Some early highlights from the collection

I think this may be my favorite card so far. It's not an actual game used net relic, but it is a piece of net embedded in the card. Sort of an early manufactured relic, I guess. With the net being white, I had to scan it with the lid open so it wouldn't just be a white square in the middle.  Here's the back:

This was a really unique concept, especially from 2000-01. I didn't really get to experience Pacific- they didn't have the NBA license, and they only made a couple of promo sets for NASCAR which I didn't get until more than a decade after they were issued. But this is certainly unique!

There were actual relics, too:

My first board relic! There are some others waiting scans too.

 There's not much non-sport yet, but the 1991 Pacific Remember Pearl Harbor set is new to my collection.

 The majority of the collection is NBA, and I'm adding lots of new inserts from the 1990s. That's a very good thing!

 1996-97 Ultra is my all-time favorite set, and this is only my second card from this insert set!

 These Pick-Up Game cards are exceptionally hard to find. There's multiple versions of each player (Upper Deck, like this one, Stadium Club, Metal, and possibly one other I'm forgetting now) and this only my second UD example. I pulled the first when the set was new! This is Benoit Benjamin, by the way.

 This is a promotional sample. I had no idea this one existed, it wasn't even listed on the Database. By the way, that's not overcropped. The top of his head really is not included on the card.

 Refractor! The basic Chrome version was also new to me. Due to my love of the refractor technology, I actually have more of them than the non-refractor basic Season's Best inserts from 1998-99 Topps.

Die cut in the shape of a stop sign.

 The collection seems to trail off during the 2006-07 season, which is coincidentally when I trailed off as well, something I now regret. I'm not adding too many new base cards, but I am adding some. This is from 2005-06 SPx.

 I have a lot of Ron Mercer cards, but I've added two rookies of his already- this one, from Finest, and his Upper Deck flagship base card, which is one of the relatively few I needed from the set.

 I've stated a few times that getting every card from the 1995-96 season is something I'd like to do- it's mostly attainable, other than the Electric Court Gold parallels from Upper Deck which were one per box. I've added a few inserts from 1995-96 including this one from Skybox.

 A die-cut, etched foil insert from 1999-00 Ultra.

 1999-00 was the last year of Metal, a set I always liked. I enjoy etched foil. I completed the base set years ago, this is the Emerald parallel, which fell one per pack, but I still need about 3/4ths of them. I don't remember what year I most recently added one before this, it's been a few.

 An insert from 1996-97 Metal, my 2nd favorite set. I have completed the base set but the inserts are pretty low in my collection. This is I believe only my 4th from the 20 card Cyber-Metal set. Latrell Sprewell has always been a favorite of mine as well. The Cyber-Metal set appears to feature flying robot referees and big metal prongs over the court...for some reason. The flying robot referees may be a good idea, actually...

There are some serially numbered cards popping up as well! This is the lowest level parallel from 1998-99 Black Diamond, Double Diamond, numbered to 3000. A Triple Diamond, numbered to 1500 and featuring a yellow theme, has also shown up but scanned poorly so I didn't post it. It was of Chris Webber.

 An autographed phone card. That's a first! Martin Hohenberger only has 8 cards, and doesn't appear to have made the NHL. I think this is a USA national team jersey but I am not 100% sure on what team this card depicts yet.

That's all I've got scanned right now...there's lots more to come. I have not even finished the first square box yet and I'm already at 478 new cards, and more than a dozen new people for my hockey collection.

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #18: 2002-03 Topps Pristene

Sometimes, something just works out where you end up liking it despite the fact that it doesn't fit with everything else you like.

This is one of those cases.

Normally, I can't stand when the background of a photo is edited out to make room for a computer generated design. I also normally can't stand high end sets. Yet this one is both of those, and I love it anyway! It's also a small set, something else I don't like.

#18: 2002-03 Topps Pristene

Why I like it: Memories mostly. 2002-03 was an interesting time for me. Not all of it was good- I lost my dad in 2002, and I don't have a lot of good memories from that time. The only good memories I have from that year are related to cards. I got more cards in 2002 than in any other year of my life.


Set size/completion: 125 cards, I have 76, or 60.8% according to the Database. It is the smallest set and the lowest percentage of completion among sets that make my Top 20.

This card shown is actually the refractor- the only time in this countdown that a base card is not the main image. I love the Refractors in this set. The rookies are the most common, and the base rookies all feature this blue background. The veteran player cards are team color-coded, and the veteran refractors are limited to 99 copies each. The base blue rookies, like this one, are SN1899.

This set was the most high end Topps issued in those years, and normally I can't stand high end sets...in my opinion they are everything that's wrong with the hobby. Yet I love this set anyway. Go figure. Each pack was 3 in one. There were base cards, then a rookie sealed inside a plastic case, and a single packed relic card in each pack. There were three different cards for each rookie in the set. The main one, the blue design as shown above, was unnumbered. The second design was numbered to 1499 and the third rare design to 499.

Here is what a non-refractor rookie looks like.

Level 2 Rookie:

Level 3 Rookie:

Chris Wilcox is the only rookie in the set where I have all three versions, although I have not scanned the basic blue one yet.

Here is a veteran: (Shaq is card #1)

Although the set is a favorite of mine I have only scanned a handful of them. Only three veterans have been scanned, even though I have more than 20 of the 50 in the set. As I related in the most recent HOST, I am not even yet to halfway in scanning.

There were LOTS of relics in the set. Each pack included one. There were also refractor versions of each relic, which were SN to 25. I am lucky enough to have two of them.
The Personal Endorsements autograph insert reached it's multi-year peak, printed on clear acetate and featuring on-card autographs. I have extensively chased all the relics in this set, but even so I have no more than 8 cards from the largest representation, and only 2 from the smallest.

Here is the back of the base card.

• 20: 2002-03 Topps 10
• 19: 2004-05 Topps Total
• 18: 2002-03 Topps Pristene