1999 Skybox Premium Star Rubies Extreme Bankruptcy Archive
About 2 1/2 years ago, a slew of ’99 Skybox Premium Star Rubies Extreme blank back cards hit eBay. When Canseco came up, I wasn’t quick enough to grab it. I was preoccupied with getting an A&G Boxloader auto #/15 and missed the SRE.
Limited to just 50 serial numbered copies, I hadn’t seen another go up for sale, let alone a blank back version. A little over a year later, this card was part of a much larger deal I did with another supercollector.
The beauty of this card is definitely something to behold, but the research done on this card makes this a whole lot more special to me.
On September 9, 2005, Fleer held a bankruptcy auction which led to a lot of unique items they had for their archives to be sold off. One such item was a framed complete set of 1999 Skybox Premium Star Rubies Extreme … in sheet form. This was Fleer auction lot #385 as shown below.
Framed, the sheet itself looks like an amazing piece, and was likely never meant to see the light of day to the public. Had Fleer been around for another several decades, this may have been tucked away, never to be seen again by eyes of anyone currently living on the planet.
Somewhere down the line, the sheet suffered some water damage, and affected various cards. Thankfully, the Canseco was not one of them!
To me, this is where the story makes the card. The regular pack pulled version #/50 is tough enough to find (I have yet to find one for my collection!) The fact I was able to get what is likely the *only* version – the version that was property of Fleer and meant for their archives makes this a truly unique and exciting piece.
Do YOU have any rare Canseco cards? If I don’t have it, I’m interested! Email me at tanmanbaseballfan@gmail.com
Nice card and I love the story behind it. I wish there were more stories like it in the hobby. Most everything just comes from a pack and there’s nothing truly unique about it.