Starting the year off with a bang! Completing a set I've been working on since 1994 + Card show report

 2026 is off to a great start in the hobby and it's only three days old! I have already done two things I've never done before, despite being in the hobby non-stop since 1988. 

My first addition of the year came from a card show, and my first new card of the year completed a set! 

Back in 1994, the local grocery store carried cards. When my mom would go grocery shopping she would bring me cards and a large portion of the that time it was packs of 1994 Marvel Universe. Despite being a lifelong DC fan, I loved that set. I still do. Over time I got most of the set, and I was down to one card missing. At last month's show, I purchased some other Marvel cards from one of the dealers and he was sure he had the card I needed to complete the set. We exchanged emails and sure enough he did. So, I HAD to go to the show this month, and it was PACKED. I've never seen the Fishkill show this crowded, I couldn't even get down all the aisles or see every dealer. But, I made my way to him, and he had it set aside for me under the table. Finally, after 32 years, I have all 200 cards from the 1994 Marvel Universe set in my collection!

Dr. Strange, #55, was the final card I needed to complete the set. It's a weird feeling to not have to look for cards from this set anymore. Well, not base cards anyway. There are still inserts I'm chasing but those are secondary. 

That wasn't all I added today though. 

The entire top row came from the same dealer, as well as a bunch of baseball I needed for a trade I'm working on the Database. I will never turn down parallels from 1996-97 Bowman's Best, either. I didn't even check to see if I need them but I'm pretty sure I do.

One of my regular dealer stops yielded all these cards. I have more Kenyon Martin autographs than any other player I think, but that doesn't stop me from adding more. The Kevin Love is SN 001/125. 

I don't really like the Recon set, but I do want to have at least one example of every set in my collection, and it's a Knicks card, so I went for it. My final purchase of the day was this stash of 1969-70 and 70-71 Topps. It's unusual to find these in bulk, even more unusual to find Hall of Famers at reasonable prices. The top photo (and the League Leaders card) cost me $20, while the bottom photo was $20 more. The end cards of the set are a bit rarer so not all that surprising they would cost a bit more. These came from the same dealer I got the 1972-73 Topps from at the show in November and also had purchased the Bowman's Best from earlier in the show, he also runs the show. I will be working his tables more until I run out of vintage NBA to add. I don't harbor any illusions of completing either of these sets, but I can get pretty close. No way I'll ever be able to afford/justify the Kareem or Maravich rookie cards but I might be able to get the rest, especially as I'm not too worried about condition on cards that predate my birth. 

Overall, this was probably my fastest time in and out of a card show- about an hour- but it sure was productive! Completing that set has been something I've been actively trying to do for what feels like forever so it's really nice to finally pull it off. Honestly, if I had just gotten that card and the cards I needed to fulfill that baseball trade I would have been happy, everything else is just a bonus. 

Wes gets me under 400

While I'm still a set builder at heart, lately I've been putting much more effort into getting one of every person who got an NBA Basketball card into my collection, and NASCAR as well...I've recently added the NHL to this as well, which I've begun documenting but got so many new people I may have to hold off on that project for now.
 
The legendary Wes of JBF/Willinghammer Rising read what I was working on, and hit me with a shipment of cards that brought me down under the 400 mark in the NBA for the first time! When I originally compiled the list, there were more than 600 people on it.

The package started out with some vintage...

 And yes, I DID think about titling this post "I have good news and Bad News"! Amazingly, this is his only NBA card. He does have a college card, which doesn't count though. For my NBA collection he's a One Hit Wonder.

Jerry Eaves is also a one-hit Wonder.

Then we start mixing old and new...

 Bobby Brown is still in the NBA, on the Rockets. the only current player in this mailing. He caused an international incident last year when he wrote his name in chalk on the Great Wall of China.

 Andre Brown is a one-hit wonder! There aren't many players who have their only card as an SN card- but he is the second one from this same set in my collection. (2006-07 Ultimate Collection)

 Darren's son Austin also played in the NBA and was one of the first players who originally appeared on the Missing list I was able to add to my collection.

 Although it didn't really show up well in the scan, this is an X-Fractor!

 Davies spent some time with the Nets but did not get a card with them.

This is my first base card from 2007-08 Finest. I had two Refractors previously.

Mixed in throughout the mailer...but saved for last here, are 7(!) D-League cards from 2005-06 Finest, including a Refractor!

 Refractor! SN799/999!

 He's euphoric to be on a card.

 D-League teams couldn't afford jersey numbers. Actually, they could, the picture is from the start of the season, before numbers were assigned. I just thought it was funny.

 Most of the D-League cards are posed photos, but this one and the next are actual in-game shots!

Topps brought back the old cement wall backdrop for the D-Leaguers.

I've talked about the 2005-06 Topps Chrome set, including the D-League cards in it, before. It is the only set ever made for the D-League, which has been in operation since 2001. This coming season they change the name to G-League as Gatorade offered the NBA a dump truck full of money for title sponsorship rights. When I created my list of people missing, the D-League players from this set made up roughly about 1/3rd of all people missing from my collection. I've since got that percentage down, as I did do a box of the set, which surprisingly I never wrote about, despite the fact that I once ranked it my #1 most wanted box. Now the largest percentage of people missing comes from the early sets- 1948 Bowman being the largest set represented, since most of the players only ever got cards in that set, and most of them are too expensive for me. It was originally 1/3rd early players, 1/3rd D-Leaguers, and 1/3rd players from when I stupidly took a break from the NBA from 2006-12. Now it's probably closer to 45% each for the old time players and the players from when I wasn't collecting, with the final 10% the remaining D-Leaguers and the players Panini only bothers to including in expensive sets during their rookie season, and never again. None of these numbers are hard stats, just guessing.

Thanks again Wes, this is much appreciated!

Since I mentioned in my last post about cards from Wes that I also got a Russell Westbrook insert from this year's Donruss Optic, but had forgotten to photograph it, here it is. I got it scanned today.

A great shot from the Toronto All-Star Game held in the 2015-16 season. 

I have to be honest, you will probably see all these cards again someday, when I get back to my NBA Encyclopedia. I'm so backlogged-and my COMC order which may show up today will set me back even further- I expect the posts from that to last me an entire month- I probably won't be able to get a new post in that series up until October, if I'm lucky. I may try to crank one out before the season starts at least, but no promises. Deji Akindele might even appear in the very next post.

It'll take more than a Penny Sleeve to cover this thank you post!

Back when I had some minor milestone- I don't even remember what it was, because I have the memory span of a squirrel, I gave away some cards. (and this was only a month or two ago!)  I was not expecting any thank you gifts, but Jon from A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts sent me one anyway. Jon is fairly new to the Blogosphere so if you have not seen his blog before, take a look.

Jon sent along some really great stuff...not a duplicate in the bunch! I don't know if he checked my wantlists or just got lucky, but all the vintage NBA he sent me was new, and that can be a bit of challenge as I have roughly 75% of all 1970s NBA cards, including all from 1975-76 through 79-80.

This was the last one out of the box but the first one I'm going to show...a card from 1970-71 Topps! I had not gotten any new cards from this set since 2003 or 2004. Over a decade! Even better, it was a player I did not have in my collection! Rich Johnson actually is a 1 Hit Wonder, this is the only card he ever got.

He sent 6 cards from 1972-73 Topps. For some reason this set was always very hard for me to find. I have the 1971-72 set complete, and I've got more than three-fourths of the next two sets after it, but according to the Database, I have only 31% of this set, and that's with adding a dozen or so during 2015. 6 new ones makes this package the largest input of new cards from this set in a single day for me in over a decade. Nate Thurmond is a big deal, too! I scanned all six and will show them now.

1972-73 Topps was the first set to show unedited action photos since 1961-62 Fleer

He sent along several 1973-74 Topps cards, and 1 card from 1974-75 Topps, but I have not gotten them all scanned yet. I've only gotten 1 of the cards from 1973-74 Topps scanned and that is below. I didn't want to wait any longer before posting and I don't know when I will get to them, so this one has to do for now.

I'm always happy to get new ABA cards, I've always had an affinity for the ABA.

First out of the box was a pack of 1992-93 Fleer/Spalding promo. I had never been able to hunt these down before. 1992-93 Fleer is one of my all-time favorite sets, so I was very happy to get these. I didn't scan the cards yet, so here's the pack. I have not really mentioned it much but I also love promos, so these were a nice treat!

A few posts ago, I mentioned that there was a GI Joe card set I knew existed, but didn't have any of. Jon hoped he was sending me that set, but without knowing it, he sent me something better- a GI Joe set I had no idea existed! And he sent me the entire 55 card set! I'm shocked! Thank you! Apparently, in 1987, Comic Images issued a GI Joe set, with most, if not all, of the artwork coming directly from Marvel's comics. The set was issued 6 years into the run of GI Joe, when it was at it's peak. The cards are somewhat crude- I'm not sure if there are two in the set that are cut to the same size- but who cares, this is from the glory days of GI Joe, and even better, I had no idea they existed, and now I have them complete!  Here are three cards from the set.

Thank you again Jon, this was an excellent surprise and every single one of these cards will have a happy place in my collection for years to come!

By the way, Merry Christmas to my fellow Bloggers! My family knows me very well and I am sure I will have new cards to post about tomorrow, Christmas is usually the day of the year where I get the most cards- all gifts from my family. Even if by some chance they went a different route this year, I'm sure I'll still be able to put a post together about memories of cards I got for Christmas...there are lots of them, and had I had more forethought on the topic, I would probably have posted about that this year as well. Well, I can't cover every topic during Cardboard History's first year, can I? :)

Finally, some protection for the tall boys

I don't know what the fascination is with these oversize cards. Topps has been cranking them out since the 1960s, and Fleer/Skybox got into them in the 1990s as well. They are nearly impossible to store, and forget sorting them with your other cards of the subject! I've had examples of these tall cards in my collection since 1994 at the latest, which is when they began to issue them for NASCAR and the Superman Platinum Series came out. In that time, I've never really had good storage for them. I've had the majority of the NBA examples in pages but that wasn't good- it led to most of them getting curved or worse. I've since taken them back out, but the damage has been done.

Now, finally, there is a good way to store them. I have been looking for cases to hold these cards for years. I've even contacted the case makers to no avail. I even thought about forming a case myself out of sheet metal, but I didn't want to do that in case humidity caused it to rust or something along those lines.

And then, on my last trip into my local card shop, they were there...right in front of me. They must have just gotten them in because there were only one or two missing off the shelf space. I snapped up 12 of them and I may get some more when I go back again because even though I still have 4 untouched, I don't plan to ever stop collecting cards and surely I will get more of these oversize cards in the future.

As you can see, the NBA takes up the majority of them- three full, and the majority of the 1993-94 and 1994-95 Jam Session cards aren't in there yet. The top row is one for NASCAR, one for Star Wars, one for other assorted cars, and one for everything else. Each of the categories of holders has room to expand because I have only completed two of these oversize sets- 1993-94 and 1995-96 Jam Session, ironically neither of which is shown in the photo. An empty container is on the left.

I spent most of yesterday getting the cards rounded up from the various boxes I had them in before, and then I finally integrated my Michael Jordan tribute sets and Starting Lineup cards into my NBA collection proper. For years I considered them separate collections, but now I have them in my NBA collection- with full paper listings and counted as part of my collection. I suspect there may be more out there in my collection somewhere, for years if it wasn't part of my collection officially I didn't really keep track of it...something I regret now. When I find them I will add them in. With the Starting Lineup cards, I may not actually have them. I know I got some of the figures loose without the card. In retrospect I should have held out and gotten sealed examples. After writing Michael Jordan's name in my paper listing over 300 times yesterday, I won't complain if I don't get any new cards of him for a while.

All told, it added 463 different NBA cards to my collection, which puts me only 264 away from 80,000 different. I probably have that many in my un-opened stash already, but I'm not going to rush it. My birthday is fast approaching, in October, so maybe I will fix it so I hit 80,000 on my birthday...but in all actuality I'll probably hit the mark beforehand. I tried to hit a milestone on my birthday last year, and I couldn't read my own handwriting and my number was off, so I hit the mark a week before. Duh!

I also want to end by saying RIP to Indy driver Justin Wilson. He died yesterday as a result of a freak accident at the Pocono race held this past Sunday. (a piece of another car that crashed in front of him fell out of the sky and hit him on the head) I don't have any cards of him in my collection- I don't know if he even got any. If he did, it would have been one of the Greenlight diecast releases. I have only a handfull of them and none of him. I just wanted to say something in his memory.

I missed Throwback Thursday, so say hello to Flashback Friday!

Which is really just Throwback Thursday on a different day, hah!

I didn't get a chance to do my weekly Throwback Thursday post, because I spent all day prepping and posting my 1969-70 and 70-71 Topps NBA cards to the Database. I actually only worked on posting the 1970-71 cards yesterday, I have a lot more of them than I do 1969-70, but it also makes sense because the 1970-71 set is 175 cards while the 1969-70 set is only 99 cards. I have not been able to complete either of them, and I don't ever expect to, as some of the cards are pricey. The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Pete Maravich rookies are likely forever going to be out of my price range.

I was able to move the 1970-71 set from 30% posted to more than 75%. I forgot to look at the percentage of posting of the 1969-70 set, but I think it was around 47%. It's now over 60%.

So since I've spent the first paragraph talking about the 1969-70 and 70-71 Topps sets, I guess you can imagine what today's Throwback Thursday Flashback Friday cards will be. Yes, two today to make up for yesterday's miss.

I chose both of these cards because they are both cards that show actual jerseys- not edited, or worn backwards. As you can see on the backs of both cards, Topps didn't always have very high quality at this time period, as both show printing flaws. I have to wonder if that led to the brown cardboard style they would use beginning in 1971 through 1990 or so. (I actually prefer that to glossy white cardboard most of the time)

I keep hoping that at some point the (Houston) Rockets would do a throwback to their early days in San Diego, green and yellow are two of my favorite colors.

Stay tuned, hopefully next Thursday I will actually be on time!