CrazieJoe corrects a mistake I made circa 1996

 I was a very different person back in 1996. (I'm sure that's true for everyone, actually). When I first began collecting the NBA, I was a bit more rigid than I am now- back then, everything had to be defined before I would consider it part of my collection, and, this is the important part for this post, it had to be standard sized. Anything that was not standard sized was not considered part of my collection, with the exception of the so-called "Tall boys". 

So, when I got the current season Fleer/Z-Force promo, and two year old Emotion promo, which were two standard sized cards attached to a center strip with perforations...I separated them. Although I didn't think much of it at the time, I came to regret it, and I've been regretting it now since the late 1990s. I have not come across replacements for either yet...

until Joeseph sent me a package recently, and the very first thing I see in the box is a copy of the Emotion panel! In perfect, unperforated form! 

Amazing to see it in one piece again, for the first time in circa 25 years. Here they are in all their singular unit glory! 

That wasn't all, though. 

He also included the panel for the NHL set, which, despite using the same design and being released in the same year, is actually from a different season, with NBA being 1994-95 and NHL being 1995-96. I had never actually even seen the NHL card before!  

These two panels will NEVER be separated, I can assure you of that! 

That wasn't all Joseph sent but this, to me, is definitely the highlight. 

Just because, here's the back. 

Thank you again Joseph, and sorry for how long it took me to get this post published. Looking over at the right side of the dashboard, I see that I started composing it on December 8th, 2021...

2018 Card of the Day: January

As you may recall, in 2018 I am trying to get at least one new card every single day of the year, in celebration of my 30th anniversary in the hobby. January was a resounding success, as I was able to get a new card every day. (The last time I tried this, in 2015, I got into mid February before I messed up and failed. I've been stashing cards away since!) I have the posts, written like this, of the first time I tried this in my drafts folder. I might not ever show them, or I might, now that this version is going live...and I'm actually checking every day to make sure I am actually getting something new.

January 1st:

2000-01 Fleer Futures Copper #194

 To ensure that the project would start with an Elton, I had my mom going though the box of cards from COMC that arrived in December to find one.

January 2nd:

2016-17 Fleer Showcase Flair Showcase #13

 While she was rooting out an Elton, I had her pull out and hold onto a Henrik Lundqvist for January 2nd.

January 3rd:

1992 Maxx International Motorsports Hall of Fame #3

 I wanted NASCAR to be represented next, but Dale Jr.'s cards were a little too expensive at that time on COMC, so there were none in the box. Instead, I pulled a pack out a box Angus sent me quite a while ago and the first card out of the pack was new. Interestingly, the contents of the pack completed the set for me, but I didn't list my cards in my paper listing until January 21st so I didn't know that for a while!

January 4th:

2015-16 Upper Deck Contours Jumbo Fabrics #JJ-CG

 This one came out randomly from the COMC box. In the post linked to above, it was the card in the toploader by itself in the box. I got it because I liked the fact that they wore bright orange, but it's not really creamsicle orange as it scanned. It's darker than that. My first relic from the team.

January 5th:

2005-06 Bowman Chrome Refractor #9

 I really love refractors, and I really love serially numbered cards, so I picked up several on COMC. A random COMC box pull.

January 6th:

2018 Sports Illustrated For Kids #692

 I maintain a subscription to the magazine mostly to get the cards, but I actually read it, too- even if I am months down. Unlike regular SI, which I also read, the SI for Kids actually covers sports besides Football and Baseball.

January 7th:

1994 Star V.I. Model Search #15

 This was a gift from a Trading Card Database member who has asked to remain nameless. I'm never going to complain about a gift like this!

January 8th:

2001-02 Inspirations #161

 Another random COMC box pull. This was a redemption card when first issued, and I'm slowly working on the set. There are more from it in the COMC box waiting to be pulled.

January 9th:

1999-00 Black Diamond Diamond Cuts #91

 Another random COMC box pull, and another Elton. That's something you're going to see a couple more times in this post. Being my all-time favorite NBA player will do that.

January 10th:

2000-01 Ovation Center Stage Act 2 #CS7

 See caption for above!

January 11th:

2016-17 Panini Threads #199

 Came out of a pack. My first card of him, even though I got a hobby box for Christmas.

January 12th:

2017 C2 Cigars Trading Card Database Cards Canvas #BC-AD

 A gift from C2 himself! (The only other member of the Database I've met in person). I did not take every card out of the envelope, so expect to see this set again.

January 13th:

2013-14 Panini Titanium New Wave #68

 Random out of the COMC box. My first NBA card of him, he also appears in the BBM B.League set but since that's not NBA, this counts as #1. My first autograph of 2018 (I was mistaken when I mentioned that previously)

January 14th:

1948-49 Bowman #27

 Not every day I get to add a card from the first basketball card set ever! In fact, in my 22 years collecting the NBA, this is only the 8th I've been able to hunt down. I got this one with the $10 bonus I got from COMC for shipping over 200 cards in August, I decided to treat myself. It came out of the box randomly. John Norlander may or may have only ever gotten this one card. The Database shows one issued by Converse in 1970 but I'm not sure if they are something I would count or not. Either way, it's my first card of him.

January 15th:

2004-05 Upper Deck Sweet Shot #100

 These shadow boxes are a pain in the butt to scan. It requires my 3rd-string scanner, which I basically only use for neons, currency and deep cards, like this one. It's in such bad shape (the glass is delaminating) that I basically have to reconstruct the scan manually. It's one of only a handful of cards Miralles got, and the first in my collection. Came from COMC box.

January 16th:

2017-18 Panini Stickers #26

 This one came from a pack. I really have begun to enjoy the sticker sets, wish I had gotten them in previous years...I've never once gotten one in a repack.

January 17th:

1996-97 Fleer #279

 A gift from David Switzer on the Database, this is one of my favorite sets, but I still have a lot of holes in my series 2 collection. One less now!

January 18th:

2015-16 Fleer Showcase Flair Showcase Materials #55

 This is the closest I came to killing the project all month. I forgot about it, and my mom asked me after 11 PM that night if I had done my card of the day....I hadn't! So I reached into the COMC box and this one came out. My first Jets relic.

January 19th:

2014 Upper Deck 25th Anniversary Silver #26

 A multi-sport card makes an appearance. I would never have known this card existed but I did a search on COMC for serially numbered Rangers cards and this one popped up. It popped into my cart and popped out of the COMC box. I promise, no more wordplay in this post!

January 20th:

2008-09 Topps #175

 This one came from a local dealer. Excellent shot taken in the old Boston Garden, of two of the greatest to ever play the game. Bonus points to Topps for using the black and white Celtics logo, which is period correct.

January 21st:

1991-92 Topps #78

 You may remember the post where I showed off a pretty epic mailday from SumoMenkoMan. He got some cheapo hockey boxes at a local shop and sent them my way, for which I am forever grateful. They are going to be appearing in this project quite a bit, as it's much more likely I will get a new hockey card out of a pack than I would an NBA or NASCAR pack of the same period. There were only two packs of 1991-92 Topps but I chose one of them to be the first to appear in the project. I really like this design- I wish Topps had come back to the NBA one year sooner so I could have seen it used there, too.

January 22nd:

1953-54 Topps World on Wheels #148

 Even though I got this on January 22nd, this is actually a Christmas present. My brother gave me $100 in COMC funds to spend as I saw fit, and I decided to hit non-sports cards with the majority of it. You've seen some of the posts (Post 1 Post 2) but I still have two more that I need to write entirely and one more I need to finish, which I hope to do all of in the next week or so. I thought to look for some from this set while writing my Top 30 Non-Sports Set countdown- which seems to have become sort of a Blog Bat-A-Round as The Shlabotnik Report, Fuji, and even Night Owl did their own, my first time being linked on the most well-known blog in the Cardsphere.

January 23rd:

1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier #39

 Another one from the box of boxes from SumoMenkoMan. I have not learned hockey well enough yet- I will- and I keep having to turn this one over to see if it is 1991-92 or 1992-93. Sports that have seasons that are part of two years should NEVER be listed as one!

January 24th:

2006-07 Bee Hive #23

 A gift from CrazieJoe, this also happened to be my first card from the set! The same PWE it arrived in also included a new Elton for me, one of his rejects from the Santa lot.

January 25th:

2005-06 Ice #177

 This one is another from the COMC box. It has a lot going for it- Ice is becoming a favorite brand in hockey, because of the clear plastic factor, as this card is, and it's serially numbered! As you all know by now I'm majorly addicted to SN cards. I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce "Artyukhin" though.

January 26th:

2003-04 Topps Chrome Refractor #42

 I sort of binged on Elton cards on COMC a while back, and I had to get this Refractor. Refractors are my favorite parallel concept in cardboard history (Oops, another wordplay pun), Elton is my favorite player, and this is my favorite Topps NBA set- I think. I can't really make up my mind, but it's definitely a contender.

I think I can actually complete the base set at some point. I was lucky enough to pull the LeBron from the box I did when the set was new, as well as the Carmelo and Dwyane Wade, so I have the expensive cards already. I'm working on it, and there are about a half dozen cards from the base set still waiting to be found in the COMC box. I didn't get the Refractors of either of those three key rookies so completing this parallel is out the window, unless I win the lottery.

Janaury 27th:

1993 Upper Deck Authenticated Classic Confrontations Super Bowl XIX

 Funny/aggrivating story about this one- CelticWolfCo on the Trading Card Database bought a collection that had bunches and bunches of copies of this and a Wayne Gretzky oversize card from UD Authentics, and when he posted that he didn't know what he was going to do with them all, I replied that he could send one to me...and he did! He put them in the mail on November 13th, but they didn't show up to my PO box until January 27th. The PO lost them somewhere. But, when I finally did get them, they were in perfect shape and this one happened to come out of the envelope first. I had actually completely forgotten, and when I got the envelope I had no idea what was going to be in there.

January 28th:

1995-96 Upper Deck Electric Court #310

 I talked about this card and what it means to me in my last post. (Here for easy clickability) I have to admit of the entire list, this one is the most important to me and will likely get the nod for "Card of the Month" when I do my yearly countdown on December 31st.

January 29th:

1991-92 Pro Set Platinum #166

 Another from the SumoMenkoMan boxes. Cool throwback uniform, too. The one bad thing about Pro Set Platinum- the player's name does not appear on the card front, and on the back it's in cursive. Not always easy to figure out who is who, but this is Michel Goulet. He was not a prospect, which is how Pro Set signified rookies, making this a UER. What's even better- I had a bunch of Series 1 but comparatively little series 2. Now, I have a box of Series 2 with only one pack removed- this one- so I will probably be able to complete it. And, despite the high gloss nature of the set, they were not sticking in the least, something you always have to worry about with 90s cards that remain unopened.

January 30th:

2005-06 Topps Chrome #255

This card came out of my COMC box, and is from the only set that ever gave the D-League cards. Being a Chrome set they are not easy to come by, but I'm slowly knocking them down off my needs list. Also, in the D-League portion of the set, only two of the players got NBA cards, so almost every one is a new person for my collection, and Otis George is no exception.

January 31st:

2013-14 Select #4

Remember at the start I said I had been building a stash to do this project since 2015? Well, finally, on the last day of the month, I dipped into it. I last visited a semi-local shop in September 2014, where I purchased a 550 count box that the store collates with lots of cards in it. I had saved some of the box, cards unseen, until 2015 when I tried to do a Cards Every Day for the first time, and failed. Well, I decided later in 2015 that I would not try again in 2016, I would save it and do it in 2018 for my 30th anniversary in the hobby. So those cards have been patiently waiting now, in my possession but not in my collection- and never having been seen by me- for more than 3 years. (And they aren't even the longest tenured cards in my unopened stash)
When I failed this project in 2015, it was actually this very set that was the problem. I have never opened a pack from this set, all the cards in my collection- 34, with the three I pulled out of the box today- came from the mixed boxes this dealer sells. I was sure that I didn't have one of the cards I pulled out- Derrick Favors, I remember- and I didn't bother to check for almost a week. I go on to the Database and check my paper listing- and it's there. Many days have gone by. The project had failed halfway through February. I am making sure, in 2018, that I am checking the day I get them- and it's a good thing too, as the first card from this set, that I didn't remember having-I not only already had, but posted the scan to the Database myself. Luckily, this time I checked, and put that one on the duplicate stash where it belongs. The next card up was this Dragic, which I needed. A good reminder to check, and not trust my memory, or else I could fail this project again.

It is, of course, the largest and hardest project I've ever attempted to do. Month #1 was a complete success. Just 11 more to go...

Also, I want to add that I am maintaining the list (mostly) daily on the Trading Card Database. It includes the scans of the card backs, which you aren't getting on here. If I don't have my scanner plugged in, which is rare but does happen, I sometimes don't update for a few days or don't have it open. But.... here's the list.

A card that has been haunting me since 1996 is now in my hands!

Today, finally, a wrong that I made in 1996 has been righted. Back then, I was already collecting for 8 years and should have known better...but, hey, it was 5th grade. I remember it like it was yesterday. I opened a pack of 1995-96 Upper Deck Series II in school. I got the one-per-pack Electric Court card of David Robinson...and I traded it just about instantly. What was I thinking? I don't trade cards that were not duplicates! I never have, I never will...but that day...I did. It was the only time in my life I had a card as part of my collection and then no longer did. Even though it was only part of my collection for a couple of minutes...it's been haunting me ever since.

I realized my mistake shortly after. By then, it was too late. The person I traded it to would not trade it back to me. For 22 years now, I have been after this card. I came up short every time. I've been looking for many years. As near as I can tell, COMC has never even had a copy for sale!

I had actually sort of given up hope that I would ever find it. I figured, a card that's one per pack shouldn't be so hard to find, but it was.

Until today. I got a PWE from Jason German yesterday, who I met through the Trading Card Database, but he also runs the Hoarding Cardboard blog. I didn't open it yesterday, so I could use it for my Card of the Day today. And what a card it was!

There is was...a copy of the only card I ever had and no longer did...I can't say that anymore! This card is now part of my collection again, and this time...there's nothing that could make me trade this card.

I am actually kind of in shock a little bit about finally having this back/again. It's been so long...it doesn't seem real somehow. I am almost afraid I'm going to wake up again and it will have been a dream. (Yes, I have been known to dream about cards)

Provided this is real, and not a dream, don't be too surprised to see this card get the nod as my favorite new addition of January when I do my Top 12 cards of 2018 on December 31st.

That wasn't all Jason sent, however. He knows I have an addiction to serially numbered cards...I really do. He sent along one for me, and even though it's not one of my main sports, I will still gladly add it to my collection!

According to my stats chart, this is the 28th serially numbered NFL card in my collection, but at 35, is far and away the lowest print run. I like the fact that there is a real photo on the card, not a cutout of the player in front of some fake computer generated backdrop. It's also a new set for my collection, which I appreciate.

Jason, I can't thank you enough. I don't know if you knew how much this card means to me, but it really does.

Two off the Top 10 Most Wanted List

Back during 2015, I put up a Top 10 most wanted list on the right side of the blog. Right underneath my blog archive and above my blogroll. It has not really helped me all that much, possibly because the cards on there are not easy to find...if they were, they would have been in my collection already!

But I did add two of them in the latest COMC sale binge.

At spot #3, 1995-96 Upper Deck Electric Court #168.

Back in 1996, I was just getting into the NBA. I didn't really know what I was doing, and I traded away one of these Electric Court parallels. It remains, to this day, (28 years in the hobby) the only card I've ever had and no longer do. But I don't remember exactly which card it was....just that it was David Robinson. I don't think it was this one honestly, I think it was his base card, which was in Series 2 that year, and it now takes the #3 most wanted slot on my chart. I won't be totally convinced that I've fixed that major error I made at 12 years old until I get that last card of his from the parallel. It's been haunting me for 20 years now.

One of my favorite things in the world is the Simpsons, and I was 3 cards short on the 1993 Skybox set. All three of them have been on my Top 10 Most Wanted list for a while now, and I set out to see what I could find at COMC. There was only one of them there, but knocking one out of three off my wantlist and into my collection is still great!

Formerly at spot #7, it's card #S13 of the Simpsons set. The exact same design was used in 1994 and again in 2001. I have the entire 1994 set and none of the 2000s set, yet, which I have to get as Comic Book Guy finally got a card in this style.

But for now that's two more off the Top 10 Most Wanted list. It may not be as exciting as tipping off John Walsh, but it makes me pretty darn happy.

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.

November Trade Recap

After a few down months, November had me make a couple of trades back and forth with other bloggers, so much so that I'm typing up the beginning of this post on November 17th, where usually I whip it up the night before I post it, or even right when I post it. But I have too much to cover to do that this month!

First up is a trade with Spazmatastic who I know from both NUTS and the Trading Card Database. Adam and I chat regularly- usually sending each other a message every night- mostly about NASCAR, and it actually evolved into a trade. (not the first we've done) First things first, I feel terrible about this trade because I promised him two cards and then couldn't find them. I made up the difference with paypal but I still feel terrible about it.
From him I got the Panini Instant card from the Charlotte race, which his favorite driver Jimmie Johnson won. Only 80 copies of this card were purchased, and he got 5 of them. I bought the first Instant NASCAR card, but I have not gotten any more on my own since then or any of the NBA ones. I meant to write a post about the Truex card I bought but I never got around to it.

I got another PWE from north of the border from CrazieJoe. included were some more Ultra cards from 2004-05, a set I love but needed a few of, luckily he's pulled more than a few of them. 5 more of them joined my collection here, including this card of Brian Cardinal. I like getting cards of big name players of course, but what I really love is to get cards of obscure guys. This is only the 14th Brian Cardinal card in my collection. Ray Allen, who was also in this PWE, has about 300 cards in my collection, for example.

Another rather obscure guy in the PWE was Willie Green, who constantly foiled Charles Barkley's attempts at "Who he play for?" I don't know how many I have of him yet as I have not scanned my collection of him, but it's probably only about 15 cards give or take.

I posted on the Trading Card Database that I was looking for a copy of the Craig Sager card from 2016 Topps Update's First Pitch insert, so member griffey423 just sent me one. Much appreciated!

New member of the Trading Card Database sahal694 is also a basketball collector and we pulled off a simple two card trade. While I've done hundreds of trades online, going back to around the year 2000, it was the first trade he'd ever done online. That's the second time in the past year I got to be somebody's first trade, but I can't remember the other one. The bubble mailer I sent to him covered from New York to Phoenix in just two days! Of the two cards he sent me, one did something that doesn't happen too often- it completed an insert set! I'm a base card guy, that's well documented, but I like non-base cards as well. Inserts getting completed for me is fairly rare, and in fact, I don't even have a list of the ones I've completed....that's definitely something I need to do! David Robinson Flagship Series was a 10-card insert set in 1992-93 Skybox, and #R6 was the last one I needed to finish it off. The Ray Allen from 1996-97 Stadium Club Rookies I brings me to within only two cards for that set, as well.

 My friend who sent me the Racing Champions card that got it's own post earlier in the month sent me some other great stuff too. And not just NASCAR!

 This is only my 3rd flag relic and first Blue Flag. The blue flag with yellow stripe is one of the rarest in NASCAR, used to signal out a lapped car in the way of the leaders, it's the second rarest flag to see, with only the reg flag displayed less frequently (although with the growing number of rain relays it's a about a draw now). Another rare flag is red with yellow X, it is displayed when the pits are closed.

Terry Bradshaw! My first card of him. While from everything I've heard he was a great football player, I know him more from his many appearances on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It's Serially Numbered to 999 as well.

While I teased the shifter boot card he sent me in the first post, I am going to hold onto that for now as I have an idea for a post that it will show up in shortly, hopefully by the end of 2016.

Thanks for reading.