2002 Baseball Cards Part 1

2002 wasn't really all that long ago but in the world of baseball cards it belongs to another epoch. Today, there is basically only one major baseball card producer - Topps. Upper Deck tried but failed. By my count there were less than 20 major sets produced in 2010.

In 2002, there were 4 major producers, Donruss, Fleer, Topps and Upper Deck. This is down from the card producing frenzy years of the mid to late '90s but they managed to release over 80 major sets.

I've not been posting much lately. I think I've been suffering from PBSS (post baseball stress syndrome) caused by the Phillies exiting the playoffs early. So I thought I'd make up for it with this major 3-part post. I'm mostly going to show you the cards, and mostly Phillies if I have them. I don't have a card from every set produced in 2002, but I do have most.

Absolute Memorabilia150 card base set. Gold foil and dufex finish.

Bowman
A 440-card base set, following the usual Bowman practice of the day of rookies in blue and veteran players in red. There was also a parallel chrome set.

Bowman Draft Picks
A 165-card set. The only way to tell them from regular Bowman is that the numbers start with BP. As with Bowman, there was a parallel chrome set,

Bowman's Best
A 90-card set. This is the only card I have from the set.

Bowman Heritage
A 439-card set. I only have a handful.

Diamond Kings
A 150-card set with more parallel cards than you can imagine. This was the first year that Donruss produced Diamond Kings as a stand-alone set.

Donruss
220 cards. I only have a few Phillies and Astros. Not my favorite set of 2002.

Donruss Rookies
50 cards. These look much like the rookie subset from the regular Donruss set.

Donruss Best of Fan Club
200 cards. Fan Club used to be a subset in Donruss. This year it became 2 stand alone sets. This one has a dufex finish.

Donruss Classics
100 cards.

Donruss Elite
100 cards. Yet another dufex set. I really don't care much for these.

Donruss Fan Club
300 cards. I guess Best of Fan Club is a parallel of this set with fewer cards.

Donruss Originals
425 cards. Donruss' attempt to mimic Bowman and Topps Heritage. There were 4-5 1980's vintage designs in this set.

Donruss Super Estrellas
150 cards. Looking for the Hispanic market after the demise of Pacific.

E-X
100 cards printed on plastic.

Finest
100 cards. I don't buy much Finest. Of this year I only have this and the Jeff Bagwell card.

Flair
100 cards.

Fleer
540 cards. In 1998, Fleer started calling their main set Fleer Tradition. This is the first set just called Fleer since then.

Fleer Authentix
150 cards. Before going out of business, Fleer produced a bewildering array of sets.

Fleer Box Office
125 cards. All I have are some Phillies and Astros.

Fleer Focus Jersey Edition
225 cards. Fleer had been producing Fleer Focus for a few years. This year they added "Jersey Edition" to the name of the set for no decipherable reason.

That's all for today. The next post will pick up with Fleer Genuine.