COMC Christmas : NBA

Naturally, with the NBA being the largest portion of my collection, I got quite a few cards with the Christmas money my brother gave me...42 showed up in the box, a total coincidence to it being Elton's number. Actually, a few of the cards I had purchased before Christmas, but hadn't shipped. However, I can't remember when I purchased all of them so I am including them here anyway.

Speaking of Elton...

I added six new of him, including three numbered and one jersey (which is also counted as part of the numbered.) The 2012-13 Elite Status parallel is SN 01/24, my first non-1/1 of him to be SN 1 of something. The 2002-03 Fleer Tradition Crystal is one I had purchased before Christmas and I think the 2013-14 Pinnacle Museum Collection was as well. that is one  of only a very few card to show him in a Hawks jersey.

I also added some to one of my other favorite players, Muggsy Bogues.

I had been wanting Muggsy's autograph for a long time, and this was the most expensive card I bought in this wave. I actually went over 5 dollars for this one, a major rarity for me. The Light Blue Prizm is die cut and SN, and the color goes well with the Hornets colors. the 2013-14 Prizm set is my favorite of the brand, but good luck finding any unopened these days with the rise of Giannis Antetokounmpo. The 1994-95 Stadium Club is the Super Teams Finals card, my first from the parallel, and the 1995-96 is a Members Only, my first from THAT parallel as well. To this day I wonder why I never joined the Stadium Club membership and got all those Members Only cards new.

What I really hit the hardest, though...was Refractors. I have gone on about how much I love the Refractor parallel concept in the past. It's my favorite parallel of all time, and I've never met a Refractor I didn't like.

Note that there are three Atomic/Xfractors in there as well. The Rik Smits from 1996-97 Bowman's Best completed the rainbow for me, which was only three cards, but still. Only my second Jim Loscutoff, after the 1981 TCMA card.

If you want to see any of these closer, let me know in the comments and I will edit in a individual scan. They are all on my website in the proper year albums and on the Trading Card Database as well.

And of course I found some other fun cards I wanted to add to my collection as well:

 With this I now have three of the five Rusty LaRue cards ever made. All I need are the Platinum Medallion (maybe someday) and the Masterpiece (1/1, not likely) to have them all.

 I got this the same time I got the Elton from the same parallel. It's really understated and fairly low numbered, 199 copies produced, and I will pick them up when I find them for a good price- not easy.

 I now have two of the patch cards from this insert parallel (level 2). It was only a 12 card set but I am missing Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade so completing it does not seem likely. Still, I'm always going to add a patch card when I can. This appears to be from the M in Kaman. Could be from the N, too, I suppose.

 I really like the etched cards of Black Diamond. The 2003-04 set is a favorite of mine, but I like the 2004-05 set as well, which is the set this one comes from. The base cards have a blue color scheme, and you can get parallels with different colors...I had a red from my box when it was new, and scroll on to see a green. But the Gemography autographs had team color, so this Bernard Robinson has orange etched foil! Since the Bobcats became the Hornets Part II they no longer wear orange- actually, they had switched to a bland dark blue while still the Bobcats- nobody in the NBA wears orange anymore. A shame.

 I'm not a huge fan of Josh Howard- never have been, likely never will be- and I constantly, semi-jestingly comment "He's still playing?" whenever he comes up in a highlight or, like last week, trade, as the Mavs traded him off to the Nuggets. However, green is my favorite color and I love SN cards, and this one is clearly numbered to only 25 copies. Not really much question that I would add it to my order. And even though he's not a favorite, it's not like I've never purchased cards of him before. In trying to document the history of the sport, all people who are part of it are part of my collection. He's never been my least favorite player in the league, either.

 This is a cool card...SN 12 of 15, with a patch and an autograph on a clear panel. Unfortunately, it's bent, but it allowed it to come down into my price range. If you look really close you can see the cardboard surrounding the clear panel- the weakest part on any card like this- has a noticable bend on the top right of the panel, going to the top of the card. I don't care. I would rather have a damaged card than no card.

Bit of an orange theme going on in this post, totally unplanned, really, other than I saw the cards and felt that I needed them. I'm a fan of DeMarcus. He has a bad rap and, being honest, he brought some of that on himself in the past. However, he's genuinely trying to be a better person, and from what I've read about him off the court, he IS a good person already. The charity stuff he's done, totally behind the scenes, you wouldn't do that if you weren't a good person. Unfortunately, the NBA refs don't seem to care, and will give him a T for breathing in their general direction. The Kings traded him to the Pelicans during the 2016-17 season and in New Orleans he was finally having a chance to show how good he could be...he was voted to become an All-Star starter this year...which makes it all the more devastating that he suffered a very bad knee injury and will miss the remainder of this season and possibly even the start of 2018-19. It's been a rough couple of weeks for the NBA- 7 season ending injuries, and least two that WILL keep a player out for the start of next year, and one that might have even been career ending- so bad that NBA TV blurred the replay because it was so gruesome. I don't know what's going on in the NBA right now to cause this, but there's starting to be a feeling of just hoping you can get through a game with no major injuries. I kind of got sidetracked there. This card is SN to only 60 copies, and is only my third card from the 16-17 Totally Certified set, and first parallel.

I still have two more posts to show everything from this Christmas present, stay tuned!