2004 Fleer Authentix

My friend recently gave me his collection (minus the majority of his autographs and relic cards) before he moved. Most of what he gave me was still in the boxes that he had opened. One of the boxes he busted was 2002 Fleer Authentix. 

I went through the cards last night and will use this post to share some of the cards and give my thoughts on the product. 

Fleer made Authentix Baseball from 2002 - 2005. Fleer also used the Authentix brand to make football and basketball cards. 

There are 100 base cards in the set. Cards #101 - #140 are rookie/prospect cards that are serial numbered on the back to 999.

Albert Pujols has the distinction of being card #1. The front of the card looks like a ticket and looks a bit like 2009 Topps Ticket to Stardom. 

I haven't figured out the significance of the game listed on the front of the card. As far as I can tell they are all from various days in April and range from April 5th - April 23rd. 

I'm also not sure if there is a reason for the section, row, and seat numbers. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

The cards look better in person than they do scanned, but only if you hold it at the right angle. 

Here's the back of the card. They used the same photo on the back of the card as the front. They just cropped it. I wish they would have used a different photo.

I do like the team logo on the back. They also incorporated the team colors on the back of the card as well, which is a nice touch.

The stats shown are from the 2003 season and there is also a line showing the % of Team Totals which I don't think I've ever seen before. MLB career totals are below that. 

I wish there was some sort of write-up on the back of the card about the player. It feels like the gray area below the stats is wasted space. Although this space is used for serial numbering on the rookie/prospect cards as well as the parallels.

The bottom half inch or so contains an advertisement for a different Fleer product. 

The Pujols card features an ad for Fleer Showcase.

This Juan Pierre card has an ad for Flair and this Omar Vizquel card has an ad for Fleer Tradition.

The Diamondbacks were well represented. In the base set of only 100 cards, they have 5 cards.

I don't know when the product was released but I wish they could have gotten Roberto Alomar and Richie Sexson in D-Backs uniforms. 

I ended up with just two doubles and am missing just 3 cards; #42, #76, and #95. The problem is, I'm not a set collector. Sure there are a couple sets that I've either put together or am in the process of putting together, but I've got no desire to have this set. 

Here are a few cards of players that I collect.

Griffey and Piazza are my two favorite players. I collected them as a kid but since my return to collecting I haven't actively added their cards to my collection, but I do set them aside when I come across them.

Tim Salmon went to the same high school that I did, so I've always set his cards aside as well.

I only recently decided to start setting aside Jorge Posada cards.I don't have a real reason for collecting Posada other than I just like the way his cards look. I also feel like he was a solid, but underrated player on a lot of great Yankee teams. 

There are parallel cards in the set and there was one in this box. It's a Balcony parallel of Roy Halladay serial numbered on the back to 100. 

This particular box had three numbered rookie/prospect cards. The part that has "Ticket to the Majors" on it slides out and can be replaced with a "Booster Ticket"autograph of the player.

Got lucky and got a Diamondbacks player! 

This Shawn Hill card has the insert that can be removed, but it doesn't have the part that says "Upgrade this card with special Booster Tickets! See card back for details.", so I wonder if the Booster Ticket is not available for Shawn Hill. 

There were two Ballpark Classics cards in the box. Looks like a Yankee hot box!

Finally, there were 4 of these Ticket Studs cards. They fold in the middle. A cool concept, but hard to enjoy when they are folded.