Nachos Grande Review: 2 Boxes of 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game

I bought a pair of 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game hobby boxes a few months ago - it's now time for me to review them!  Unfortunately, I threw out the packaging so I don't have the stated odds anymore.

Two Hobby Box Breakdown:

Base cards:
79/100 (79%)  plus 14 doubles

The base cards feature a "framed" photo of the player on the front and full career statistics on the back.  The full statistics really make the card, it can amazing to look at what certain players accomplished over their illustrious careers.

Base card parallels - Bronze:
19.  Cal Ripken Jr.
37.  Fred Lynn
59.  Lou Brock

65.  Maury Wills
86.  Steve Carlton
89.  Tommy Herr

I'm calling these bronze parallels though I don't remember for sure what term Fleer used with these.  Basically, they are the exact same thing as the base cards except a bronze color instead of the base green.  They are good looking cards, but much too rare for me to bother trying to collect!

Brown Parallel (#/299) 
4.  Barry Larkin

When I pulled this particular card I was ecstatic!  To be able to pull one rare parallel, and to have it be the one player where I'd actually like to collect all the parallel versions was exciting!  This particular card will get its own entry in my Barry Larkin Collection series, so you'll have to wait for a scan then.  (Don't worry, there are already 13 scans in this particular post so you aren't getting cheated!)

After the base cards and parallels, the 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game features a whole bunch of insert sets.  If memory serves these were either 1 or 2 per pack - not rare of course, but difficult to get all the ones you are interested in.  (Unless you are me in which case I'm interested in getting them all!)  Each of the team greats consist of 10 cards.  There is also an insert set of nickname greats and of decade greats (which is where players that weren't on one of the "featured teams" could still make it onto an insert card).

Red Sox Greats:BOS-DE.  Dwight Evans
BOS-JR.  Jim Rice
BOS-TW.  Ted Williams

Cubs Greats:CHC-BW.  Billy Williams
CHC-EB.  Ernie Banks

Reds Greats:CIN-FR.  Frank Robinson
CIN-JB.  Johnny Bench

CIN-KG.  Ken Griffey

Decade Greats:
DEC-BI.  Bill Madlock
DEC-CC.  Chris Chambliss
DEC-DP.  Dave Parker
DEC-JM.  Johnny Mize
DEC-KP.  Kirby Puckett
DEC-NR.  Nolan Ryan
DEC-WC.  Will Clark

Tigers Greats:
DET-BF.  Bill Freehan
DET-GK.  George Kell
DET-WH.  Willie Horton

Dodgers Greats:
LAD-DS.  Don Sutton
LAD-RC.  Ron Cey

Nickname Greats:
NG-HJ.  Howard Johnson "Hojo"
NG-JB.  Jim Bouton "Bulldog"
NG-JJ.  Jay Johnstone "Moon Man"
NG-JP.  Joe Pepitone "Pepi"
NG-JW.  Jimmy Wynn "The Toy Cannon"
NG-LM.  Lee Mazzilli "The Italian Stallion"

Yankees Greats:
NYY-BM.  Bobby Murcer
NYY-DM.  Don Mattingly
NYY-TM.  Thurmon Munson

Cardinals Greats:
STL-LB. Lou Brock
STL-RH. Rogers Hornsby

I received a total of six duplicates combined from the insert sets.  That was disappointing (obviously) since I have so few of the inserts all things considered.
 
Finally, the hits!  Each hobby box promises with four hits:  two relics and two autographs.
The relics:
DEC-BM.  Bill Mazeroski  (bat)

 
DEC-BI.  Bill Madlock (bat)

 
NYY-RJ.  Reggie Jackson (jersey.  dirty patch with stitching removed!)

 
NYY-YB.  Yogi Berra  (bat)

 
The autographs:
LAD-MW.  Maury Wills  (#2/30)

 
NG-FS.  Fred Stanley "Chicken"

 
NG-LM.  Lee Mazzilli  "The Italian Stallion"

 
And my last autograph ended up being a dual auto/relic:
BOS-CF.  Carlton Fisk (#19/30 - with "Pudge" inscription)

The Bottom Line:
The 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game set is a lot of fun to open.  With four hits in a box, it puts less "pressure" on any one hit to be great, plus it spreads the excitement of finding a hit throughout the box.  The base cards are a bit dull, but if you like "historical themed" cards like I do they are pretty nice.  There are too many insert sets (that are too hard to track down), but otherwise this is a great set.  If you want a super challenge, you can try to put together the parallel sets too...but that seems like a fool's errand to me.

Overall:  89/100

Lots of fun, though most boxes won't give you much of a "resale" value.  Small base set means putting it together shouldn't be too difficult though I didn't have great luck while opening two boxes.