UD’s Fleer Showcase Recalls Past, Looks to Future

With a nod toward the 1990s inserts, Upper Deck slides modern players into a familiar design with its 2016-17 Fleer Showcase Hockey set.

The product will be released on March 15.  There are 18 packs in a hobby box and five cards per pack. Upper Deck is promising one autograph per hobby box, along with an array of parallels — including Previous Metal Gems — and inserts.

The 100-card base set will sport Red Glow parallels, which should fall three per hobby box on average. A White Hot parallel will be numbered to 25.’

In addition to the base set, Fleer Showcase will contain 18 Hot Prospects Quads, which feature four up-and-coming young players on each card. A 30-card Hot Prospects subset will be numbered to 399. Both sets will have Red Glow parallels numbered to 25 and White Hot parallels numbered to 5.

Hot Prospects also will have an autograph version, with 59 cards to chase. Cards will be numbered 499 and 299, and there will be Red Glow (numbered to 49 or 25) and White Hot (15 and 5) parallels. Another subset, Hot Prospects Auto Patches, will combine a piece of memorabilia with a signature. These cards will be numbered to 135 or 85, with a White Hot FX parallel numbered to 10.

Recalling those 1990 Fleer hockey sets, Metal Universe cards will fall one in every five packs. This 50-card set will include Previous Metal Gems parallels, with versions in red, numbered to 150; blue (50); green (10); and purple (5). Ultra Rookies, numbered to 599, will consist of 30 cards and will have Platinum Medallion (99) and Ultra Violet Medallion (25) parallels. Collectors can expect to pull between four and five or these parallels in a typical hobby box.

Flair Row is a 50-card subset, broken down into 30 rookies (Row 0) and 20 veterans (Row 1). Like Metal Universe, collectors can expect to find four or five of these cards in a hobby box. Parallels for this subset include Blue Ice, numbered to either 99 or 199; and 1/1 Masterpiece parallels.

The EX brand will make its Fleer Showcase debut in the EX-2017 set, which gives more than a passing tip of the hockey helmet to EX-2000, which was part of the 1996-97 Fleer set. These cards will fall one per hobby box and will feature 42 players with base veteran and legends cards, along with rookies. Parallels are called Essential Credentials and are split into Future and Now cards. All  of these cards will be numbered to 42 or less.

Skybox Premium, a 30-card subset, will be numbered to 499 and have Star Rubies parallels numbered to 50 and Sparkling Diamond parallels numbered to 5.

A 25-card Ultra Scoring Kings set will fall every 12 packs on average. Scarcer cards will be Metal Universe Planet Metal, falling every 60 packs; and Flair Hot Gloves, appearing once in every five boxes (or once in every 90 packs).

You can check out boxes, cases and more for sale on eBay by clicking here.

2016-17 Fleer Showcase Hockey Checklist

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About Bob D'Angelo

Bob has been a sportswriter and copy editor for more than 35 years and a blogger for a decade. He is celebrating his 50th year of card collecting, and still counts his 1965 Topps Mickey Mantle as his favorite. You can reach him at [email protected].