Lost & Found: The largest item in my card collection

You'd think it'd be impossible to lose something this large, but when you hoard as much as I do...it's really not.

 This giant Topps advertisement for the 1999-00 set is huge...and I rescued it from the garbage. My original hobby shop was going to throw it away, as I remember it I happened to be in the right place at the right time yet again and saved it right before he folded it in half to fit it into his garbage can. Most of my collection has been gathered by being in the right place at the right time, and that doesn't just apply to the cards.

Rather than just tell you how large it is, I got a standard sized card to put next to it. I don't have any 1999-00 Topps handy, but the John Starks card from 1994-95 Fleer was next on the "To be scanned" stack so got the call. It may be hard to tell but the six sample card images are slightly larger than standard card sized, probably about the same size as the larger card size Topps used before 1957.

It's no tin perfect shape...the corners are dinged, there's some surface damage, and there's a tiny hole in Gary Payton's forehead to be able to hang the poster from the ceiling...all of which happened before I got it. But I don't care, I'm happy to have it...when do you see stuff like this? It's identical on both sides, and Gary and the Topps logo are a separate piece made to stand out from the background...although pretty much flat by now, since it had stuff placed on top of it before I got my hands on it.