FINALLY no longer hanging over my head

 I have mentioned it a few times over the years- when my brother gave me my current scanner I went and scanned a bunch of mirror foil and Finest style cards. I do not like editing those scans, they are not fun at all...the term I've used in the past is "soul crushing". I had set them aside to work on when I was sick and didn't want to touch any cards to make new scans, and...guess what, I'm sick again. This is the third time in 2023 I've managed to catch a cold...I'm so ready for 2024. Worse still is that I'll miss my model club Christmas party for the first time ever, since I joined the club in 2009. 

But, with all this time being spent sick, I finally got the scans finished! They have been waiting since 2019, I believe. 

After the last sickness, I had only 10 pages left- 2 of 1994 Finest baseball and 4 each of 1994-95 and 1997-98 Finest basketball. 

over the course of yesterday and today I finished off all 10 pages. I'm so glad they are done and behind me now, no longer hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles. 

Not to say I'm done with the foils and Finests, I have several hundred that require scans still, and I am still adding more to the collection, as in last post. But when you do one or two pages at a time it's a lot more tolerable than seeing over 100 pages looming ahead of you. I didn't pay attention to how many pages it was, or if I did I forgot, but I think it was actually closer to 500 scans, which would be about 250 pages. I know this round covered images 561 to 627, and I know they started in at least the 200s- maybe lower numbered. I wish I had paid more attention to that. 

The next scan I make will be #13997 so that tells you an idea of how long ago these were scanned. Like I said, I think it was 2019. It might have been late 2018. The one thing I would change about this Epson V600 if I could would be that it saves the date the scan was made, it does not. I know the scans were made BEFORE I went to the NY International Auto show in 2019. 

This was the last card cropped and edited. 1997-98 Finest #242. 

Here's an example of the other two sets I mentioned.

Unfortunately some of the 1994-95 Finests have greened. 

I know now that I will not do such a huge batch of scanning like that again. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it turns out it wasn't. Lesson learned. 

Sorry if the writing is a little disjointed in this post. After all I am sick. 

Which Finest is Finest?

I've been working on the chrome style cards that I scanned back in 2018, and as I have been working on them I keep having the thought..."Which Finest is finest?", and I knew I had to explore it in a post. In this post, I will do a countdown of the NBA Finest sets, starting with my least favorite and moving to my favorite. This is entirely subjective- based on my personal likes and dislikes and also a bit of nostalgia factored in as well. 

The Finest brand was produced in the NBA from the 1993-94 season through 2000-01 and then again from 2002-03 to 2007-08, 14 years. 

#14. 2006-07 Finest

This set looks like an eyeball, and frankly it's disturbing. The other colors of the Refractor borders don't help it much. 

#13. 2007-08 Finest

Of all the Finest sets this is the one I have the least of. It's ranked low because of that and the fact that the design just isn't all that good. My collection is limited to a single base card (this one) and a single Refractor. 

#12. 1998-99 Finest

I've never really warmed up to this set, and I don't really know why. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, it just doesn't do much for me. This is the thickest Finest set- when I'm handling them, I keep checking to make sure I didn't pick up two cards by mistake, they are that thick. Because of the thickness they are one of the few Finest sets that doesn't curve. Series 1 had the player names in Chrome while series 2 had them in white. 

#11. 1993-94 Finest

The first Finest set, this one is held back by the fact that many of them have turned green, as you can see this one is doing as well. This is one of the more colorful sets and without the greening would probably rank much higher- at least by two or three spots. 

#10. 1995-96 Finest

This was likely the first Finest set I ever saw, but it's one of the weaker Finest sets, and one of the weaker releases of 1995-96 as a whole as well. The background of each card is clipboard style drawing that comes in a variety of colors- green, red, blue and purple. For a time, the Kevin Garnett card from this set was my most wanted card, but I eventually secured one. This example shown actually in an uncorrected error, or UER. His name was Predrag, not Pedrag. He was also the only rookie to get the blue border of veterans instead of the orange border for rookies. 

#9. 2005-06 Finest

A very blue set, all base cards had the blue background. That's not just team colored, although it does match the T-Wolves of the era well. The set has a few colored Refractor parallels which are really nice, the Green being my favorite (no surprise). I only have a handful of cards from this set, I did only one pack of it when new. 

#8. 2000-01 Finest

The only Finest set to NOT have a Refractor parallel, the 2000-01 set ranks as highly as it does because it's fully team color coded, something I like a lot. This set was never common in repacks, and I didn't get a single rookie card from my hobby box! 

#7 1994-95 Finest

Although I'm sure I saw the 1995-96 set first, this is the set I have more memories of from when I was beginning to collect, and that propelled it higher in the countdown than I expected when I was rough drafting it in my head. I still have some of the scratched up cards I traded with my 5th grade classmates to get in my collection, I have not upgraded them in all this time. All cards in the set have the gray front border and a purple back theme. At 331 cards this is the largest Finest set and was the first to feature the peelable protective coating. Some of the photography choices in this set are...bizarrely chosen, as seen here. 

#6 1996-97 Finest

1996-97 was the first of two years where there was not one Finest base design, but several. I loved that concept when it was new, and honestly, I still sort of do! Maestros, Gladiators and Apprentices were exclusive to Series 1, while Mainstays, Heirs and Foundations were in series 2 only. Sterling was in both series. Common cards have bronze borders, Uncommon silver and Rare gold. The rare cards make this set pretty much incompletable...because one of them is a Kobe rookie. When I was rough drafting this post I actually expected this set to rank higher, but looking over the scans changed my mind...if I ever revisit this list I can't say they would rank as low as 6th again. 

#5. 2002-03 Finest

The nostalgia factor absolutely plays a role here, because the design is not as good as some of the years I ranked lower...but I have so many memories of this set. The 2002-03 season holds a lot of memories for me in particular, and seeing cards from this set just makes me inherently happy to see them. That alone was enough for the set to crack the top 5. This was also the first Finest set that included redemptions for the 2003-04 rookies- meaning this set has actual XRCs in it. This was also the first Finest set to have autographs and relic cards as part of the base set.

#4. 2004-05 Finest

I shouldn't like this set as much as I do, but...I really do like it a lot. There's a LOT of border here, and the gray and black areas don't have the traditional Finest chrome affect. One thing I do like about this set is that it's got the second closest to real photos you'll see on a Finest card. Most Finest sets are just a cutout of the player over a digitally created background, something I generally don't like. This set features actual photos, just with a layer of texture over them that makes them shine. Another thing I like about this set is that it's actually easy to scan...most Chrome cards are a pain in the butt to pull a good scan off of. Not this one. This was the first Finest set to feature colored parallels, and once again the Green is my favorite. This was the last Finest set I opened a box of. 

#3. 1997-98 Finest

The second and final year of multiple base designs, I actually had this ranked lower in my mental rough draft until I looked at my collection scan folder and realized this is actually the superior set to the 1996-97 release by a wide margin. There are also more designs, 10 of them this year! Finishers, Catalysts, Ballhawks, Force and Debuts are from Series 1, while Showstoppers, Defenders, Arrivals and Creators are from Series 2. Masters appears in both series. This set is exceptionally earth toned. The cards are pretty much all on the orange to brown spectrum, almost overwhelmingly so, but basketballs themselves have been on the orange to brown spectrum for generations so I guess it works. 

#2. 1999-00 Finest

I really expected this to be #1 when I was rough drafting the post, but it fell just short. This year's set has a solid design- a real photo, but with the chrome technology creating a wooden court pattern on the cards. The boxes by the team and Finest logos are color coordinated, as are the card numbers on the back, the only set I can think of that has that as a feature. This set actually has the least amount of border of any Finest set, too. It was the last to have two series, the last to have a peelable cover, the first to have serially numbered cards as part of the base set, and the last to have a real subset- a small section at the tail end of the set is set aside for the 2000 US Olympic basketball team, the only time non-NBA jerseys appear in a Finest set. 

#1. 2003-04 Finest

I just could not get past the colorful aspect of this set, when I was looking at all of them, it just won out. The large name, color coded to the team, the stripes that remind me of a race track, also team color coded, and even the player's jersey number being prominently featured...add that to the texture surrounding the name area and you just have a winner. 

Maybe I shouldn't have gone with a Celtics card for this set, which I admittedly chose because of the green, 

You really don't get the full appreciation of how colorful and vibrant this set is unless you see multiple cards from it. 

So, that's my list of which Finest is Finest. Which is your favorite?

What was I thinking?

If any of you have spent any time scanning your collection, you know that scanning Topps' Finest/Chrome cards is not much fun...with about the only less fun kind of card to scan being mirror foils. (and by scan, I mean the full process of editing to make the scan match the card in hand)

So why the heck did I just scan 5 consecutive pages of Chrome cards and top it off with a page of mirror foils, too?

I don't know. But I do know I'm NOT going to sort the next box before I start scanning it, putting off the Chromes and foils to the end. I still have lots of mirror foils waiting...but they will continue to wait.

As I progress through scanning the box, each time I hit 9 Chrome/Finest/Bowman's Best cards I will do a page of them. At least, that's the theory. Knowing me, I may not actually stick to that. 

Well, at least I do know why I did the page of mirror foils. I received a RAOK in the mail that included several of the 1998-99 Stadium Club Transactions subset cards and I wanted to get them scanned so I could post them to the Database when I add them to my collection listing on there. So at least there's a reason for some of it! 

Here is a screen cap of the cards I just scanned and edited. It was made somewhat better by the fact that I did a page and a half before I went to bed, and did the rest later. Not much better...but somewhat. 

I was originally going to lead off with this screencap, but to fit everything onto one screen, they are barely visible at all.

Can you spot the error I made in labeling? Hint: It's been corrected by time I screencapped the above image.

Remember, you can click on images to see them larger.

As you might be able to tell, this box I was working on was heavy on Michael Jordan, Richard Hamilton, Kobe Bryant and Nick Van Exel. My collection is sorted somewhat by player at the moment, although I kind of tried to mix it up some when I sorted the entire collection (or at least what I was able to find at the time) in December 2013.

Now that I've moved past these, I am working on scanning the non-foil 1998-99 Stadium Club cards that I also got in the mail, back to editing!