FFF Tuesday Twins - cards and cars

Today's "twins" post is courtesy of Richard, as both these cards were in the parcel of things he sent me last year. One of the items is the largest thing I've had to scan so far on my blog!

Card Number 947: Fleer Premium, 2001; #77

This shiny card was difficult to scan. The black surround is part of the card, not poor background cropping. This is a rare double-bordered card, with a picture, a white border and then the black border. It hasn't taken off as a design technique.

The cardback is pretty basic as well. a five year stats box. Okay, it's just a base card, but it really doesn't live up to the word 'Premium'.

Fleer produced another version of this card to ship with... a die-cast car.

Card Number 948: Fleer Premium White Rose Collectibles; #29

The card is sealed inside the bubble along with the boxed car. I scanned the whole thing. 

White Rose Collectibles produced a number of sports-themed cars that were repaints of Matchbox die-cast cars, with franchise logos applied to them. Their relationship with Matchbox apparently ended in 1998, a couple of years after Matchbox was acquired by the Mattel toy corporation. (The history of die-cast car companies is often as convoluted as the history of baseball card companies!)

In 2001, Fleer bought White Rose Collectibles so that would explain why they started selling these little cars with baseball cards packaged alongside them. The car here is a replica of a Chrysler PT Cruiser. But I don't know who produced the car. It was the first time this particular car had featured in a White Rose range, so it may have been a White Rose original casting.

Here is a close up of the card, as scanned through the plastic. It's exactly the same.

Here is the back of the bubble. All those players were chosen to accompany cars with the relevant team logos. They aren't all instantly recognisable names.

The number on the back of the card corresponds with the numbering sequence of the cars in the collection listed on the back. Fleer also added the White Rose Collectibles logo at the bottom of the cardback.

I have left this card in the bubble for now. Maybe one day I will get hold of a loose version of this card, or crack the bubble on another 'mint' copy. I imagine most of the print run of these cards are still sitting safely inside the packaging of the collectibles!

A massive thank you to Richard for sending me both these cards!

Total: 948 cards