My favorite card of 2017

P-Town Tom is running his favorite card contest again this year, and it got me to thinking about this year's releases. It was a tough one for me because, as a general rule, I was not all that impressed by this year's releases. It's not the first time that I felt a lull- 2000 and 2001 were both down years in my opinion, for example. Compound that with the fact that I bought less cards this year than in quite a while. I got plenty of new to me cards, lots of which came from fellow bloggers. But new to me is not new.

I looked through the 2017 releases from my three sports, and I actually am going to go way out in left field.
I too considered the rally monkey that Night Owl posted, one of the few baseball cards I've actively chased. (and was given to me by a Trading Card Database member) But something else struck more of a chord with me, and it's not even technically a card.

It's actually a sticker. Panini Sticker #423 in the 2017-18 set in fact.

Why do I choose this card, over say my first pack-pulled NHL autograph, (which I pulled in April but still have not posted about yet! For shame) or any of the great NASCAR releases, or any other NBA card? Simple, really. It's because of this history aspect.

To my knowledge, this is the first and only "card" to be dedicated solely to the NBA's Championship trophy. Other sports have had their Championship trophy commemorated on cards. I even have some in my collection. I only decided to count the Panini stickers as officially part of  my collection in 2016. I'm glad I did, as the 2017-18 NBA set is fantastic. The largest set Panini has ever produced, including cards, it includes coaches, 8 of whom never having appeared on a card before, and then this. Plus is was the first release to include the rookie class of 2017-18. The fact that it's mirror foil and curves like a snake going up a switchback mountain road does not even really matter. The fact that the NBA's trophy finally gets a card of it's own...that takes the cake.
(There are cards showing players holding it, but those are player cards that happen to include the trophy)

Stay tuned, because my last post of the year will be a 12 card countdown of my favorite new addition of each month of 2017. I better work on composing it now, because I have a lot of cards to choose from, this has been an incredible year, despite, as I said, not actually purchasing many cards. It'll go live December 31st.