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If you’ve been following this channel, you know I basically cut off my collecting at the year 2000. The sheer number of sets became overwhelming, and each of these had so many insert sets and parallels that I was happy keeping my collecting to pre-2000. In 1999-00, Fleer had Fleer Tradition, which was basically their standard set for the year. There was also Fleer Focus and Fleer Mystique.. And finally, there was this Fleer Force. Doesn’t sound too bad, huh? Just Tradition, Focus, Force and Mystique. But lets bring the parallels in! So Fleer Force is basically a big parallel set of Fleer Tradition, that’s all! So try not to get lost here… For every Fleer Tradition card, you have the regular parallel called Tradition Roundball. Then you have this Fleer Force set (parallels of Tradition, but considered its own set). Then you have the Fleer Force parallels called Forcefield. So a total of four cards for each photo (Tradition, Roundball, Force and Forcefield). Do you see why I stopped collecting modern cards?
The Fleer Force “parallel” set only appeared in 1999-00 and again in 2001-02. So how exactly is Fleer Force different than the regular Fleer Tradition? Force takes the regular Fleer Tradition cards and adds metallic foil to the background. Force serial numbered the rookies to 1,600. Finally, there are an additional 15 rookies making this set 235 cards versus Tradition’s 220. People were purchasing Force for those rookies, some original insert sets, the forcefield parallels and what Fleer called “Player-Worn Memorabilia Cards” of Vince Carter. There was a swatch of GI gear that he wore placed into these cards, both autographed and non-autographed versions. Fleer used Vince Carter and these cards as their main marketing tool for Fleer Force.
All that being said, I feel bad for these base cards as they are typically overlooked and tossed aside. But not on this channel! Before we go, let’s take a look at the back and see what information we have. Certainly some random trivia here. Garnett was NBA Player of the Week ending April 4, 1999! There you have it, a parallel of Fleer Tradition, but not the Fleer Tradition parallels (if that makes sense!).
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