Set Building with COMC

 I showed some of the sets I've been working on with other posts but there were some other sets that the most recent COMC order got me closer to...and even a couple it finished off completely! 

1995 Select is one of my all-time favorite NASCAR sets, I would surely rank it in the top 10 and perhaps even in the top 5 all time. It's a 151 card set...when it was issued Pinnacle didn't have the license for Dale Earnhardt but they got it eventually and issued this card later. I consider it a part of the base set though and it was the last one I needed to complete the set! This is actually the only card from the set to feature photography from 1995. I have not written much about this set on the history of Cardboard History because almost all of my set building of it was done not only before I started this website, but before I even knew what the internet was;, IE, the mid-1990s. 

The next set is one I have been meaning to do a bigger post on for a couple years now but have not set aside the time to write it yet. This is the Rookie Reprints from the 1996-97 Topps Stars (as well as Topps and Stadium Club) sets. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the NBA, this was a major key event for me in learning the history of my new sport, which I started following halfway through the 49th season. As part of the celebration Topps issued a set reprinting the rookie cards of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players. I can't afford some of the original cards, and with how these have gone since the pandemic boom I can't afford the reprints in some cases either. I mostly worked on the basic set...

but I think my favorite addition was this autograph of Tiny Archibald. Only 10 of the 49 living players signed reprints and this is the 8th card from the set I've tracked down. I'm not only a Walt Frazier and a Pearl Monroe away from completing the autograph set. Someday I will, but they are above my self-imposed $20 per card limit...this will be one of the occasions where I break that rule. 

I also worked on the Chrome parallel of the set. These have gotten very expensive in the last two years, but the Refractor versions even more so...enough that I didn't get any in this order. The last time I saw a Jordan refractor for sale the bid was up to $700 something so I don't ever expect to finish that set. The basic version and the Chrome version are possible, and the Autograph set is definitely something I want to complete. At some point both of the missing autographs will go onto my Top 10 Most Wanted list on the right sidebar which is woefully out of date. 

The only hockey set I worked on was the green parallel from 2019-20 MVP. I love this parallel, which was only available via epack. I have been working on this for a while now but stalled out...I couldn't remember which cards I had purchased already and these were all purchased back in 2019 so it wasn't easy to get to them to check, so I didn't buy any more. Since I want as many of these as possible, I just sorted the set by lowest price and picked off a full page.  

While I was at it I also found this Red parallel, which was some sort of epack achievement reward. I have no idea what it was earned by achieving, but I had to  get it. The set looks great in the red border, which is just coincidentally also Blackhawks team colors. It does not appear to be a full parallel, unfortunately. I think now I have all the different color parallels represented in my collection by at least one card, at least minus the other three colors of printing plate.

The 2019-20 MVP set has become one of my favorite NHL sets. I'm actively trying to complete it- just since I began the draft of this post back on April 1st I've added 4 more via trade to the base set. The base set and the Green parallels are metallic ink, which doesn't show up all that well in scans. Hitting the parallels for this set is a well I'll be going back to many times in the future. 

Unfortunately I missed the factory set that year, the only year of the MVP Factory Set I don't have, which is sad because it's my favorite MVP set and I love parallels, and that provides 250 of them in one place. I don't want to buy random cards from it, I want to find a complete factory set at some point, but my hopes of that are dwindling as the hobby remains somewhat crazy. Not giving up hope yet but the last couple of times I checked there were none for sale on Ebay. 

I also nabbed one of the insert parallels, in this obviously numbered, die cut Mika Zibanejad from the Colors and Contours parallel of the Stanley Cup Edition insert. It's a 100 card set, and this is my second, so 98 to go...however, it's another set I don't expect to complete because I don't have any of the big names like McDavid, Matthews, Ovechkin, Crosby, etc.. This card features full holofoil so it looks a lot better in person. 

If you read the post about the printing plates I bought you'll see a base card and a parallel from the 2019-20 MVP set as well. 

The only other sets I worked on were the automotive sets which I've already shown so I won't show them again now. Thanks for reading!

The Rodney Dangerfield of Basketball cards

This card gets no respect...no respect at all.

My dislike for 1980-81 Topps is fairly well known. It was a terrible idea and executed very poorly. Instead of giving each player their own, standard sized card, each card is 1/3rd of a standard sized card, perforated with the intent to split them up. They aren't in any sort of order, although there are repeating patterns- the middle card is always a subset card or the two end cards are subsets and the base veteran is in the middle. They don't vary from that at all. There are three subsets- checklists, of which there are 18, Team leaders, and Slam Dunk.

Because of the way Topps did things in that time, both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird appear on cards for the first time in this set. The key card- and the one that will sort of prevent me from completing the set- has Bird on one end, Magic on the other, and Dr. J. in the middle. (Actually 76ers Scoring Leaders, a team card) This is the only card that will prevent me from completing the entire Topps run from 1973-74 through 2008-09, although there were no Topps NBA cards issued between 1982-83 to 1991-92. Although I will never have the original, I do have the reprint from 1996-97 Topps Stars, when the first Topps card of each of the 50 Greatest Players was reproduced in original, Chrome and Refractor form.

Although it's not an exact reproduction, since the perforations are different. They also reprinted it twice, with the tiny reprint number on the back being the only difference. (If I had been in charge, only the actual card would have been reprinted, not the full panel.)

But...since the panels themselves generally don't matter to me...I still have Magic Johnson's Rookie card in my collection.

How, you may ask? Because there are several panels where two of the three cards don't change, but the third does. Because one of those versions is the Dr. J./Magic Johnson combo, but with Jan Van Breda Kolff instead of Larry Bird, I was able to add Magic's RC to my collection.

as you can see, the production quality itself isn't that high, either.

Yet, most people do not consider this to be Magic's RC. Even though, if you were to separate them, you would not be able to tell this #139 apart from the one that was originally stuck to Larry Bird via Dr. J. This card gets no respect...no respect at all.

I didn't separate my cards...I made that mistake with the 1996-97 Collector's Choice mini-cards, an homage to these. However, with the magic of Photoscape, I am actually able to see the cards in numerical order, something that's impossible to do in reality due to the way Topps made them.

There is a version where the Bird card is combined with two other cards, (Knicks Rebounding Leaders and Larry Drew) but I do not have it. Maybe some day.

So, while I won't ever have the Bird/Dr.J./Magic card, I do hope to someday have every number, if not every panel, and I will consider it a complete set when that happens...if that happens.

Opening a pack of 1992-93 Topps Chrome

Ahh, who doesn't love the Topps Chrome brand? Well, since I began scanning my collection, I don't like it as much as I once did, but there is nothing quite like the looks of the Topps Chrome cards. It doesn't hurt that the Refractor concept is my all-time favorite parallel in trading card history, although I was not lucky enough to pull one here.
I did, however, get four hall-of-famers who combined for more than 10 NBA Championships and are all widely respected legends of the game.

I even pulled a subset, something that disappeared from Topps Chrome in short order.

Wait, hold up.

1992-93 Topps Chrome? You might be thinking I lost my sometimes fragile grip on sanity, but no...these are quite real. That corner has not been turned, lol.

As we all know, the Topps Chrome brand debuted in 1996-97...these are all reprints, which should be obvious from the Magic Johnson card, which has that large Commemorative Series logo on it.

You see, the first three cards are all from the 1996-97 Topps Stars Rookie Reprints set, which was available in base, Chrome and Refractor versions. Since Topps did not produce cards between 1982-83 and 1992-93, they didn't issue actual rookie cards of any players who entered the NBA in that time frame...which is a lot of very important players. (Karl Malone- 1985-86, Scottie Pippen, 1987-88, David Robinson, 1989-90). For the Star years Topps got the license to reprint those cards, but Star ended after 1985-86 and 4 of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players did not get a Star card- the fourth is Shaquille O'Neal, who I wanted to be in this post but found his card too expensive so I got Scottie Pippen instead. (As a long time Jazz fan I don't have a lot of fondness for the 90s Bulls) But I want to complete the set someday anyway so might as well get it now.

The Magic Johnson card is from 2000-01 Topps Chrome, which had an insert set which reprinted each of Magic's Topps cards, in both Chrome and Refractor versions. (A seven card set). I had a couple options because Magic got three cards in 1992-93 Topps but I chose this one, since it not only had my favorite photo of the three, it was also the cheapest.

I always hoped that Topps would have gone back an issued a Chrome version of each of their sets from pre-1996-97. Alas, they never did, so I am limited to chasing the 50 Greatest Players rookie reprints, and the Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reprints of 2001-02. There was, as far as I know, never a single Chrome issue of any cards from the 1993-94, 1994-95 and 1995-96 sets.

I also wished Topps would have gone back and issued actual sets- on the old school brown card stock- for the missing years of 1982-83 through 1991-92. Also for the missing years before 1969-70. The Topps Archives name originally debuted on a set of just some rookies from each year before taking on a major lifespan in baseball.

Maybe with the new CBA the NBA and NBPA just signed Topps will get the license back and do just that. I'll always hope.

Moses Malone

Sad news yesterday as Moses Malone passed away suddenly due to a heart attack. He was only 60. It has been a horrible year for NBA players- Moses is the 15th former player who has passed away this year. Just a month ago Darryl Dawkins also had a heart attack at age 58. I can't remember if I wrote a post about him, I wanted to but I don't think I did.

Roy Marble also passed away on Friday. He had been suffering from some sort of brain ailment, I do not know if it was cancer or some other disease. His son was a rookie with the Magic last season and they talked about his father during a game I watched on League Pass during the season. They inferred he did not have long and that turned out to be true. He played two seasons in the NBA, but did not get any NBA cards. He did get a card in the CBA set but I don't have any of those.

Moses Malone is famous for several reasons- he jumped from high school to the pros, with no time in college at all- unheard of in 1974. He had an extremely long career, playing from 1974-1995. He won three NBA MVP awards. He was the last player who played in the ABA to remain active in the NBA and I believe- I didn't research it but can't think of anyone else- he was the only ABA player who remained active into the 1990s. (Edit: Caldwell Jones retired after 1989-90 so technically he also played into the 90s)

1975-76 Topps #254

1979-80 Topps #100

1992-93 Fleer #127

1996-97 Topps Stars Rookie Reprint Chrome #27

1998-99 Upper Deck Century Legends Epic Signatures #MM

Carboard History Roundup - 7 topics to cover - input sought

Several topics I want to cover, so I will create a roundup post to cover them all.

#1. When I first joined the world of card-blogging, I saw a post that referred to Mark Hoyle as "Legendary friend to card bloggers", or something along those lines. NOW I get it. After my flood issues earlier this month, Mark said he could help me replace one of the 1974-75 Topps cars that I lost. He also took a look through my wantlist and found some others I needed.

I was shocked when I got the box!

Look at all those 1974-75s! And yes, that is the key to the entire set, Bill Walton's rookie card! This marks the first time in over a decade I've been able to add any of the 50 Greatest Players' rookie cards to my collection.
It will go nicely with this one, that I pulled in 1996...

 

 

This was the rookie reprint issued for the NBA's 50th Anniversary celebration in 1996-97. The 50 greatest players got their rookie cards reprinted, and 10 of them had autograph variations.

 

 

This was my 1974-75 Topps stats before I entered all these in... (screencapped from the Trading Card Database)



and after!

 

But wait, there's more!

 

And that's not even all of them, some I forgot to grab for the photo, and didn't feel like taking another.

Thanks so much Mark, I really appreciate it!

#2. I can't remember if I shared these or not. I got them from Sports Card Mask-A-Rade a few weeks back. Great image on the Dorell Wright card.

#3. How about that NBA trade deadline? It was 3 PM this afternoon, and it's the most active one I can recall. According to Fox Sports 1, 38 players moved to a new home, and that does not count the draft picks. The biggest winner is the Milwaukee Bucks, who get Michael Carter-Williams, 2013-14 NBA Rookie of the Year. He'll be experiencing the NBA playoffs for the first time in his career this year, and the Bucks are one to watch for the future. They just keep getting better. Kevin Garnett also goes "home" to the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he played the first 12 years of his career and now surely will end his career there as well. Garnett is closing in on the record for longest NBA career, having joined the league in 1995-96. He is the only player left who began his career before I discovered the sport, by a matter of months. (I discovered the sport in February 1996, 3 months into his rookie year)

This is by far the best Kevin Garnett card I ever pulled.

#4. Rest In Peace to Jerome Kersey, who passed away today at age 52. A real tragedy, he lost his life due to a complication of a knee surgery this past Friday. A blood clot that formed there traveled to his lung, and he was unable to survive. I remember seeing him play when I first started watching, and he's far too young to have passed away.

#5. NASCAR's back! I am watching the first Duel race as I type this post. 2015 marks the first year of NASCAR where I have nothing new to collect. I discovered the sport through 1/64 die cast replicas at Christmas 1992, but I retired from collecting them at the conclusion of 2014. And then Press Pass went out of business in January of this year, meaning no new cards for the foreseeable future. The racing has been better in 2015 at Daytona than it was in 2014, so that's a good start. Hopefully the season can stay that way, I did not enjoy 2014 all that much to be honest.

Hopefully by the end of the season a different card company will jump in. (Upper Deck, I'm looking at you!)

#6. I am debating the idea of doing my own take on a "Card of the Day". It's not a wholly original thought- the Trading Card Database does it every day, as do some other websites. I was thinking about doing it a little differently, though. For one, every card would come from my collection. I would also write up a little piece about the card- either how I got it, or a bit on whatever is featured on the card, or possibly/probably both. I was thinking one day a week would be an autograph or relic, and one day of the week would be a serially numbered card. I actually have enough autographs and relics that I could do one day a week for them, as well, if I chose to. Some days would be random, while some would be reflective of whatever's going on in the world of sports.

I would like some input though; Would anyone actually want to see this or would I just be wasting my time? Should I do a day each week for autographs and relics, or combine and alternate them? Should I pre-empt them when I have something else to say, or make two posts those days? Would it drive my OCD nuts if I miss a day?  Could I sustain it? Follow through is not always my strong suit, but I also never tire of talking about cards. I really think it would be fun to do, but it would take away time from scanning and posting too.

I truly love writing about my cards, and with more than 120,000 in my collection, writing about one a day would keep me busy for more than 328 years (!) so it's not like I have to worry about having nothing to say. Even if I broke out relics, autographs and serially numbered into their own days it would take me several years before I had to worry about running out.



 

If I do do this, it would cover everything in my collection. It would include the NBA, NASCAR, non-sports, as well as the occasional baseball, football and hockey cards. I have to admit I would probably favor the obscure more than the big names.

 

#7. I have mentioned in the past that I keep a paper listing of my card collection. I am trying something new with my hockey cards. I was given over 2000 of them on January 31st, and I will post my Epic Mailday Part 2 soon, I am still working on documenting them. I want to make sure I have all the numbers correct before I post. Instead of writing them out- that would kill my hand!- I have decided to document them on Excel. What I do is create a listing of each number on Excel, and then I type in the ones I have and the date I got them. I tried to create something like this for my NBA cards back in 2003, when I got my first laptop, but I bailed on it in a matter of less than a week. Unlike the failed attempt at the NBA listing I don't have a paper listing for hockey, so I MUST finish it to make sure my collection is correct.

Here is a screencap of the 1989-90 listing. I got a lot of the 1989-90 O-Pee-Chee set so there is actually something to look at in this screencap.

 

You can see all the tabs for various season on the bottom. I am also able to still color code things like I do in my paper listings. Each insert set gets it's own color on paper, and I can still do that on Excel. I even have a little more leeway because I can fill the panels with color and even patterns, which I can't do on paper. (My paper listing has actually made me a default pen collector- I have more than 40 different colors I use)

 

 

The black columns separate sets.

 

I might create a paper listing for my hockey, football and baseball cards some day, but for now I will try and document them on Excel only. I only started last night before bed so I still have a lot of documenting ahead of me. Luckily, I enjoy it- I AM OCD, afterall! Someday, after I finish scanning my entire collection, and I have nothing else to do, I may go back in and insert the teams each person played for, or I may create listings like this for my sets I also have on paper. Or I may not, it'll be years before I have to decide.

 

As always, thanks for reading, and hopefully for your input!