Once again, collecting the NHL helps my NBA collection.

This is getting kind of strange. I've been collecting the NBA for more than 20 years, and the NHL for 9 months. Yet once again, it (the NHL) has helped me bring clarity to my NBA collection.

When I began collecting the NHL, there was no question that both the Topps and O-Pee-Chee versions of a card would count as part of my collection. Likewise the Pro Set and Score issues in both English and French. (And, had I known about them at the time, Upper Deck as well). There was not a second thought given- they counted.

So why, in all these years, did the International versions of the Upper Deck and much later, Panini, issues for the NBA not count in my mind, but were considered a separate collection?

I have no idea, to be honest. It just was. That's how I'd always done it, so that's just the way it was.

No longer.

As of today, I have officially integrated my International editions to my NBA collection, adding a total of 771 cards to my NBA collection, and making it so every card I have that's actually an NBA card- no college crap- officially counts for my collection, for the first time ever. It also means that from now on, when I hit a milestone...it's actually going to be the real number. No more asterisks, no more having to change it when I officially count something.

It brings me very close to my next milestone, but luckily doesn't cross it so I don't have to change my official records...with the inclusion of the International cards, it brings me to 87,924 NBA cards...although there is still an asterisk as I know my count is off, I'm treating this number as correct, until I finish scanning everything and can do a recount. That's still several years away. Not that the official count or milestone cards mean anything to anyone other than me.

Now I need to make paper listings for them and add the missing sets to my "Sets missing from my collection" page.

For the past week+, I've been working on scanning the International cards that needed scans for the Trading Card Database. It's a lot. Most of them in fact. It took me four days to do the 1995-96 Collector's Choice Spanish II set alone. Here's some scans..

 The 1992-93 Upper Deck International sets had the cards that were inserts in the USA release as part of the base set.

 The rookies also got base cards- something they did not get in the American release.

 1993-94, as far as I know, did not have any unique cards, other than the backs.

 As I previously mentioned, 1994-95 had exclusive inserts and parallels. Integrating these cards into my collection officially also allows me to add some more cards of some rarer players, like Bazarevich here.

 I scanned three versions of this card in the past week- the British, Portuguese and Spanish versions. It's also available in Japanese, French, German and Italian, one of which I had previously scanned, but the others are not in my collection. I do believe the 52 on his jersey is photoshopped/airbrushed as he originally wore 25.

 One of my all-time favorite subsets. I have them all in the American and Spanish versions, but only some of the others.

 1996-97 had no exclusive base cards, but did have exclusive inserts.

I know I have more of the 1996-97 Fleer European cards somewhere, because I remember buying packs of them back in the day when they were current. But I have no idea where they are, for the most part. They didn't "count" so I didn't keep track of them. The team logo cards were exclusive to the European set, and all four that I can find now came later. If/when I ever find the ones I got new, they will be officially added to my collection as well.

Back in November of last year I wrote up a post that details how to determine easily which language each card comes from. I had to use it here to make sure I had everything straight. It's my only post I've directly bookmarked.