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...

You can always depend on the kindness of bloggers

No "Total Blaster" today...I opened one...but somebody already opened it before I got it, and stole the relic. I have contacted the major dealer I got it from, and will update with the final outcome, for now Total Blaster 16 will be skipped.

On a much happier note, I got three packages in the mail today. The first was a trade from the Trading Card Database, which got me a new NBA player and might have even completed a set for me, I have not even taken the time to check before getting this post made.

Next was a Christmas card from The Collector, a thank you for my being his Secret Santa. Two cards from 1992-93 Fleer, a favorite set of mine, which you will see in the second photo. It's always a good day to get one of them, and here I got an insert and one of the Drake's promos, a set I've been working on for more than 20 years!

The biggest package came from Dennis of Too Many Verlanders/Too Many Manninghams. Dennis put up a post where he posted a ton of stuff and said if you want any, to claim it. I have never traded with Dennis before, in fact I don't know if I had ever even commented on one of his posts, but I saw this big stack of SI for Kids cards, and I had to jump on them. Even though these are marketed towards kids, I find I appreciate them more the older I get. When I was younger, when these cards were new, if it wasn't NBA or NASCAR, I didn't care. It was wasted space to me. Now, I appreciate getting to see and learn about the other sports. and one thing SI for Kids does that nobody else does is include other sports besides the Big 5. There are entire sports that are represented solely by SI for Kids cards in my collection. And, even though some of these are duplicates, they are still in original panel form- I used to separate mine when I was a kid, but it led to a lot of damaged cards. Way too many. I'm glad to get a full panel now to sort of replace them, even though my collection total won't actually change.
Not only is this going to a fill a lot of holes in my collection, it's going to add a bunch of new names as well. Most of the people from outside the big 5 and even some of the non-NBA and NASCAR people from them will be new too. There are even some of the oversized Legends cards that they did in 1995-96, which are not as easily found as the standard sized cards, although I'm not sure if they count as rare.

Look at them all! The table can't even hold them all! It'll take me a few days to get these processed into my collection, but it's going to be fun!

He also had this group of oversized cards, which I had to claim. Again, as I've gotten older, I have appreciated oversized and other sized cards much more. When I was younger if it was not standard size, it didn't count...I'm not even sure if the oversized cards I got when they were new are counted in my collection. Someday when I finish scanning everything and sort them back by set, I will recount and figure it out, but that's years away.
The cards from Chris at The Collector are shown on the right. They are standard size.
Dennis also included a pack of 2008 Topps baseball, which I will open up shortly, but I forgot to include it in the photo and I'm in too much pain to go take another. The Mourning may be a dupe here but the rest are all new. It may be new as well, I'd have to check my collection listing on the Trading Card Database, but I am trying to get this posted while I am still awake, which won't be much longer, haha.
The Sharpshooters insert that got glare from my camera flash is Hersey Hawkins. 

Dennis, thank you so much for all these cards! Sometime into next year I will bolster your Michigan alumni basketball collection, don't think I will have enough time to get them together by the end of this year, but I will send along a thank you bundle!
And thank you Chris for knocking two more cards off my wantlist for one of my all-time favorite sets!

Lost & Found: My First Jersey

All sports fans love to show their support for their favorite team or players by wearing jerseys. I am no exception. I don't do it too often anymore, but when I was in school I wore jerseys on a regular basis. Every day of the week was not uncommon. Then, I got too fat to fit into most of them. Some of them got put into storage, and were unseen by human eyes for over a decade. One of the missing jerseys was the very first one I ever had....

It is missing no longer! Even better, it did not take any water damage- a couple of jerseys did and will try to salvage them later, but 8 jerseys were in this bag and have been photographed.

The key one, though, is my very first jersey, something I've been trying to find for quite some time!

Keep in mind, these were just in a bag in storage, exposed to every temperature change and several leaks, so they are all wrinkly and not too nice looking. I don't care. I am thrilled to have them back!

For many years I thought that it was April 1996 where I discovered the game, but then I determined it was actually February 1996. A small difference, but important, because it means I got to see more of the 1995-96 season than originally thought. What I now think, on retrospection, was that the date of April 1996 that stuck out in my mind so much was the date I got this, my very first jersey. I can still remember where I got it, too. A sporting goods store on the upper level, about halfway through the mall, in the Poughkeepsie Galleria. It's long gone. The memory remains.

In Hyde Park, just a short drive away, there was a Champion outlet. As the maker of the jerseys, both worn on court and sold to fans, they always had a jersey supply. There was usually something wrong with them...I could never usually figure out what...but I didn't care. Just like with cards, I collected everything I possibly could, and when we would visit it- a couple of times a year- we would usually get whatever jersey they had that I could fit into. It didn't matter the player or the team. If I could fit into it, it went into the cart...or at least that's my memory of it. It may not be totally accurate. Occasionally I would get jerseys elsewhere as well, but most of my collection came from that long closed Champion outlet. Sometimes they would get older jerseys there too. I discovered the NBA in 1996, as I mention, yet I was able to get jerseys there as old as 1993-94...like so.

The Hurley did take some slight water damage, but not too horrible. Not bad enough that if I could get into it, it would prevent me from wearing it. That's a big if, but hopefully some day. Not that I have anywhere to go anyway...school is long done, haven't had a local card show to go to since 2005.
The one problem with getting these jerseys was that they were not too accurate to the actual jersey. Pinstripes were NEVER included, but this Sixers jersey is really far off. This is what it is supposed to look like:

As you can see, pretty much the only thing that's accurate is that it was red and had the NBA logo. Even the font on the jersey number is wrong. I didn't actually remember having these two. Some of the jerseys I had I remembered having and wearing, but these...I had no memory of whatsoever. when they came out of the bag was akin to the first time that I had ever seen them. I thought the Kings were one of the teams that was not represented in my collection...I was wrong.

I've pegged this jersey as from the 1994-95 season. It's another I had no memory of having. I remembered having a John Stockton jersey which is still missing...which makes me wonder if I was remembering this one and pretending the 4 was a 1. It's possible. Tom Chambers actually stuck around in the NBA until the 1997-98 season. I don't remember seeing him play although I'm sure I did. Memory is just bad, I guess.

I didn't remember having this Shaq jersey until it came out of the bag, but then I remembered it. Its' from 1995-96, although the jersey would have been the same from 1992-93 through 1995-96.

I have this Damon Stoudamire jersey tagged as 1996-97, but it could very well be 1995-96 as well. Stoudamire won Rookie of the Year in 1995-96. I've always loved this jersey design, but this is a rather poor representation of it. Like the Magic jersey and the Hornets jersey later in the post, it's missing the pinstripes that "made" the jersey. You get what you pay for I suppose. I had no memory of this one either. Keep in mind it's been about 15 years since I've seen these.

This next one I actually remember. It's also one of the very few that I have a period photo of me wearing. I am one of the very few people who liked the Teal era Pistons jerseys and I still do. This one is for sure the 1996-97 season. I'm not going to post the picture because it was taken at a family outing but I certainly remember it.

This last jersey defies my memory. I remember trying to find this jersey, or any one of the three colors that the Hornets wore, of Muggsy Bogues. I remembered not being able to find one in my size.
Turns out, I was wrong!

The purple was the rare alternate, as well! This was the first one to come out of the bag and it was a total shock to me. I just wish that they hadn't cheaped out and put the pinstripes on it.

I also wish I wasn't too fat to fit into any of these, but, maybe some day. It's one of my "life goals" to be able to fit into my original jerseys but time will tell.

We did find a couple of other jerseys but they need some work before they can come home. I am loathe to put any of the jerseys with the painted on graphics into a washing machine- the paint can crack and was brittle in some places when new- but they took some water damage and smell quite poorly so I think I am going to risk it.
They are:

• Eddie Jones - Los Angeles Lakers, believe 1995-96 season
• Michael Jordan- Chicago Bulls - probably 1995-96 or 1996-97
• Wilt Chamberlain - Philadelphia 76ers, from 1996-97 50th Anniversary season. I had no memories of this one. I remembered the Elgin Baylor Lakers jersey, which never got lost in storage, but not the Wilt.
• there were one or two more that I can't remember which ones they are now. Possibly my Dennis Rodman Bulls jersey. 

Even though I can't fit into these jerseys anymore, and have not been able to for a long time, I'm still really thrilled to have found these. I may not be able to wear them, but I'm still a basketball fan and collector, and I'm not letting them out of my sight any time soon, ever again. Right now I have them folded up in a box right next to my computer. I need to come up with a better storage space for them but for now I am just happy to be able to look at them whenever I want to.

While I have not finished photographing the jerseys I do have/wear/can find, you can see my collection by clicking HERE. I do plan to rephotograph most of my jerseys soon...with my brother's help I was able to get better photos than I had been taking while using a clothes hanger. They are sufficiently better enough that I am leaning towards reshooting them all. It's not like I have that many to do...

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown- my 6 LEAST favorite sets

I just finished an intense project where I counted down my top 20 favorite NBA sets ever, and I can't say it was easy. I put a lot more effort into those posts than I normally do...I acquired some knowledge during the process of building the posts that I never even thought to think about, and I dredged up a lot of great memories to go with a lot of great sets.

Now, after reading more than 100 posts from me, you should know that I don't really badmouth anything. I'm guessing no readers (except my mom, who reads every post!) could accurately gauge my least favorite player or team. (My least favorite player actually made his first Cardboard History appearance during the Top 20 countdown) I am of the feeling that only good things should be talked about, and bad things ignored/shunned, not worth the time and effort to whine and complain about. A lot of sports fans spend most of their time on the internet whining about everything- it's why I've left some message boards/facebook groups in fact. That's not me, and that's not enjoyable to me.

But with that said, there are some sets I dislike...there are 653 major sets that I am aware of; of those, I am missing 64 of them, (one is not out yet) meaning I have 589 of them. While there are some I don't have in my collection that I dislike the concept of- for instance Panini just came out with a six thousand dollar pack (!) - those cards are not in my collection, and probably never will be...and that would put them last on my list. But I'm not going to cover them. I'm going to cover my 6 least favorite sets in my collection and tell you exactly why I dislike them.

After I finished writing up the bottom 5, I came across a small batch of a set I had forgotten how much I disliked and had to edit it in.

#584: 2000 Topps USA

Why I dislike it: There are multiple reasons. First, the cards are made of plastic and they are sticky and greasy. They leave your hands sticky after you touch them. Then, you have the worst photoshopping EVER to appear on cards. Just look at that. Horrible...Who thought this looked good? A blind 5 year old? This was the last USA Basketball set...because this one was so bad it killed the concept.

#585: 2001-02 Fleer Genuine

Why I don't like it: The way the cards were made. Each border is mirror foil, but it's printed over the top of the holofoil, which is used for the player and team names and the stripes. They chip easily...seemingly by breathing on them. I remember the first time I got any was when I purchased a box, and I remember being taken slightly aback by the fact that every card out of the box was chipped...and not only that, they must have chipped instantly while being made because little blobs of the various colors are stuck to the back of each card. The lines across the picture are from my scanner, not on the actual card.

#586: 1976-77 Topps.

Why I don't like it: The cards were postcard sized. That's why. There's no way to store these with your other cards, which to me is the most frustrating thing of all. I like to sort my cards endlessly, by player, by set, or by other ways that I don't even remember since it's been so long. (I think I sorted them by team once). You can't do that with these cards. Naturally, I have the entire set. (the only set in the bottom five I have completed) If I had been alive when these were issued, I probably would have liked them even less, considering 1975-76 Topps was the best set of the 1970s. Because the Blogger format sizes the images all the same, here is a scan that shows it compared to a regular card and also one of the tall cards, a size that was used in 1969-70, 70-71, and again in 1993-94 through 1995-96 and one final time in 2001-02, which is the set shown in the image.

#587: 1980-81 Topps

Why I don't like it: What the heck was Topps thinking? Did it ever seem like a good idea to put three cards onto one card, and expect collectors to rip them into thirds? And if you are going to do that, why would you put them out in a way where you ended up needing to get duplicates of some cards to get them all, while short printing some at the same time? There's just so much stupid here that it is baffling...but even more baffling is why it was not only done this time in 1980-81, but also again by Upper Deck (1996-97 Collector's Choice), Topps (2003-04 Rookie Matrix) and Fleer (various years of Fleer Tradition, but only 2004-05 was perforated). I count each different panel as a separate card. Most people do not. It makes record keeping very difficult...I can only hope I didn't accidentally count any of the panels more than once. I have not separated any of the cards from 1980-81 Topps, but I did separate the cards from 1996-97 Collector's Choice. I'm not sure if I counted those at all!

#588: 2003-04 Fleer Avant

Why I don't like it: There's multiple reasons. The set is very short- there are only 60 base cards. (90 with serially numbered subsets) That's strike one. The design is terrible. You have a photo of a player edited to have various colors behind him, and it takes up roughly 2/3rds of the card, with the rest being empty white space? Strike #2. And then there's the back.

Which way is up? I rotate them to make the stats readable, but not everyone does. Which way is right? Who can say? Strike #3! And really, congratulating you for getting a card of this set... that's like congratulating somebody for catching a cold.

#589: (My least favorite set ever!) 1998-99 Fleer Brilliants

Why I dislike it: Multiple reasons! First off, it's mirror foil, which I dislike. Secondly, the cards are sticky, and they have been since new. I have to literally go and wash my hands after touching these cards because they make your hands greasy and make you leave fingerprints on other cards. They collect dust like I collect cards- and forget trying to remove it. With most cards, you can remove dust that sticks to it by brushing it with your shirt, or, failing that, a fingernail. If you do that on this set, the coating on the card chips off yet sometimes....the dust stays. You can't use your shirt because it leaves streaks in the grease of the card. Nasty. You can see some spots where this card chipped right above Kerry's left wrist. There are three chipped spots.

Surprising to see three Fleer sets on here, isn't it? Fleer has always been my favorite card company, but when they produced a stinker, it stunk to high heaven.

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #2

The final two sets. They must be great to make it to my top 2! This one, I think, was the first box of NBA cards I ever opened!

#2: 1994-95 Hoops

Why I like it: The design is great. I can still remember opening the box I got that day in 1996. The backs give you the player's jersey number. But like most of the top 5, it's the memories.

Set size/Completion: 450 cards, I completed it on March 2nd, 2002.

Back when I first discovered the sport, the 1995-96 season was roughly halfway done. I jumped in with both feet (proverbially) and started collecting as many cards as I possibly could. But I really didn't know who anybody was at that point. It took time to learn, and the best way to do that is to look at cards...as many cards as possible. This set, I believe, was the first box I ever opened. It could be this one, 1990-91 Hoops or 1994 Action Packed Hall of Fame, but I really think it was this one. I can still remember opening it, I can still remember where I was sitting even. (Some things are so important that they just burn themselves into memory) This set, with it's high levels of text and stats on the back, and a larger checklist than any 1995-96 set, did a great deal for me to learn about the NBA. Sure, not all the players were with the same teams, or even still in the NBA. But it didn't matter. The fact that the back of the card included the player's jersey number was a great thing to me. When the guys are running at top speed, and viewed from a distance, you usually can't see their faces or can't read the names on the jersey...but you can see the numbers. I can remember literally watching games and looking at the backs of these cards trying to match the player on the card to the player on TV. Granted, I only did it a few times- back then my memory worked a lot better than it does now so I knew pretty much all the rosters of each team within a matter of a few weeks. But I doubt I would have been able to do that if I did not have this set to help me.

Look at all that information stuffed on there! You can tell that back then they really cared about the game...not something you really feel like the card companies do anymore.

There were 9 inserts, including the multi-level Magic's All-Rookie, which has regular, chrome and Jumbo versions.  I don't have any of the Draft Redemption cards, and I have not scanned any of the Rainbow foil Big Numbers parallel.

 Magic's All-Rookie regular

 Magic's All-Rookie Chrome

 Magic's All-rookie jumbo. The blogger format doesn't show it well but this is 4 times the size of a standard card.

 Hoops Power

Supreme Court, which is making it's final appearance until 2004-05. It began in 1991-92 as a subset.

 Big Numbers

Hoops Power Predator


In addition, the 2004-05 Hoops set paid tribute to the 1994-95 set in design.

• #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
• #13 2012-13 Hoops
• #12 1997-98 Ultra
• #11 1992-93 Fleer
• #10 1994-95 Fleer
• #9 1996-97 Upper Deck
• #8 1997-98 Stadium Club
• #7 1995-96 Fleer
• #6 1996-97 Stadium Club
• #5 1996-97 Fleer
• #4 1990-91 Hoops
• #3 1996-97 Metal
• #2 1994-95 Hoops

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #8: 1997-98 Stadium Club

I know a lot of people go nuts for Stadium Club. While I wouldn't say I'm one of them, they had a couple a REALLY good years in the 1990s that rank among my set favorites.

#8: 1997-98 Stadium Club

Why I like it: The photography. Topps really stepped up the effort on photography for Stadium Club over the other brands they produced, and they stepped that effort up beginning with 1997-98. The cards also have an interesting coating on them that makes them feel slippery without being sticky or greasy feeling. Unfortunately the coating scratches easily.

Set size/Completion: 240, I have 209 of them, 87.1% according to the Database

Just look at that photo. Look at the depth of field. It looks like you are right there watching. And most of the set is like this! That would also be true of the 1998-99 set, which was under consideration but missed the cut for the Top 20. It was still there somewhat in 1999-00 and 2000-01, but by then mostly it was just another set; the depth and "you're right there" aspect gradually went away.

Although it doesn't really scan well, each card also featured a hologram Stadium Club logo. The blue box the player name appears in is also holofoil.

This set is unique in all of NBA history- series 1 was odd numbers, series 2 were even. Every other set that had more than one series was numbered in the usual manner of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Not here.

Card backs are mostly purple and blue. One thing I like, but was kind of blundered- the ranking in the stats. That's great but they blundered it...NR, not ranked, is unacceptable. And for full career they went only with active instead of all time, which is disappointing as well. And so much space was wasted on averages when a few more real stats could have been included. It was a great concept that was executed poorly.

This set was the first ever to include printing plates. (I don't have any). They would become a staple but at this time they were incredibly rare. There are also Members Only and the standard First Day Issue parallels, but they were hobby only, and most of my cards came from retail...I don't have any of them either.

Inserts included several multi-level sets, including Triumvirate and Bowman's Best Previews, which had basic, Refractor and Atomic Refractor versions.

 Bowman's Best Preview. Note for the veterans the background is different than Bowman's Best base cards.

 Bowman's Best Preview Atomic Refractor. The rookies in the Preview set look like the normal Bowman's Best Rookies.

 Hardcourt Heroics, this card's background is all hologram. My favorite insert in the set.

 HoopScreams, mirror foil.

Royal Court.

Hardwood Hopefuls, printed on clear plastic.

The inserts here are pretty good actually, but it's the base cards that once again are the main focus for me.

• #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
• #13 2012-13 Hoops
• #12 1997-98 Ultra
• #11 1992-93 Fleer
• #10 1994-95 Fleer
• #9 1996-97 Upper Deck
• #8 1997-98 Stadium Club

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #13: 2012-13 Hoops

In a way, this set is directly responsible for Cardboard History's creation. It's the set that got me back into the NBA!

#13: 2012-13 Hoops

Why I like it: There are many reasons. The biggest, of course, is that it's the one that got me back in. The fact that it includes coaches. The fact that it's (mostly) sorted by team. The fact that it was the first card for so many of the players who now make up the NBA in my collection. The color coding to each team.

Set size/completion: 301 cards, I have 281 of them, 93.4% completion according to the Trading Card Database.

There is so much about this set, that makes it stand out among the other Panini era cards. It is, in fact, the only Panini produced set to make the Top 20...although if we can get a series 2 of Complete that actually completes the NBA, that will move into the top 15 as well.

This one requires a bit of a backstory...find a comfortable place to sit because this one has a lot of text.

In late 2006, sometime between September, when I got my last box, and Christmas, I was not enjoying collecting NBA cards anymore, or watching the games for that matter. I was unhappy with the cards being produced, and how the game was being played- to me at the time, it seemed like it was less about basketball and more about getting on the SportsCenter highlight reels. I told my family not to buy me any more cards, (then and now, the majority of my new additions come from my mom and brother buying me cards). I hadn't sorted my cards in years, my digital records were gone, (as I detailed a few posts ago) and to make matters worse, I could no longer afford to get a box of every set produced, or more than one, which is what I did pretty much from 1999-00 through 2005-06, although I did miss a few sets in that time frame.

I put my cards away and I at the time thought it was done and over with. I still watched some games but that trailed off too, I think during 2008-09 I watched only two games all season long, including the playoffs. My involvement with basketball was at an all time low. For instance, I knew that a team had moved to Oklahoma and became the Thunder, but I didn't know which team. I would not find that out until I started getting this very set and realized the SuperSonics were missing, actually.

But my love of basketball was too ingrained in me to stay away forever. I say that I was away from the game from 2006-12 but that's not entirely accurate...I was away from NBA cards from 2006-12 but I began watching the games again in 2009-10...but at that point I was only watching the Finals. In 2010-11 I watched most of the playoffs and I enjoyed it immensely. The Dallas Mavericks ran to the Championship and Jason Kidd, the best player on my all-time favorite team (2001-02 Nets) finally got his Championship ring. I still wasn't touching the cards, though.

Then came Lockout #2. The first lockout in the 1998-99 season hurt the world of cards immensely. I don't want to give away too much of the remaining dozen sets, but I will say this is the highest ranked set that was issued after Lockout #1. This time, the lockout helped the game. Even though it was shorter, when it came back for 66 games in the 2011-12 season, the games were fun to watch again. I enjoyed every game I watched, and I began watching the regular season again. (unlike most people I generally prefer the regular season). But I was still not collecting the cards.

Then we went to Lake George, NY, my favorite place in the world, for our formerly annual yearly vacation. (Since I got sick in 2013 we have not returned, but I am hopeful I will be able to make that trip again soon). While there we discovered a new card shop. He had some good rare cards at prices I simply could not pass up...I'm talking an X-fractor for a dime. I still mostly got NASCAR from him, which I never stopped collecting during this time period. Then we visited the local Target there, and in Wilton. They had a couple of older packs marked down to 99 cents. I don't remember how many I got but I remember getting a pack of 2008-09 Upper Deck, and then opening it in the car while my mom did the grocery shopping for our stay, and reading the backs of every one of the cards. It was only my second NBA pack since 2006. This was September 2011. (My mom had gotten me a pack of 2009-10 Panini in 2010) I decided then that I would get the packs discounted at Target but I wouldn't pay full retail price for any.

That lasted for about a month.

2012-13 Hoops was issued earlier than normal- most of the time the sets for the new season start showing up in October, but this one, according to the Database, was issued in August 2012. I know it was on the shelves in Lake George area Targets for our September trip. And not only that, they were 44 card rack packs for, I believe, $2. I couldn't resist that...I got some. Then I got some more.

Then, about 3 weeks after we came home from what would turn out to be our most recent trip to Lake George, I really discover the Trading Card Database. I had found the site in August 2011 and joined then but I only used it for reference until October 2012. It was then that I discovered all the other incredible features, and I set out listing my entire collection on there. I started with the NBA. This was the first time I had really looked through my paper listing in more than 5 years. It brought back so many memories, good memories, in some cases the only good memories I have of certain time periods was my cards.

That was it...I was back full time, and I have been back in the NBA ever since. I may not be able to afford to collect like I once did- having to spend $500 or more a month on medicine cuts way down on any hobby, and in fact caused me to essentially give up one of them- but I get what I can. And I find that I appreciate what I get now more than I did the first time around. Before, I would rush through each new pack as soon as I got it to see what I got, most of the time not even taking the time to read the cards. For instance I did an entire box of 2002-03 Topps Chrome while my mom was getting us fast food. Now, I've got packs I purchased in 2013 that I have not even opened yet. I've got an entire sealed box of Olympic cards that arrived in the mail in February 2014 that I have not opened. I appreciate the cards more now.

I realize now that the unhappiness I was having with the cards, and with the game...it was ME, not the cards or game. I've gotten some of the cards I missed and there is nothing inherently wrong with them. I've seen some of the games from that time repeated as "Hardwood Classics" on NBA TV and again, there is nothing wrong with them at all. It was me. If only I knew then what I knew now. A classic line, I fully understand it's meaning now.

All of the cards I've gotten from this set came from retail. I got a retail box for Christmas 2013 but you don't get many cards in a retail box.

Each team is mostly together. That helped me learn where the players I remembered from my first go-around, and where the players who came into the League in the 2007-12 drafts played for. I had not heard of most of the players until I saw them in this set. Two of my top 5 favorite active players, including Kevin Durant above, as well as Klay Thompson made their first appearance in my collection in this set. The first time I ever even heard Klay Thompson's name was when I got the card of him. (That's pretty rare- now that I'm fully into the game again, only two times has the first time I heard of a player been when I got a card of them, and both were in 2013-14. I'm not trying to brag, but I spend most of every day watching basketball or reading about basketball or doing both at the same time)

The set also includes coaches, which I've always been a big fan of coach cards. Unfortunately, this is the only set in the Panini era to include them. That really frustrates me, but it's not as frustrating as Panini constantly ignoring 150 or more players every single year. This year's Complete- a set that would have been on this list had it not ignored 120 players- almost seems like a victory because it "only" ignores 120 players instead of 150.

This is also the only year that Panini color coded each card to each team. Every year since then the backs of the cards have been black and white. While it makes them easy to scan, I like colorful sets that are matched to team colors.

Here's a card back. Another thing I like about the set is that they included some stats. Most Panini sets include one year, if any at all. Even the flagship Hoops set no longer includes full stats. If they had included actual stats instead of averages would have been better, because averages mean nothing, but it's more than we usually get from Panini so I guess I shouldn't complain. 

There were a lot of inserts for the set, and I like them as a general rule. There are also 4 parallels, of which I have 2 of them in my collection.

 Action Photos

 Autograph parallel

 Board Members- this scan is crappy, but this is the first insert I got from the set.

 Courtside

 Draft Night, a set that features 2012-13 rookies

 Franchise Greats

 Glossy parallel- looks just like the base cards, but shiny. Panini moved to glossy cards as a standard after this set.

 Rookie Impact, which shows 2011-12 rookies. Panini chose not to make actual rookie cards for the 2011-12 rookies.

Spark Plugs.

There are also rare Kobe's All-Rookie Team that is not in my collection, and there were also hobby-only 1989-90 buyback autographs which do not appear in my collection.

At some point I do want to purchase a hobby box and see if I can complete the set.

How did it lead to the birth of Cardboard History? Well, it led to me collecting full time again, and it led me to the Database, which has a blogroll on the main page. I started reading them regularly in mid 2014 and I enjoyed what I read, after reading for several months I decided to make my own and here we are!

• #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
• #13 2012-13 Hoops