2013 Bowman Platinum

The theme of this pack of cards is "What's the Point?" I picked it up inside a $7.99 Fairfield repack box on Friday after work. The reason I was at Target was to pick up a birthday present for my daughter to give to a kid whose party was today. However, my daughter put herself in a horrible mood right before the party and didn't want to go. Long story short, we walked into the party, dropped off the gift, turned around, and headed home. To reiterate, "What's the Point?"


Let's tear in.
Top to Bottom:

BPP77 Matt Davidson

TP-JB Javier Baez
What's the point of inserts in a set like this?

40 Stephen Strasburg
Really, what's the point of this?

BPP19 Byron Buxton
My Twins fan brother-in-law has actually traveled to see Buxton play in the minors. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Buxton will eventually play a huge part in knocking the Twins out of the playoffs as a member of the New York Yankees at some point in the future. Again, what's the point?

2004 Fleer Platinum

I found one of these among those stupid discounted packs of non-sports cards at the Target closest to my house. It's specifically retail, so I'm not holding my breath for either of the "Two Game-Used Levels." Not sure what that means, but at least it's not "Game-Used Layers." The layer of clothing closest to the skin below the waist and above the knees needs to be kept off of all MLB relic cards. Write your local congressperson to ensure this.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
22 Jack Wilson (Old uniform present and accounted for. Hairlip, bucktooth thing not visible.)

34 Joe Randa (Milwaukee native.)
167 Morgan Ensberg Unsung Heroes

127 Bobby Abreu
197 Rickie Weeks/Adam Morrissey (Nice, one of last night's heroes.)

117 Mike Cameron (Excellent, a current Brewer with a Mariners jersey and a Mets logo. The perfect photo to showcase his outfield play.)

182 Greg Myers Unsung Heroes

Grade: B+
I got two 2008 Brewers, which is great. The borrows the look of 1984 Fleer, which is my second-favorite 1980s Fleer set (after 1985). My Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test uses this question as a guideline: "Would I have tried to collect this set if I had been collecting in (insert year here)?" Probably, but who knows?

If you want a biased take on the playoff races...

2004 Fleer Platinum

Fleer Platinum for a little while at least was Fleer's contribution to the Retro craze. It was a pretty pedestrian set done in the style of an old Fleer set. In 2004, they took the wayback machine 20 years in the past and swiped their 1984 design. For some reason, Fleer didn't use the exact design, but UD Vintaged it so it kinda looked like the original but not quite. I'm not sure why they did that since Fleer created the design in the first place, but changing the bars on the front to team colors actually looks better in my opinion. The backs are nothing like '84 Topps and look like crap, but only nitpickers like me would care about that. In 2005 Fleer abandoned the Retro and turned Platinum into just another boring semi-premium set, and then Fleer died. Poor Fleer. Here's a pack of their last retrolicious set.


15 Esteban Loaiza
65 Al Leiter
44 Nomar Garciaparra
6 of 10 PP Derek Jeter Platinum Portraits
113 Pat Burrell
174 Erubiel Durazo Unsung Heroes
123 Cory Patterson

The Jeter insert makes this pack worth the buck or so I paid for it, the rest of the pack is a little lackluster. The design and photography is pretty nice though, except for the dumb looking Unsung Heroes cards. I have no clue what set they were stealing from on those cards and they went crazy with the Photoshop filters to make the photo look like a painting or something, which I hate. The rest of the cards though look pretty good. Pat the Bat is at the end of a mighty cut/whiff, Al Leiter glares at the batter like Dracula and Nomar does a pirouette on the way to a pulled groin. My favorite card in the pack is the Esteban Loaiza though. The retro uniform looks great on the retro card design.