The next box in this month's break is 2002 Donruss Best of Fan Club. At the time of choosing this box I didn't catch the "Best of" in the title. I remember opening a few packs of Fan Club back in '02 and I liked it. I didn't even know that this product existed. After opening a few packs it reminded me of what Upper Deck did with their Victory and Ultimate Victory products. As it turns out the base cards are really shiny and nice looking.
The set is comprised of 300 cards - 200 veterans, 60 rookies (#d to 1350) and 40 Fan Club cards (#d to 2025). There is also a parallel set called Spotlight that are #d to 100. Inserts include League Leaders (#d to 300), Records (#d to 300), Records Book parallel (bat, #d to 150), Franchise Features (#d to 300), Double Features (#d to 125, two swatches of game-used #d to 50, Artists (#d to 300), Master Artists (jersey, #d to 150), Pure Power (#d to 300), Power Masters parallel (bat, #d to 150), Craftsmen (#d to 300) and Master Craftsmen (bat or baseball, #d to 150). Overall odds are 1:2 packs.
The downside to these cards is they don't scan well. They have this "mirror board" kind of look are are printed on thicker than normal card stock. I really like the look of these. They do show fingerprints so I tried to handle these carefully. It appears any fingerprints will easily wipe off however.
In addition to the red foil serial numbering, the rookies also feature a refractor-ish look on the front.
Spotlight is the parallel set. These are easy to miss as they look a lot like the base cards. Check out the numbering of the Soriano - 100/100!
The Fan Club SPs sport a really nice design. These have that refractor-ish look with added broad vertical stripes on the front.
No one claimed the Diamondbacks (surprising, eh?) so this Randy Johnson card will be randomed off to the teams that didn't get a numbered card/insert or hit.
Shannon Stewart (Blue Jays) - League Leaders
Not familiar w/ this guy, are you? I know how a lot of collector's feel about sticker autos and I'm in the same boat. The "authenticity" stamp on the front also looks weird. Oh well, congrats to The Dutch Card Guy!
Nice looking memorabilia card. I seem to have a knack for pulling game-used Pudge cards! The serial numbering 150/150 is also cool. This is the 2nd card to have the final numbering in this box. Congrats to aj245!
That wraps up this box. Overall I was much happier with this product. There were a couple of teams that didn't get any cards (Royals & Tigers), but again I'm going to try and toss in as many freebies as possible. One more box to go - 1986 Leaf. I'm still in the process of opening this box so the results may still be a day or two away. Stay tuned!
