fan of the GotG set, especially the 2000 version, and since some of my favorite players are included, I really had fun rediscovering these cards, so naturally the first thing I wanted to do was show them off to you guys! Here they are, all six sheets featuring 36 Fleer/Sports Cards "exclusive" cards from 2000:
I didn't feel like scanning all six backs since they're not especially interesting, but did include one for the sake of completeness:
So what do y'all think? Yay or nay on this set? Ever find anything interesting like this lurking in your basements? Did anybody else collect collecting magazines and dig up gems like these?
