One thing I really enjoyed about the Ultra brand produced by Fleer during the 1990s and 2000 was the parallel cards. I really enjoyed the gold and platinum parallels of the base set. If for no other reason that some of them in the early 2000 were die-cut. So, imagine my delight when I walked into a thrift store today and located a baggie of 100 2000 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion Parallels for the low price of $2.99.
Sounds great, right? Now what if I told you these were not just any Ultra Gold Medallion parallels. They were WNBA Ultra parallels. OK, I just lost 95 percent of the audience.
Like many of you, I have almost zero interest in women’s basketball. I’m not knocking it, I’m just saying I don’t watch it. But there are a few names that have stuck with me over the years, and as it just so happened, three of them were in this lot: Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, and Chamique Holdsclaw.
For fun I decided to use the Beckett Online Price Guide to see what this lot “books” at. Yes, I realize that “book value” has lots its footing in the hobby, but I still find it useful at times, and in this case for entertainment value.
The Swoops and Holdsclaw cards were the highest valued ones with a high book of $8 while the Leslie was tagged at $5. My entire lot of 100 cards? High book of $219.75. Boo-Yah! (Some sarcasm here.)
What’s interesting to think is that someone who owned these cards before me had to buy multiple boxes of this product to acquire this many parallels. I mean they were released one per pack. And the packs were probably in the $2.49-$3.50 range at the time. Think on that for a bit.
Total cost for these treasures: $2.99
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