2004-05 NBA Hoops Mysterious Unreleased Master Collection Parallel

If you recall, I was recently contacted by an individual who has in their possession some uncut, unfinished, and unreleased Fleer cards.  I blogged about it here.  Upon posting that write-up, I was hoping to get some feedback from collectors that could shed some more light on these cards.  Thanks to Cardboard History, we’ve had a breakthrough.

One of the items this person has in his collection is a 4-card uncut sheet from 2004-05 Fleer SkyBox NBA Hoops.  The players include Antawn Jamison, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, and Clifford Robinson.  Other than being uncut, all seems normal except for a mysterious gold dot found on each card.

The 2004-05 Fleer SkyBox NBA Hoops set consists of (200) cards.  Each card in the base set has one parallel – Hoops 100 #’ed/100.  If the base set looks familiar, that’s because its a throwback tribute to 1994-95 NBA Hoops.

Before settling on the Hoops 100 parallel, I believe Fleer had another parallel in mind and then decided to can it.  Getting a closer look at the gold dot it says “MASTER COLLECTION” around the outside.  Inside it states “Trading Cards, FLEER, Frank H. Fleer Established 1906”.

This unreleased MASTER COLLECTION parallel probably would’ve been another tribute to the 1994-95 NBA Hoops set.  A 50-card insert set called Supreme Court was made for 1994-95 NBA Hoops.  These cards look just like the base, except they have a gold stamp that says “Supreme Court NBA Hoops” on them.

Another big difference is that the NBA Hoops logo on the MASTER COLLECTION parallels are printed in blue foil versus the standard silver.  Now, these cards were at the finishers at the time they were acquired.  Whether or not that logo was going to stay blue is something we’ll never know.

As always, your thoughts are gladly welcomed.

Big Bucks For “Buster” Boxing

42-to-1.  Those were the odds James “Buster” Douglas was given to beat Mike Tyson on February 11, 1990 in Tokyo.  Only one casino gave the odds as most others thought Tyson was a guaranteed winner.  Douglas pulled together a Han Solo “Never tell me the odds.” attitude, and ended up beating Tyson.  It was an upset the boxing world didn’t see coming.  For a little over eight months, Douglas held the heavyweight championship title before losing it to Evander Holyfield.

Considering he’s a boxer, collectors have plenty of options when it comes to his cards.  About (74) cards make up the James “Buster” Douglas checklist.  They start in 1991, and go all the way to 2016.  Thanks to products such as 2009 Upper Deck Prominent Cuts, 2010 Ringside Boxing Round 1, 2011 Ringside Boxing Round 2, 2013 Leaf Sports Heroes, 2013 Leaf Pop Century, and 2016 Leaf Pop Century, he has many autographs and relics available.

Some of his cards command quite the price.  Especially if Mike Tyson is on there with him.  One of the more expensive items you could add to your James “Buster” Douglas collection isn’t even a card at all.  Its a video game for the SEGA Master System.  Going into the fight as an underdog, and defeating Mike Tyson comes with it’s share of perks.  SEGA quickly signed him to a deal, and pictured him on the front of James “Buster” Douglas Knockout Boxing.

Personally, I’m not familiar with the Master System.  At that time I had a Nintendo Entertainment System, and SEGA’s newer system the Genesis.  Released in 1990, James “Buster” Douglas Knockout Boxing came out an entire year after the Genesis had already been out.  This game came out when demand for Master System games was on the decline.  Very few copies were produced and/or sold.  By then, SEGA fans wanted Genesis games.

Owning a copy of James “Buster” Douglas Knockout Boxing for the Master System will cost you more than a lot of his cards combined.  Complete copies sell for $600+.  A Genesis version does exist, but is barely worth anything.

Sports video games traditionally tank in price over the years.  Its difficult for that genre to hold value.  Whenever I come across one that hasn’t tanked, I enjoy learning about it.

2018 Bowman’s Best Baseball Master Box Break & Review

Its always bitter sweet when Bowman’s Best rolls around.  For awhile now, this brand traditionally is one of the last MLB-licensed products to come out before the end of the year.  Then we sink into a long gap before the 2019 products start pumping out.  The 2018 baseball collecting season has been a wild ride thanks to rookies like Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuña Jr., and Juan Soto.  I wonder what 2019 will bring?

Bowman’s Best is a great product to end 2018.  Especially the way its been configured the last few years.  Prospects and rookies continue to dominate the checklist, but you can pull some nice veteran cards too.  Recently drafted prospects are one of the main attractions this product has.  New prospects such as Casey Mize, Alec Bohm, and Triston Casas are all top guys who have some of their first cards in here.

If you’re not someone who wants tons of base cards leftover after the break has finished, Bowman’s Best is perfect for those prospect hunters.  A master box consists of (2) mini-boxes.  Inside each mini-box there are (6) packs housing (5) cards each.  Every mini-box has (2) autographs.  That’s (4) autographs per master box.

The base set consists of (99) cards.  A mix of (70) rookies and veterans, and (29) top prospects.  Parallels include Refractor, Atomic Refractor, Purple Refractor #’ed/250, Blue Refractor #’ed/150, Green Refractor #’ed/99, Gold Refractor #’ed/50, Orange Refractor #’ed/25, Red Refractor #’ed/10, and Superfractor #’ed 1/1.

No relics here folks.  All autographs.  Most on-card too.  For the most part your autographs are going to be from the Best of 2018 set.  These cards resemble the base set, and come in a variety of colored parallels.  The Dual Autographs are very impressive and numbered to (25) or less.  The Mike Trout/Shohei Ohtani and Derek Jeter/Aaron Judge examples look sick.  Other autographs include 1998 Best Performers, Early Indications, Neophyte Sensations, and Power Producers.  All of these have numerous parallels, and non-autographed counterparts.

When I first started collecting as a Phillies fan I needed to have Scott Rolen’s 1995 Bowman’s Best rookie.  I still have it today sitting on my shelf.  I enjoy Bowman’s Best as its a semi-quick thrill with newly drafted prospects along with some veterans.

Complete Checklist

Here is what I pulled:

Autos

• Brice Turang Best of 2018 Auto Redemption
• Jeren Kendall Best of 2018 Auto Redemption
• Jose Siri Best of 2018 Refractor Auto
• Franklin Perez Early Indications Gold Refractor Auto #’ed/50

Parallels

• Roger Clemens 1998 Best Performers Atomic Refractor
• Jose Abreu Atomic Refractor
• Javier Baez Refractor
• Jordan Groshans Refractor
• Mitch Keller Refractor
• Jo Adell Refractor
• J.D. Martinez Refractor
• Freddie Freeman Refractor
• Mookie Betts Refractor
• Khris Davis Refractor
• Fernando Romero Refractor
• Brian Anderson Refractor

Inserts

• Walker Buehler Neophyte Sensations
• Shohei Ohtani Power Producers
• Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Power Producers
• Luis Urias Early Indications
• Hunter Greene Early Indications
• Jo Adell Early Indications
• Ryan Weathers 1998 Best Performers
• Brady Singer 1998 Best Performers
• Ozzie Albies 1998 Best Performers
• Anthony Rizzo 1998 Best Performers

Card of the Day: Muhammad Ali 2000 Upper Deck Master Collection #4

Card of the Day: Maria Sharapova 2015 Upper Deck All-Time Greats Master Collection Silver Auto

Introducing The Upper Deck Tiger Woods Master Collection

For all you golf collectors that have more money than god, Upper Deck’s new Tiger Woods Master Collection might just be right up your alley.  This product is for the ultimate golf or Tiger Woods fan.  It has everything  -autographs, memorabilia, hand-painting art cards, and even full-sized memorabilia.  The only thing Upper Deck didn’t do was stuff Tiger Woods himself in the box.

Every Master Collection set contains the following:

• Complete 80-card base set #’ed/200 – One card for every one of Tiger’s wins on Tour plus recognizing some of his collegiate accolades.
• (3) Tiger Woods autographs – (1) autographed memorabilia item as a box topper.  Look for hand painted Tiger Woods Masterpieces cards #’ed/10.  Also look for Historic Duos pairing a Tiger Woods autograph with a cut signature of a historic great #’ed/2 or less.
• (1) Slambalaya or Masterpieces signature card per box – (14) different Slambalaya cards for each of the major championships that Tiger has won.
• (1) Tiger Woods Championship Gear card per box

I’ve always wanted to know what an extremely high-end golf product would look like, but I never thought we would see one.  Golf’s high-end products could probably be capped with UD SP Game-Used Edition, but the Tiger Woods Master Collection completely blows that out of the water.  This displays what Upper Deck truly does the best, which is make very nice high-end products.

Upper Deck is also making a similar product based on Michael Jordan.  Products like this only work with specific athletes.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Upper Deck is working on a Master Collection for Wayne Gretzky.

Man this is some nice looking stuff!