Lost & Found: Magazines

As I talked about last time, I brought home a box of magazines back in October 2016 to go through, perhaps reread, and scan the covers for my files and, if applicable, the Trading Card Database. Well, I finally go around to it...in March 2019.

I don't know exactly when I was last in this box, but January 2003 seems likely- it contained the January 03 Beckett Basketball. But I'm pretty sure the box was started in mid-1996, possibly June. It contained, among more than 100 other magazines, the June, July and August Sports Illustrated for Kids.

There were three issues of NBA Inside Stuff

Which also explains where the perforated 1995-96 Topps and 1996 Skybox USA cards came from.

Joining it were three issues of Hoop,

three of Slam

1 issue of Sport

and no less than 11 1996-97 Preview magazines. Some of which I hadn't looked through since new but actually remembered reading, which is amazing. I didn't remember any of the words, but I remembered the layouts.
Just because you never see these, here are all the Previews:

 I didn't remember Beckett doing a sport preview. There is some card content but not much.

 This one is split just about evenly cards/season preview, with Cards taking a slight edge in page count.

You can really tell where these were geographically originally sold, with a heavy Knicks cover bias. Speaking of bias, check out the captions on the Peterson's cover. Nowadays I would not have purchased the magazine based on those cover blurbs, but back then, the sport was new to me and I think I got every single publication I could find about the NBA! I don't think I've purchased more than 2 or 3 preview magazines total in all years combined after this, I think the most recent one I got was for either 2012-13 or 2013-14, when I got back into the sport after a 5 year hiatus, so I could learn more about who was new, and who was left from my first time watching. I read it, then put it in a box, and it's somewhere in storage. Maybe I will see it again some day.

There were a couple of 1996 USA Basketball publications, but this is the most interesting to me

And there were even a few about Space Jam!

Speaking of Space Jam, LeBron is working on a sequel. I will absolutely watch it, although unlikely on the big screen- going to movies make me dizzy and nauseous for some reason so I wait for the DVD to release.

There were also two issues of Inside Sports, a magazine I don't really have any recollection of. It comes across as a Sports Illustrated competitor but trending more towards knockoff. I have an issue from June 1996, that I surely bought new, but I also have an issue from 1980- 4 years before I was born, that I surely did NOT get new.

It's in a sleeve with a partial price tag of a local shop, so I am guessing I got it as a gift at some point. It's not really a great publication, I don't think I would have continued to read it if I was alive and collecting publications in 1980- but it did have a really cool Ford Bronco ad in it.

I have always been a fan of the Bronco so this was cool to see. Ford made them from 1966-1996, but they are coming back as a 2020 model. I'll be swinging by the Ford dealer to photograph one when they come out. If nothing else, this ad should help detail painting the interior of the models I have in my stash. I used that metallic brown with red and yellow stripes on a model I built of a 1979 Ford Pinto Wagon last year that took me a 2nd place in the only contest I've taken it to.

But, most of the box contained Becketts. 70 of the 108 publications in the box were Becketts, with 52 of them being Beckett Basketball, 1 issue of Basketball Plus, 11 of Beckett Racing, and the rest being Beckett Tribute, a title I had zero recollection of ever seeing before, even though I clearly had. The Beckett Basketball issues were, as I said previously, mostly the older ones- #1-18, except #4, then skipping around in numbers from the 20s through the 50s, and then a big run from #59-77 with only a few issues missing. I no longer remember, but these could be all the issues from before I began collecting the NBA actively, although some of the issues are from after I began collecting- Beckett #69 was my first. Since I labeled these scans a couple nights ago I've been thinking a lot about them and I don't think I ever got #4. I have vague memories of looking for a specific early issue but I don't remember which one...and after a while I stopped caring. It's possible I did eventually get #4, but never put it in this box. At this point in time, that information is lost to history, but if/when I get through the boxes in my storage, scan all the covers for my magazine collection, and it's not in one of the boxes, then I'll know. I'm not going to post all the covers, but here are some specific ones:

 #1. I remember getting this, it was in the display case of my first local dealer. It started as Beckett Basketball Card Magazine but then switched to Beckett Basketball Monthly in 1991. Eventually the title would change to Beckett Basketball Card monthly, and then finally, Beckett Basketball Collector in 2002 (one of the issues I found was when the title switched). I don't know what it's called now.

 The first wraparound cover, and a famous one at that.

 There's not much that gives more 90s nostalgia than a photo of Shawn Kemp, and the Charlotte Hornets. If they could have fit Penny Hardaway in it would have been perfect.

 I distinctly remember getting this issue- I must have read it a ton back in the day based on the amount of wear it has. This would have been the 4th issue I got.

 This cover is just too awesome not to post.

One other cool thing...remember, back in August of last year, I posted about getting my first Kahn's card, and I mentioned in the post that I remembered reading about them in Beckett, but had never actually seen one? Well, I found the issue that had the article about them. I didn't scan it, but it was neat to read an article again that has stuck with me all these years- one of only a few that did, to be honest.

 This was the earliest Beckett racing in the box.

 This is the first issue to have a promo card, which I showed yesterday. Based on a little research I did after I published the post, there are at least two more lost somewhere in storage. I know I have/had the complete collection of Beckett Racing, which means I got at least one of each promo card...but several of the promo sets are currently not represented in my collection, and that can mean only one thing- they are still in the magazines. Now I just have to hope that they survived, and that I can find them again someday.

Beckett #100. I don't know how long Beckett Racing ran for, I can't remember anymore. But I know when they cancelled it is right around the time I stopped reading Beckett Basketball as well. I think I stayed with the Basketball publication longer, but I don't remember anymore because I have not seen those magazines since they were new. I think, by this point, you can guess where they are.

Here's one of the Beckett Tributes. I don't remember them at all but I had 6 of them in the box. The earlier ones are mostly card related, but the later issues don't have any card content at all.

I have set up an album in each section on the Cardboard History Gallery where I will be posting magazine cover scans. I'm planning to publish this before I finish so they won't all be up yet but depending on when you read this they will be. So far only the NBA album has been created, which you can see here: https://public.fotki.com/CardboardHistory/basketball/basketball-peripheral/publications/

The others will be created later today. I am debating on including non-card only publications as well, like Sports Illustrated. I want to have my magazines documented but the scans take up a little space, and I don't want to put them on my original website. So I may put them here. I am undecided though so for now it's card magazines only.