Card Identification Forum

Disagree.  If it was never officially released by Classic, then HSN selling them in 2002 doesn't give them a new 2002 product date.  If that was valid, then all the Fleer bankruptcy inventory that was auctioned off would have to have a new date attached to them. Based on when the buyer decided to resell it. 

And if Classic produced them for HSN but HSN didn't sell them immediately, then 1994 would have been when they "released" them to HSN.  HSN selling them years later wouldn't give them a new release year.

spazmatastic wrote:

I'm guessing that it's b/c HSN sat on them for many years until he won enough trophies to jack the price up. Classic couldn't have packed-out the cards b/c they were too tall. They could have put them in as box toppers, but that's the only way Classic could have got them out. Also, if you notice in the signature that Shaq signed it #32 instead of #33. So they were definitely signed after he got into the NBA where #33 wasn't available for him. He could have signed them in 1994 when Classic "made" them, but then they held on to them b/c they were unsure how to release them. When Classic went out of business, HSN likely bought the inventory (or vault) and didn't sell any of them until 2002. That was a common thing with HSN and QVC in the late 90's and early 2000's.

Billy Kingsley wrote:

How can a card from Classic, which went out of business in 1997, be from 2002? When it's dated 1994 on the back?

If any of you want to rename the set, feel free to do so. I went with the info I found.

*I* changed it to 1994. No way should that be called 2002.

I agree, but again I only went with the info I found about the card. At least it got listed to start with and now there's more info about that specific card on here.

True! And the fact that I moved it wasn't anything against what you did. There was just plenty of info brought out to indicate that 1994 was the better choice.

I remember watching Shaq, in the QVC studio, during a Classic sale back when he was young.  Probably a two-hour event.  At the time, I thought he had absolutely zero personality and seemed bored out of his mind.  I never dreamed he would become one of my favorite studio analysts in all of sports.  I wouldn't be surprised if this card originated from that special.