Clearly Canadian

You might be wondering why I bothered scanning a 1990 Fleer card for this blog, even when it's my favorite player of my collecting youth. One of the things about the internet, besides its overwhelming adulation of all things Veronica Mars, is that it affords me opportunities to find out about baseball cards that existed during my collecting heyday but had never heard of before. In another life, I'd probably be a junk wax variation aficionado. I'd have all the oddballs already and would strive to be the next Junk Wax Gems.

So... back to that Ozzie Smith card. If you squint, or just click on the image to embiggen it, you might want to take a gander at the copyright at the bottom of the card. This is a 1990 Fleer Canadian card. I picked up the whole Cardinals team set on eBay for less than what this Ozzie Smith card would cost by itself if my research is to be believed. This is a prime example of a low supply/low demand bargain that would probably only excite me. Each card from this set will sit right next to its U.S. equivalent in my binders. PTD. IN CANADA, baby.

It's probably difficult to tell by my scans, or perhaps I'm just scarred by hoards of crappy 1990 Fleer cards haunting my memories, but it seems like the red and blue ink is a bit darker and more prominent on these.

Here's the only card in the team set that doesn't have the regular base design and... well... you get the point. I probably won't be sending my Ozzie Smith card (or anything else) off to get graded anytime soon, but I'm happy to have every card I want from a fairly obscure but also incredibly unpopular release.