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Player Collectors: 2004 Skybox LE Artist Proof

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LWMM

Well-known member
Feb 21, 2009
1,062
46
Anyone have any of these cards? Been searching for the Gomes for years, but have never seen it. I've seen every other parallel, including the Photographer Proof /25, but not this one. (I've also seen every parallel but this in a backdoored, unnumbered, version.)

According to Beckett, there 160 cards in the set, each numbered to 50. All of them that I have seen have backs that say "Artist Proof", "The card you have just received contains a signature from Fleer Graphic Designer Sharira Hameed", and are thus signed.

The checklist per Beckett is below. First 110 cards are regular, while 111-160 are prospects. Between COMC, eBay, Beckett, Sportlots and Sportsbuy, I've found 42 of them. 23 are numbered, 23 are unnumbered (presumably Fleer bankruptcy cards), and 5 do not specify (several were seen both /50 and unnumbered). The interesting thing is that the highest card number is #99 , and none are prospect cards. The odds on that happening by coincidence are incredibly long (and calculable, although math is failing me at the moment).

My guess would be that either only cards 1-110 (non prospect cards) were produced with an Artist Proof Parallel, or only cards 1-100 were produced. It's also possible that the serial numbering is lower for the higher #'d cards. Beckett does list some odds (below) which differ for cards 1-110 and 111-160, although I'm not sure exactly what they mean.

I would absolutely love to be able to definitively take this card off my checklist. The questions that I have are:
1) Does anyone have any information about this set? A copy of a sell sheet?
2) Does anyone have any of these cards? Which ones?
2) Anyone know what exactly the odds below mean? My Beckett to English translator is either broken or nonexistant.


*AP 1-110: 3X TO 8X BASIC
*AP 111-160: 1X TO 2.5X BASIC p/
*AP 111-160: .4X TO 1X BASIC p/r
OVERALL PARALLEL ODDS 1:6 H, 1:4
STATED PRINT RUN 50 SERIAL #'d S


#1 Juan Pierre /un#'d
#2 Derek Jeter (2022: /un#'d)
#3 Brandon Webb "/50"
#4 Jeff Bagwell 2/50 and /un#'d
#5 Jason Schmidt
#6 Marlon Byrd /un#'d (2022: 21/50)
#7 Garret Anderson
#8 Miguel Cabrera
#9 Jose Reyes
#10 Rocco Baldelli
#11 Tony Batista /un#'d
#12 Carlos Beltran 16/50 and /un#'d
#13 Nomar Garciaparra
#14 Shawn Green
#15 Albert Pujols
#16 Magglio Ordonez
#17 Kip Wells
#18 Andruw Jones
#19 Ryan Wagner /un#'d
#20 Alex Rodriguez
#21 Vernon Wells
#22 Todd Helton /un#'d
#23 David Ortiz /un#'d
#24 Troy Glaus
#25 Jim Thome 39/50
#26 Greg Maddux 11/50 and /un#'d (2022: 7/50)
#27 Roberto Alomar
#28 Edgardo Alfonzo
#29 Hee Seop Choi
#30 Ken Griffey Jr.
#31 Tim Hudson /un#'d (2022: 22/50)
#32 Shannon Stewart 23/50 and /un#'d (2022:15/50)
#33 Ichiro Suzuki 4/50 (2022: 2/50)
#34 Luis Gonzalez 22/50 (2022: 15/50)
#35 Darin Erstad
#36 Dmitri Young
#37 Ivan Rodriguez /un#'d
#38 Scott Podsednik /un#'d
#39 Jose Vidro /un#'d
#40 Mark Prior
#41 Mike Mussina
#42 Gary Sheffield 36/50 and /un#'d
#43 Manny Ramirez
#44 C.C. Sabathia /un#'d (2022: 29/50)
#45 Curt Schilling
#46 Scott Rolen
#47 Hideo Nomo /un#'d
#48 Torii Hunter 6/50 and /un#'d (2022: 15/50)
#49 Aubrey Huff
#50 Javy Lopez
#51 Austin Kearns /un#'d (2022: 8/50)
#52 Mike Piazza
#53 Sean Burroughs /un#'d
#54 Kerry Wood
#55 Marquis Grissom 15/50 and /un#'d
#56 Preston Wilson 34/50 and /un#'d
#57 Angel Berroa
#58 Jason Kendall 40/50 and /un#'d
#59 Rafael Palmeiro (2022: 5/50)
#60 Mike Lowell
#61 Eric Chavez
#62 Bartolo Colon
#63 Adam Dunn
#64 Pedro Martinez
#65 Lance Berkman (2022: 10/50)
#66 Bret Boone
#67 Eric Gagne
#68 Vladimir Guerrero 19/50
#69 Jay Gibbons
#70 Larry Walker
#71 Orlando Cabrera
#72 Jorge Posada
#73 Jamie Moyer
#74 Carl Crawford "/50"
#75 Hank Blalock
#76 Josh Beckett "/50" (2022: 13/50; 29/50)
#77 Jody Gerut "/50"
#78 Kevin Brown 2/50
#79 Sammy Sosa
#80 Chipper Jones (2022: 25/50)
#81 Tom Glavine
#82 Barry Zito "/50"
#83 Edgar Renteria
#84 Esteban Loaiza 18/50 (2022: 24/50)
#85 Jason Giambi 19/50
#86 Miguel Tejada
#87 Randy Johnson
#88 A.J. Burnett
#89 Richie Sexson
#90 Reggie Sanders
#91 Carlos Delgado
#92 Pat Burrell
#93 Jacque Jones
#94 Roy Oswalt 5/50
#95 Frank Thomas
#96 Melvin Mora "/50" (2022: 23/50)
#97 Jeremy Bonderman
#98 Mike Sweeney
#99 Brian Giles
#100 Edgar Martinez
#101 Mark Teixeira
#102 Sean Casey
#103 Javier Vazquez
#104 Hideki Matsui
#105 Jim Edmonds
#106 Roy Halladay
#107 Craig Biggio
#108 Geoff Jenkins
#109 Alfonso Soriano
#110 Barry Larkin
#111 Chris Bootcheck PR
#112 Dallas McPherson PR
#113 Matt Kata PR
#114 Scott Hairston PR
#115 Bobby Crosby PR
#116 Adam Wainwright PR
#117 Daniel Cabrera PR
#118 Kevin Youkilis PR
#119 Ronny Cedeno PR
#120 Ruddy Yan PR
#121 Ryan Wing PR
#122 William Bergolla PR
#123 Edwin Encarnacion PR
#124 Jonny Gomes PR
#125 Garrett Atkins PR
#126 Clint Barmes PR
#127 Wilfredo Ledezma PR
#128 Cody Ross PR
#129 Josh Willingham PR
#130 Chin-Hui Tsao PR
#131 Hector Gimenez PR
#132 David DeJesus PR
#133 Jimmy Gobble PR
#134 Edwin Jackson PR
#135 Koyie Hill PR
#136 Rickie Weeks PR
#137 Graham Koonce PR
#138 Rob Bowen PR
#139 Shawn Hill PR
#140 Craig Brazell PR
#141 Mike Hessman PR
#142 Jorge DePaula PR
#143 Chien-Ming **** PR
#144 Rich Harden PR
#145 Ryan Howard PR
#146 Alfredo Simon PR
#147 Ian Snell PR
#148 Ryan Doumit PR
#149 Khalil Greene PR
#150 Angel Chavez PR
#151 Dan Haren PR
#152 Chris Snelling PR
#153 Aaron Miles PR
#154 John Gall PR
#155 Chris Narveson PR
#156 Delmon Young PR
#157 Chad Gaudin PR
#158 Gerald Laird PR
#159 Alexis Rios PR
#160 Jason Arnold PR
 
Last edited:

IUjapander

New member
Jan 28, 2011
1,003
0
Indianapolis
I collect Ryan Doumit who is card #148 in this set.

I've never seen one posted in the five years I've been looking. And like you said it didn't come up when that guy recently listed all the non serial numbered versions.

Id be interested too if anyone has any of the prospects as it would be nice to delete it off the checklist.
 

Dilferules

Well-known member
Aug 10, 2012
1,948
1,746
Auburn, WA
I collect Rich Harden (not supercollecting, just part of my A's collection) who is #144 and I can't recall ever seeing one for him. I don't have any for any of the other A's in the entire set, it seems like they made way fewer than 50 of the veterans. Then again I think this is also just one of those Fleer products made in their last couple of years that wasn't popular and got lost in the shuffle so it didn't get busted much.
 

LWMM

Well-known member
Feb 21, 2009
1,062
46
I collect Ryan Doumit who is card #148 in this set.

I've never seen one posted in the five years I've been looking. And like you said it didn't come up when that guy recently listed all the non serial numbered versions.

Id be interested too if anyone has any of the prospects as it would be nice to delete it off the checklist.

Do you remember who the seller was, or when they were listed?
[MENTION=7804]Dilferules[/MENTION], I'd be willing to believe that they did produce 50 of them, especially considering practically a third of the first 100 cards are available 10 years after the release. What's most interesting is that none of the prospect cards (or cards numbered above 100) appear to have been seen.
 
Last edited:

IUjapander

New member
Jan 28, 2011
1,003
0
Indianapolis
[MENTION=3094]LWMM[/MENTION] Sale date was 4/21/13 (I thought it was more recent). He wanted too much for the Photographer Proof version, so I didn't pick it up. Seller = autograph-reference



Base /299 and no seriel number version
339751445.jpg
3609341_orig.jpg





Gold Proof /150 and no # version
649417725.jpg
7024629_orig.jpg



Photographer Proof /25
757669723.jpg
 
Last edited:

LWMM

Well-known member
Feb 21, 2009
1,062
46
[MENTION=5741]IUjapander[/MENTION], sent him a message, though haven't heard back yet. Do you remember how much of the set he was selling?
 

Dilferules

Well-known member
Aug 10, 2012
1,948
1,746
Auburn, WA
Researching it a little more, I discovered that 2003 SkyBox LE football (which has the exact same card designed as 2004 LE baseball) also has an Artist Proof parallel that does NOT include rookies, as verified by the set description in the online Beckett.

Of course the 2003/04 Skybox LE basketball set (again same design) DOES have Artist Proof rookies. So kind of back to square one.
 
Last edited:

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
[MENTION=3094]LWMM[/MENTION] Sale date was 4/21/13 (I thought it was more recent). He wanted too much for the Photographer Proof version, so I didn't pick it up. Seller = autograph-reference



Base /299 and no seriel number version
339751445.jpg
3609341_orig.jpg





Gold Proof /150 and no # version
649417725.jpg
7024629_orig.jpg



Photographer Proof /25
757669723.jpg

I know the seller personally. He does not have any of that Fleer product any more , I purchased what was left. Most of it was un-numbered Fleer Bankruptcy items

Ryan
 

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
If you find that Doumit I'm still interested in it.

Out of the Fleer LE UnNumbered stuff

I have a 1000 or so prospect base cards

A few hundred Gold Proofs

A few hundred Photographer Proofs
( I do have Doumit if you need , I didn't see it scanned)

And only a few dozen Artist Proofs, but none above card #58 in the set.

Ryan
 

LWMM

Well-known member
Feb 21, 2009
1,062
46
Out of the Fleer LE UnNumbered stuff

I have a 1000 or so prospect base cards

A few hundred Gold Proofs

A few hundred Photographer Proofs
( I do have Doumit if you need , I didn't see it scanned)

And only a few dozen Artist Proofs, but none above card #58 in the set.

Ryan

Do you have anything (base, proofs, whatever) of Gomes? Also, if you could post which Artist Proofs you have, that would be a huge help in filling in the blanks on the above list. While I think it's safe to assume that at least the first 100 were produced, the more of them that we track down, the less and less likely it becomes that cards 111-160, and even 101-109, were ever made.
 

RStadlerASU22

Active member
Jan 2, 2013
8,881
11
Do you have anything (base, proofs, whatever) of Gomes? Also, if you could post which Artist Proofs you have, that would be a huge help in filling in the blanks on the above list. While I think it's safe to assume that at least the first 100 were produced, the more of them that we track down, the less and less likely it becomes that cards 111-160, and even 101-109, were ever made.

Here are the numbers of the Artist Proofs (unnumbered) that I have

58 (2)
56 (2)
55 (2)
53 (2)
51 (2)
48 (2)
44 (2)
39 (2)
38 (2)
37
32
31 (2)
23 (2)
22 (3)
19 (2)
18 (5)
12 (2)
11 (2)
6 (2)
3 (2)
1 (2)

For the players mentioned in the thread I have prob a few dozen each of the unnumbered base Gomes and Doumit .

I have one Gold and (2) Photographer unnumbered each if Erstad and Doumit

Ryan
 

LWMM

Well-known member
Feb 21, 2009
1,062
46
[MENTION=1802]Pinbreaker[/MENTION], man, that's a sweet card. That's one of the earliest 1/1s of Gomes, and one of the coolest. Would love to find it.

That card also raises an interesting side question. If the prospect Artist Proofs don't exist, do the prospect executive proofs? We'd have to find an executive proof of one of the 111-160 cards to be sure.
 

SteelBrad

New member
Mar 2, 2013
820
0
I had the Polamalu Executive Proof from 2003 Football. Very cool 1/1 signed by Fleer CEO on the back.

Good luck in your hunts! Be careful for aftermarket cards released after the sale to UD.
 

LWMM

Well-known member
Feb 21, 2009
1,062
46
Researching it a little more, I discovered that 2003 SkyBox LE football (which has the exact same card designed as 2004 LE baseball) also has an Artist Proof parallel that does NOT include rookies, as verified by the set description in the online Beckett.

Of course the 2003/04 Skybox LE basketball set (again same design) DOES have Artist Proof rookies. So kind of back to square one.

I think it's important that, with the Football set, it is demonstrated that Fleer did consider not having Artist Proof cards of the rookies, and makes it more likely that they would also consider doing so in another set.

Math finally came to me, and I calculated some odds. Assuming equal serial numbering (/50), and counting the cards we have seen as equal (i.e., not distinguishing between the /50s and the unnumbered bankruptcy cards), the chance that we would see 42 cards from the first 110 cards, and 0 cards after that, is 0.00000000394%. That's a bit less than 1 chance in 250 million. Meanwhile, the odds that we would see 42 cards from the first 100 cards, and none from 101-110, is 0.6%.

Although there is no evidence to support it, it is also possible that the prospect cards were numbered differently than were the non-prospect cards.

With that knowledge, unless evidence comes to light that prospect cards did indeed have Artist Proof parallels, I would feel very comfortable removing this card from my checklist.
 

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