April 2016 Trade Recap

April's trade recap is on pace to be one of the largest since I began doing recaps of a month!

The first trade arrived to me on April 2nd, when I got a package from BOBZCARDS on the Trading Card Database. I posted about this in a rare baseball post earlier this month, where I stated he only had two cards or 8 depending on how you want to look at it. (no comments on that, so I can only assume nobody cared, but...it's my blog so I'm going to talk about them anyway!)

These are what I was trading with Bob for...

Two promo panels from 1990-91 Hoops, still in panel form! (although in both cases the Taco Bell ad is a little "loose" on the connection). I had never seen these before but this is one of my favorite sets. I wonder if there are more than just these two panels out there...

The cards are not numbered, so I count them as one panel. I am actually glad I didn't get these until later in my life/career, because if I had gotten them when I was younger, I would have separated them. I'm still kicking myself for separating the Fleer promo panels, and the 1996-97 Collector's Choice Mini-cards. Not to mention years worth of Sports Illustrated for Kids! At least I had enough sense not to separate the 1980-81 Topps cards I have. (I use Photoscape to edit the scans down into each individual card, and can finally see them in numerical order that way)

On April 6th, two more trades arrived to me! The first was from Jon of A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts. I have traded with Jon in the past and I always get topnotch stuff from him.
The first card out was 1993-94 Upper Deck #162, which was the last card I needed to complete the set! The set, at 510 cards, is now the second largest I've ever completed, after 1991-92 Hoops at 590, which I detailed in a previous Trade Recap.

Following that were two Hoops cards, one each from 2015-16 and 2012-13, my two favorite years of the Panini-era Hoops. I am inching ever closer to completing both of them.

After that was a big stack of 1991 Marvel Universe. Now, I'm a DC guy, but Marvel has done much better with cards over the years, doing comprehensive sets on a regular basis while DC has been absent from cards for years. (DC's managerial team is highly inept but that's a whole different topic!). For some reason I never got any of the 1991 Marvel Universe cards. I have a complete 1990 set, I am 6 cards away from the 1994 set, and I have several packs worth from 1992 and 1993, but 1991 was totally absent from my collection, until 2015, when I found a couple of bent but free examples in a local dealer's "junk" box. Jon sent me more than 50 of them! Here are just three of them.

Following that was a graded copy of Elton Brand's 1999-00 Stadium Club Chrome rookie card. I already have the card, but, perhaps surprisingly, it's the first graded Elton in my collection. As you probably know by now, Elton is my all-time favorite player. It is going to be one of the rare instances where I keep a duplicate as part of my collection. Normally duplicates- even of Elton- become trade stock so I can get more non-duplicates. This one will remain part of my collection.

Also on the 6th, I received my first completed trade from SportsCardForum. As I mentioned recently, in my first HOST of April, I joined the SportCardForum in the last week of March. Since then, up to April 7th when I am typing this portion of the post, I have completed one trade, one small purchase and had completed another trade but then got talking with the other person and realized we each had a lot more cards the other person wanted so are building it into a much bigger trade- that way we only have to ship once, and considering the other person lives in Slovenia, saving on shipping is a good thing for both of us!

The first trade was all 2015-16 Hoops cards, getting me very close now. Although I'm still waiting on them to arrive in the mail, I'm only two away from the complete set after this month's activities!
Here are some of the cards I got (but not all)

Photo from game held in Africa, one of two in the set

Only card to depict the Rockets' Chinese New Year jersey I am aware of

In a funny coincidence, the trade from SportsCardForum included a copy of the same 2015-16 Hoops card Jon sent me, so I went from having no copies of the Paul Pierce card, to having a duplicate, in the same day!

Update on Hoops: After writing this post, I completed 2015-16 Hoops, the final card I needed arriving in the mail on 4/30/16.

On April 19th the big package from my new friend in Slovenia arrived...it was a big one, and covered a wide variety of sets- just check out this breakdown of the trade below!

• 7 cards from 2012-13 Hoops
• 17 cards from 2004-05 Upper Deck
• 21 cards from 2014-15 Hoops
• 4 cards from 2010-11 Panini Season Update (I now need only one to complete the set)
• 7 cards from 2012-13 Panini
• 15 cards from 1994-95 Flair
• 5 cards from 2012-13 Past & Present (and almost 10 more that I forgot to remove from my wantlist when I got them in 2015)
• 4 cards from 1998-99 Stadium Club
• 6 cards from 2001-02 Hardcourt
• 5 cards from 1994-95 Finest
• 3 cards from 1997-98 Metal Universe
• 3 cards from 2006-07 Bowman, all of which are new people for my collection
• 2 cards from 1996-97 Stadium Club
• 2 cards from 1997-98 Stadium Club
• 4 cards from 1996-97 Fleer
• 2 cards from 2006-07 Topps
• 1 card from each of the following sets: 1995-96 Flair, 1996-97 Z-Force, 2003-04 MVP, 2000-01 Stadium Club, 1999-00 Skybox Apex, 2014-15 Panini Prizm, 2004-05 Hoops, 1999-00 Flair Showcase, 2002-03 Ultra, 1999-00 Stadium Club Chrome, 2009-10 Crown Royale, 2009-10 Upper Deck, 2008-09 MVP, 2014-15 Select, 2012-13 Hoops European, 2013-14 Panini European. The final 3 sets are new to my collection, and the cards from 09-10 UD and 08-09 MVP are also new people! 

Here are some highlights:

 This Mile Ilic card also completed the letter I for me...I now have at least one card for every person who has a last name beginning with I to get an NBA card, at least as far as I know!

 The back is shown instead od the front. There are two ways to tell the European card from the American card, one of which shows in the scan. The line of copyright says designed in the USA while the American version says "©Panini America Inc., ©2012 NBA Properties, Inc., Printed in the USA". The other difference is the card itself, which is glossy on both sides and is a different thickness. I had no idea there were different versions of 2012-13 Hoops.

 I did know that there was a 2013-14 Panini European seat based on the American Hoops design, but I was not able to get any before this one.

On April 23rd, I ended up getting a lot of cards. I visited a local place that has multiple card dealers, and I also received a trade in the mail from cabz05 on the Trading Card Database. This trade saw me take in 25 new cards, and also moves him into the lead of people with the most trades with for me on the Database- this was our 3rd deal. First out was a selection of historical inserts from Allen & Ginter. I know these are technically baseball cards but the non-sports they include is really something I love. I know this year's set will have a lot of Ancient Rome in it so I may not be able to resist chasing the set some, but all these are from 2014. My favorite is, naturally, the one about Rome.

I finally got around to putting the cards I needed from 1990-91 Hoops onto my wantlist on the Database- and I got three people offering me the missing cards in the span of a week! Cabz05 was the first and from him I got all but two of the cards I needed from one of my all-time favorite sets- a trade I am waiting on should complete it for me!

I also got 5 of the cards in the 6 card NBA Schoolyard Stars insert from 1991-92 Fleer. I already had card #2, which means I now have the complete insert set! That's not something I have happen very often.

5 cards from 1992-93 Ultra now brings me under 10 needed to complete the set! This is another set that made it onto my Top 20 Countdown.

I received two trades on the 28th, both from the Database. The first one, which was larger, left me a little unhappy so I won't say who it was with- the cards were physically dirty and just put loose into a bubble mailer- a couple of them also came with water damage that was clearly like that before they went into the package. It was mostly common cards from the 1998-99 through 2000-01 season, with the largest part of the trade being 1998-99 Hoops, not a set I particularly like anyway. The highlight of the trade was an Andrei Kirilenko rookie from 2001-02 Ultra, which is SN. You can see in the gold foil area of the name where I used a damp paper towel to clean the card- it look like it needs some more work. I find this strange because I've traded with the person before and that other time was perfect. I have not decided if I want to say anything to him yet- perhaps he will read the blog and contact me.

I also received a trade from  jlcre2003 on the Database, which was a small trade- 6 cards total, 4 coming to me and two going to him, (it's all he asked for) but the highlight of that trade was a card of Shavlik Randolph, which is my first of him. It isn't too often I can trade for somebody missing from my collection but it worked out perfectly here.

This was the largest month for me for trades in over a decade! I have no real idea the last time I made this many trades, but it was likely around 2004 or 2005.
Thanks for reading!

Tribute to Kobe Bryant

Some players are good...some are great. Some are transcendent. Kobe Bryant is one of the latter.

Last night, he played his final NBA game, in his 20th season. It turned out to be an epic game, as Kobe looked like the player of old- before injuries had taken their toll, robbing him of several seasons and about half his physical playing ability.

But for one final night...he still had the old spark, as he put up an incredible 60 points, single-handedly outscoring the Jazz in the 4th quarter to bring the Lakers back from a double digit deficit to win in his 1346th and final NBA game.
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Kobe set all kinds of records in his career, and he added more to them on the final night of his career. 60 points were the highest scored by any player during the 2015-16 NBA season, he became the 4th player in history to attempt 50 shots in a single game, he broke a tie for 2nd most 60 point games in a career, and nearly doubled the total scored by a player in the final NBA game they played, a record formerly held by Eddie House with 35 points. (I don't count Jordan Crawford's 41 points as he is still active, just not in the NBA.) In addition, Kobe attempted his 10,000th free throw in the game, only the 5th player to reach that mark!

Here are Kobe's standings in the important stats:

• 11th all time in games played, all for the Lakers, which is 4th all-time for games played with one team.
• 6th all time in minutes played.
• 5th all time in made baskets
• 3rd all time in made free-throws
• 100th all-time in rebounds (more impressive when you realize the rolls of people who have played in the NBA is nearing 4000!)
• 29th all-time in assists
• 14th all-time in steals
• 180th all-time in blocks, the hardest stat to add to
• 3rd all time in points. Ahead of such legends as Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal, and everybody who ever played in the NBA not named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone!

In addition, Kobe holds the 2nd place in single game scoring, putting up 81 points on January 22nd, 2006, in a win over the Raptors where none of his teammates could manage more than 13 points of their own! 

And that's not even mentioning his 5 NBA Championships, 2 Finals MVPs and 1 regular season MVP, something I have always said he deserved more than one of.

The question is not whether Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest of all time....the only question is, how soon will the Lakers retire his two numbers, #8 and #24, each worn for 10 of his 20 seasons. He is surely going to be in the first Hall of Fame class he is eligible for, there is no question of that.

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I feel lucky that I have been able to follow Kobe's career since Day 1. The 1996 Draft class, as I've mentioned before, is one that is special to me as it was my first time experiencing the excitement of the new class of rookies coming into the NBA, and the 1996 draft class just happened to be one of the best all time, with an amazing 10 all-stars, 4 MVP awards, and more than a dozen NBA Championships- and I stopped counting them among the first round of draft picks! While many players had great careers from that draft, none could match Kobe. Kobe was also the last one playing in the NBA, outlasting all others by at least 2 years, although 23 out of 58 players played 10 seasons or more.

I've also been lucky enough to pull some really great cards of Kobe.

 Yes, I pulled Kobe's autograph...twice! I've never had much luck pulling the big names, but there are some exceptions and these two cards are the biggest of the exceptions! I will never forget that box of 2000-01 Upper Deck. I received it as a Christmas gift for 2000, and this Kobe card was only the second relic I had ever pulled- the first coming only moments before from a box of Hoops Hot Prospects I also got that day. The UD Glass card was just a lucky pull. I remember pulling it but the memories are not nearly as strong and important to me as the first is. I've opened so many packs of cards over the years that I don't really remember some of the sets, or cards...but some of them are so amazing that I could never forget them. The UD card is one of my favorite pulls ever.

Kobe ranks 2nd in my NBA collection. I don't have an accurate list yet, and won't until I can get my entire collection scanned and properly listed, but the Database shows 617 Kobe cards as part of my collection. I can't use their listing because they count cards he shares with other people, team cards, college cards(he was included in college sets), multi-sport, all that other stuff that doesn't count for me. (at least not as a person's card). He would rank 3rd overall in my entire collection behind only Michael Jordan and Jeff Gordon. I had no idea while watching that 1996 draft that he would become one of the greatest of all time, and one of the largest portions of my collection.

I want this post to mostly be carried by the text and not the pictures, but I need to post one of the #24 jersey, so I have selected 2012-13 Panini Threads #64 as the best image of the road purple #24 to show, at least among cards in my collection.

When I think of Kobe, I think of the #8, and probably always will, even though he's been wearing the #24 for the last 10 years. It is expected that the Lakers will be retiring BOTH numbers early in the 2016-17 season. Retiring a player's jersey number is the highest honor a team can bestow, and Kobe has certainly done so much for the Lakers franchise that retiring both of his is only expected.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Kobe for 20 years of entertaining basketball.

NBA 20th Anniversary Countdown #16: 1975-76 Topps

I said in post #1 that there were some things about this list that surprised me when I was creating it...and this is the biggest. The surprise in this case is that this is the only Topps flagship that made the Top 20! It is also the only vintage set to make the list. For the NBA, vintage is 1985-86 and older. (Although I must admit if I went past #20, both #21 and 22 would both have been vintage sets). This is also the only set on the list older than I am.

#16: 1975-76 Topps

Why I like it: This was the first set that was truly done right, the only thing missing to make it perfect is the lack of coach cards.

Set size/Completion: 330 cards, and I have it completed!

As you readers all know by now, I love history. I love the sport of basketball. So naturally I love vintage cards! In fact, I learned about the history of the sport by chasing down vintage cards, or even just cards a year or two older than 1995-96 when I started collecting, there is really a wealth of information crammed onto cards, and I have spent now 20 years learning as much as I possibly can. And even though I might not remember everything I read, I can always pull up my scan folder and start reading.

As I mentioned above, this is the only Topps flagship that made my Top 20, and that is the biggest surprise to me of all. The Topps flagship set was the only game around when it came to basketball for more than a decade. Issued in 1957-58, and then no NBA cards at all until 1969-70, when Topps came back. They were again the only game in town until 1981-82, when they walked away from the NBA, not to return until 1992-93. They would stay until the NBA yanked their license during the 2009-10 season.

This was, by far, Topps' best effort of the 1970s. The set went to 330 cards which is the second largest Topps flagship set ever, tied with the aforementioned 2009-10. Only 1992-93, 1993-94 and 1994-95 were larger, at 396 cards each. This set also included more action photos than any other Topps set before it, and there were no cards that had the team names edited out. Although there are still a large number of posed photos, there are more action shots in 1975-76 than there were in all the Topps base sets that came before it- combined! This was also the last year of the ABA's existence.

The one drawback of this set is the card numbers. They can be nearly impossible to read. Printed in dark blue on a dark green box, at a small size no less, they can be tough. Take a look at this one:

 Keep in mind, the scan makes it easier to read....and that is not easy to read at all! (It's #156, by the way). On several occasions I had to find the player's name on the checklist because the card was not readable at all.

The set was the second to feature team cards. For the first time ever- and the only time in Topps history- teams got two cards. One had the team's yearly leaders, one was a checklist.
Most were staged photos....

but one NBA and one ABA team got the first ever "Floating disembodied heads" cards. Eek!

Interestingly, they didn't bother to get a new photo for the Milwaukee Bucks- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appear on the Bucks team card as well.

Unfortunately there are some players who Topps never bothered to give even a single card to, and their only appearance on cardboard is on the team cards.

Topps would not issue team cards again until 1981-82, which I would consider set #21 in this 20 set countdown. 

Most of the ABA players were staged photos- (and as you can see, not all cards were cut properly)

while most of the NBA cards were action photos- about 3/4ths of them.

although quite a few of the "action" photos are of players standing around, like so.

There were no inserts.

I completed the set on November 30th, 2002. A comic store we visited bought a collection and took in the entire set of 1975-76 and a handful of other vintage cards. It was the only time that shop ever had any basketball cards.

• #20: 2002-03 Topps 10
• #19: 2004-05 Topps Total
• #18: 2002-03 Topps Pristene
• #17: 1992-93 Ultra
• #16: 1975-76 Topps

Throwback Thursday #1 - 1971-72 Topps #121 Gail Goodrich

Throwback Thursday is something that, while I have no idea where it came from, is fun, so I take part occasionally.

I have decided to post a (sometimes) random vintage card on Throwback Thursday. For the NBA, the cutoff will be 1985-86 or older. For non-sports, the cutoff will be 1984 or older. That's the year I was born so I am setting the breakline at my birthday...older than me is vintage, younger than me is not. NASCAR didn't get cards in the vintage era so they will not be included. I have some vintage hockey, baseball and football so they likely WILL be included.

I will try and show one vintage card every week, if I remember and if I have nothing better to post about that day.

Today I begin with the first vintage card I ever purchased, I believe, back in 1996, when I discovered the NBA. A small shop in Fishkill, New York had several vintage cards in the case, and I got three of them all around the same time, but unfortunately I didn't keep records yet at the time. I THINK this one was the first, but it may be the second or third. There's no way to know. However, this is the only one I've scanned of the three possibles so we're going to go with it being the first.

The 1971-72 Topps set is a bright one, and I eventually completed it. Goodrich played for the Lakers, Suns and Jazz,  and was a large part of the Lakers team that set the NBA record 33 consecutive wins, which still stands after more than 40 years. The Lakers retired his #25 and he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1996. The reason I chose this card as my (possible) first vintage card? Because it was there, and I could afford it. (I was 12 at the time I added it to my collection!)

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for next week's Throwback Thursday!