Head's Up!

1992-93 Upper Deck #126

I don't think that's the right way to get ahead in the world.

2017 NBA Draft

I've spoken, in the past, about how much I enjoy the draft and seeing all the new names of players who will hopefully soon enter my collection. This draft was kind of unusual in that there was only a couple of players from the first round who was not from the USA or considered a USA player by attending college here. Last year saw a record number of international players, this year was the least I've seen in many years.

The top few picks were not a surprise...the one surprise I found was Malik Monk slipping to 11th, I had him pegged at 7th through 9th. The biggest surprise is the Jimmy Butler to Minnesota trade.

I don't have too much to say yet, but I will say the 2017-18 NBA season officially started today and that is a great thing...July 7th in Summer League and I will be watching most of that...if I am awake, it will be on, essentially.

Mostly I just want to get the screencap of the Excel chart I made posted up. I'll return to this post at the conclusion of the coming season and see how many of these players make it into my collection....although I probably won't post about it, just for my own personal enjoyment.

Tyler Lydon, who went 24th, is the first player from my home county to be drafted since 1971, so I'll definitely be looking to add cards of him to my collection. He was drafted by the Jazz and traded to the Nuggets tonight.

To keep this somewhat card related, I got a trade in from the Trading Card Database today that completed 1989-90 Hoops for me, I believe. I'll research it more and post a scan in my pending June trade recap. It's been a long road as 1989-90 Hoops was one of the first sets I added to my NBA collection when I discovered the sport in 1996.

Looking at the chart I see that I made at least one spelling mistake...at some point I will probably transcribe it to paper and store it in my card collecting issue.

Here's a random scan of an NBA card just because I have not posted any in a while. I did happen to scan this one while watching the draft.

1992-93 Upper Deck #107. This was before he switched to Clifford due to confusion with the older player who was also known as Cliff. I just noticed that there is red stains on the jersey...quite probably blood. Nowadays they would make him change it, but back then I think they were a little more lax in jersey regulations.

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #14: 1992-93 Upper Deck

This is a set that I really struggled where to place. It's a great design but it's the only set on the list I have a bad memory of. It's a bad enough memory that it played a role in why I was away from the NBA for several years, but in the end all the good memories I had of the set before then (and after, too) were enough to keep it on the list, and keep it in 14th.

#14: 1992-93 Upper Deck

Why I like it: Design and the good memories. Also, the cards' texture. I'm big on texture and these simply feel good to hold.

Set size/Completion: 513/519 cards, with an asterisk. I'm not sure how many I have. There are multiple versions of several cards and while I know I have one version, I don't know which ones yet.  The cards carry numbers 1-510 and I have every number, plus the 32a and 33a. I only have one of the two versions of card #1 and only one of the trade cards for #1. (I have only the stamped and punched version).

First, the good. This set has a great feel, like I mentioned above. It is hard to describe, but if you have ever seen any in person - and who hasn't?- you'll know. The team color bars at the bottom are fun, and the subsets really are nice as well.

It's nice and large. It's the largest set to make the top 20, and the third largest NBA set ever made, I believe. It's the only set ever that documenting the highest and lowest score each team had put up by that point.

Now the bad....and it's bad. As I've mentioned, earlier in this countdown, I lost my dad in 2002. (he had cancer) For a very long time, card #1 in this set, the Shaquille O'Neal trade card, was my #2 most wanted card...it was my #1 most wanted for most of 1996 and into early 1997 but got bumped down to #2 in 1997. I chased that card for a long time...from 1996 when I discovered the sport until February 3rd, 2002. That was 7 years...and I was only 17 years old at the time. And therein lies the problem. On that day, it was a Sunday, there was a card show in the Danbury Mall in Danbury Connecticut. My dad had gone in the hospital on February 1st, but we had been talking about the card show before that- it was the first of the year, always something to look forward to. (As it turned out, it was the last one held there- although we didn't know that at the time) I think you can figure out what's coming. We went to the card show...the only card I found was that Shaquille O'Neal trade card. At the time, we thought that Dad was going to come home. Two days later, he was gone. Had I known...I would not have gone to the show. That is now one of my biggest regrets. Knowing that my dad wanted me to go, and even gave me money to go to the show, is little comfort. (Dad was pretty tight with money and usually didn't offer any, it was a surprise when he did that)

Every time I see that card, it makes me think of that, and it makes me feel terrible. It's been 14 years now, and I can't get past that. I'm not sure that I ever will. Even writing this up was hard.

It is part of the reason I left the NBA for several years. Every time I saw it, it caused me anguish...there were lots of little things that all combined to drive me away for several years, some of which had been building for years.

But there were years of good memories of the set before that, and even some after it. I've always liked the design. The subsets are some of my favorites of all time, as I mentioned above. The strength of the subsets is what got this set to 14th, in fact. Design wise 1992-93 Ultra is ahead of this one, as is 1996-97 SP. But this one has more of the "Total package" which keeps it at 14th.

The team subset is my favorite and the only one I feel like showing both sides of.

The All-Star subset is great too.

There were a bunch of inserts. Upper Deck debuted in 1991-92 with only three inserts, but had 10 in 1992-93! 15,000 point club is a favorite of mine- it was the first checklist I posted to the Trading Card Database (As of this writing I've posted 2223 checklists) and the Award Winner Hologram...you can't beat holograms. It was in it's second and final year. I don't have all the inserts scanned but here are some of them.

 15,000 Point Club

 All-Division

 All-Rookie

 Award Winner Hologram

 Basketball Heroes (Both Larry Bird and Wilt Chamberlain were inserted in 1992-93 Upper Deck- they share the numbering system with the insert that started in 1991-92)

 Foreign Exchange

 Jerry West Selects

Rookie Standouts

I consider this set complete even though I don't have all the variations. I have only one version of both cards #1, and there are 4 Error/Corrections. I know I have both versions of two of them, but I can only find one version of them right now, and I know I only have one version of the other two, but I don't know which version as they are mixed into my collection, which is mostly sorted by first letter of last name right now.

• #20: 2002-03 Topps 10
• #19: 2004-05 Topps Total
• #18: 2002-03 Topps Pristene
• #17: 1992-93 Ultra
• #16: 1975-76 Topps
• #15 1996-97 SP
• #14 1992-93 Upper Deck

Hot Off the Scanner Tray Week 3

The monthly comic box came and in it was the latest Star Wars Insider magazine, which had two promos for Journey to the Force Awakens inside it. Here's one of them.

Way back in 2012 the first checklist I posted to the Database was the one for 1992-93 Upper Deck 15,000 point club. Somebody else posted all the scans, but I still scan mine when I come across them in my collection. I hit 2000 checklists posted to the Database sometime around 2 AM on 10/5/15. It was one of the inserts for Chrome Perspectives Jedi vs. Sith but I don't know which one.

I'm only one card away from completing the 15,000 point club insert as well. Off the top of my head I want to say it's Moses Malone I'm missing but I could be wrong.

2000-01 Topps Gallery Heritage Baron Davis. Topps only did two years of Heritage in the NBA, which is unfortunate as I really loved those sets. They did an insert in 2000-01 Heritage that used other designs. This one uses the 1979-80 design; the 2000-01 Heritage set used the 1971-72 design and 2001-02 Heritage used the 1974-75 design.

 1992-93 Upper Deck Award Winner Holorgram Detlef Schrempf. I love holograms, always have, always will. The 1992-93 inserts are not as common to come across compared to 1991-92.

Decided to scan a page of hockey, all 1989-90 O-Pee-Chee. I usually put off all the cards already done and posted to the Database but for some unknown reason I decided to scan a page of this set. I was given a lot of these, and it's a great design. I even went looking through my boxes of "to be scanned later" until I found a stash of them to scan.

Mom got me a repack and while there were not a lot of new cards in it, the ones that it contained were great...first card out of this box was this one...

1990 Star Akeem Olajuwon #6. These Star sets are quite rare. This is my first from the Olajuwon set of 11 cards. This one alone made the box worthwhile in my book, but there also were these...

1992-93 Topps Gold #21

2009-10 SP Signature #78. This is my first card from this set!

2012-13 Select #101. This is my 6th card from this set, the first one not an autograph that came from a lot I bought on Ebay last year.

2013-14 Hoops Red #254. I have a lot of this set, I really like it a lot. There was a sealed pack in the box but this was the only new card.

If it wasn't for that Star card, the best card in the box would have been this one- an error. I love errors. This one has a small part of the next card on the printing sheet on the bottom, but it's not really visible in the scan. (You can just see a trace of red on the bottom right) There was another miscut card in the pack, also with too much bottom border and not enough top, but there is no portion of another card on it.

2012-13 Hoops #169 error.

For a comparison, here is what the normal card looks like.

Note the margins on top and bottom. As an aside, this is my favorite set Panini has ever done.

2006-07 Rookie Debut #115. Hilton Armstrong is from my family's hometown of Peekskill NY. I only have two cards of him in my collection.

1998-99 Topps Kick Start #KS15. Look at the background on this card...it's spectacular. It looks great in the scan, but better in person!

Yesterday, I received a RAOK from Mark Hoyle which he sent me the last cards I needed to complete my 1979-80 Topps set. I have not gotten any scanned yet, but I wanted to thank Mark for his generosity! 

That's it for this week!