The Police defunded me! (Police cards and other promos)

 A big part of this COMC order was promo cards, and all three of the sports I collect were featured, although mostly NBA and NASCAR.

I found some way to search out Police cards, which I no longer remember how I searched, and I bought a lot of them. In the 70s and especially the 1980s the local police departments would team up with teams and issue promo cards. In fact, almost every card issued during the 1982-83 season (which does not appear in this post) was a police issue. 

Four cards from 1979-80 Express News / Handy Dan Spurs set brings 3 new people to my collection. Only Restani appeared on a mainstream Topps card. 

My third card from the 1980-81 Pepsi Phoenix Suns set. I discovered when adding my new additions to the Database that these cards are incomplete, both of them that I have. They had a coupon/tab that had the card number and some other stuff. So I eventually have to buy another copy of both of them.

The 1983-84 Denver Nuggets Police set was my largest addition, and this is nearly half the set! In addition, 5 of the cards are people appearing in the collection for the first time. (Williams, Carter, Dennard, Ficke & Scheer). These are unusual for Police issues because they have a glossy UV coating, something that would not appear on a mainstream basketball card until 1992-93. Although I have not gotten every regional promo yet, this is the earliest use of UV coating I've found in the NBA. Unfortunately they have yellowed somewhat on the front. 

The 1983-84 SuperSonics Police set has two more cards join my collection. Neither player makes their first appearance, but they were the only two cards I needed that were available.

The 1983-84 Star All-Star Game set is available in two versions. There is the standard Star back and there's a Police issue which have messages on the back. Both of these are from the Police version. 

1984-85 Kiwanis Suns Police is a new set for me. This was the only card available, and is my second card of Al Bianchi. The other is from his playing days and 1957-58 Topps.

1987-88 Circle K Phoenix Suns. I know Circle K is a grocery/convenience store from their years of NASCAR sponsorship, but I didn't know they produced NBA cards until I found this one for sale. The 30 Memorial patch is for Nick Vanos, a Suns player who was killed in the Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crash, along with his fiancée and 154 other people. As far as I know Nick Vanos doesn't have any cards, although he does appear on some team photo postcards. 

1988-89 Frito Lay New York Knicks. Despite being local this is the only card I've been able to get for this set. I was lucky because I was specifically looking for this card, as it's the only NBA card Greg Butler ever got.

1989-90 Carl's Jr. Sacramento Kings. They did several sets over the years but this is my first one. Oddly enough I pulled off a trade on the Database that brought me another just a few days after I got this one. I like the Carl's Jr. logo.

The Converse set is pretty legendary, and this is my first. And it's Muggsy, can't go wrong there! This is from 1989-90, the second year of the Hornets.

Another Nuggets Police issue, but this one from 1989-90. 

1989-90 was a big year for promos, as here's one from Equal. This one is quite large, too.

The T-wolves inaugural season set was made by Hoops and is standard size, it's a small set so hopefully I can finish it some day. 

This 1990-91 Skybox card was only available at the Sport Collector's Conventional, aka The National, in Arlington Texas in 1990. 

Slowly working on the 1990-91 Smokey SuperSonics set. 

Another set produced by Hoops, the highlight here is the O'Brien trophy. Unlike hockey, the NBA trophy is super rare on cards...I know of only 3 or 4 and this is only the second in my collection. All the others are from Panini sticker sets. 

The early 90s were a heydey of promos for NASCAR, and I constantly keep finding ones I didn't know about. The Gargoyles All-Pro set is not one of those, this is my second card from the set, but it's the only card he ever got. I really need to get this whole set at some point because there are a lot of crew members who appear only in this set and no others. 

Stove Top Stuffing made cards. I miss the 1990s so much. Even though this is a Sam Bass painting that doesn't really look much like Jeff.

Phone cards were such a big thing...for about a 6 month period in 1995-96. Jeff had multiple phone card only releases, and this is one. 

I had no idea Action Packed had a McDonald's promo in 1996 and both of these cards came from it. They must have been regional because the McDonald's here is close enough to walk to. I would have gotten all of these cards if they had taken part here. 

This card was only available at the 1996-97 NBA All-Star Game. That is one of the greatest games in history, not for the game itself (which I don't remember) but because at halftime they had all 49 of the living 50 Greatest Players on the court at the same time, it was an incredible moment. Sadly when the NBA celebrated it's 75th anniversary this season, they were unable to do that because of covid and because so many of the players are no longer alive. In 1996-97 Pete Maravich was the only one who had passed away. This is only a three card set, one each from Fleer, Topps and Upper Deck, I will get the other two some day if I am able to.

There aren't many cards issued for late models. David Moyer has two cards in my collection now.

I didn't know Kellogg's made a set, but I got this one from COMC. They even had parallels, and I just traded for a bunch on the Database. 

This 1999 Mountain Dew set is only 4 cards, but sadly COMC only had three available. I need to get the 4th someday. 

However the 1999 Pepsi set is only 3 cards and I completed it! 

We don' t have Albertsons here so I had no chance to get any from this set. 

Another all-star game exclusive, this one from the 2002 game in Philadelphia. I found this one going through Elton Brand cards. While it has the general design of the 2001-02 Topps set, the card front is all holofoil and the blue is darker than the standard Topps card.

An Upper Deck promo using the hockey design. 

A while back somebody gave me 5 of the 6 cards in this set, but not the Mears. I don't even remember who it was that sent it. But now I've completed it!

Another NBA All-Star game promo.

I think I wrote about this one already, an oversize, lenticualr card.

Although the photos are from 2004 this Red Baron card was issued in 2005. It's a three card set, and again it must have been regional because my mom likes Red Baron but I had no idea these existed.

A 2005-06 team set with a logo card! It's the exact same on both sides. 

This oversize card was a combination of The Childrens Hospital and Qdoba. 

I remember reading about those Donruss releases on the Panini website, given away at the games. But I didn't have any access to them.

An insert from one of Panini's National sets.

I'm not sure if this is a promo or not, but it's certainly not available here, so close enough to include in this post.

I have absolutely no idea about this one, but I do know it's hand numbered to 25 copies in the same thick gold pen on the back.

Two players make their collection debut in the Instant Champions set.

And hockey just gets in at the end. Both of these games are games I watched, so I had to get the cards. 

Thanks for reading.