The Rodney Dangerfield of Basketball cards

This card gets no respect...no respect at all.

My dislike for 1980-81 Topps is fairly well known. It was a terrible idea and executed very poorly. Instead of giving each player their own, standard sized card, each card is 1/3rd of a standard sized card, perforated with the intent to split them up. They aren't in any sort of order, although there are repeating patterns- the middle card is always a subset card or the two end cards are subsets and the base veteran is in the middle. They don't vary from that at all. There are three subsets- checklists, of which there are 18, Team leaders, and Slam Dunk.

Because of the way Topps did things in that time, both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird appear on cards for the first time in this set. The key card- and the one that will sort of prevent me from completing the set- has Bird on one end, Magic on the other, and Dr. J. in the middle. (Actually 76ers Scoring Leaders, a team card) This is the only card that will prevent me from completing the entire Topps run from 1973-74 through 2008-09, although there were no Topps NBA cards issued between 1982-83 to 1991-92. Although I will never have the original, I do have the reprint from 1996-97 Topps Stars, when the first Topps card of each of the 50 Greatest Players was reproduced in original, Chrome and Refractor form.

Although it's not an exact reproduction, since the perforations are different. They also reprinted it twice, with the tiny reprint number on the back being the only difference. (If I had been in charge, only the actual card would have been reprinted, not the full panel.)

But...since the panels themselves generally don't matter to me...I still have Magic Johnson's Rookie card in my collection.

How, you may ask? Because there are several panels where two of the three cards don't change, but the third does. Because one of those versions is the Dr. J./Magic Johnson combo, but with Jan Van Breda Kolff instead of Larry Bird, I was able to add Magic's RC to my collection.

as you can see, the production quality itself isn't that high, either.

Yet, most people do not consider this to be Magic's RC. Even though, if you were to separate them, you would not be able to tell this #139 apart from the one that was originally stuck to Larry Bird via Dr. J. This card gets no respect...no respect at all.

I didn't separate my cards...I made that mistake with the 1996-97 Collector's Choice mini-cards, an homage to these. However, with the magic of Photoscape, I am actually able to see the cards in numerical order, something that's impossible to do in reality due to the way Topps made them.

There is a version where the Bird card is combined with two other cards, (Knicks Rebounding Leaders and Larry Drew) but I do not have it. Maybe some day.

So, while I won't ever have the Bird/Dr.J./Magic card, I do hope to someday have every number, if not every panel, and I will consider it a complete set when that happens...if that happens.

Reexaminating the 1989-90 Hoops set on it's 30th Anniversary

The 1989-90 Hoops set turns thirty this year! While that may not seem like a big deal, it was. This set was truly revolutionary and has more than a few firsts to it's name.

1. First NBA set with 2 series
2. First set with a full color photo of the player on the cardback
3. First set to show team logos in color on cardback
4. First set to include coach cards
5. First set to offer updates on players who changed teams
6. Largest set ever produced for the sport at the time
7. First set to offer promos
8. First set with a planned variation
9. First card set issued by the sport it covers
10. First set to include Corrections of errors

Before this set was released, ALL NBA sets were issued in one single series, with the majority of them being 132 cards, although not all. If a player was traded (free agency was not common at that time, although it did exist) you had to wait until the next season to get a card of him- IF he was one of the 131 chosen to appear in each set. (with the 132nd card being a checklist) With this set, which ran 353 cards, almost every player in the league was able to get on a card, for the first time ever. 381 players suited up in an NBA game in 1989-90, so it wasn't all-inclusive, but it was better than it had ever been before. The previous largest set was 1975-76 Topps, which was 330 cards. However, that set covered two leagues- the NBA and the ABA, which was in it's final season. Most of the missing players are rookies, who for some reason were not given cards in series 2, except David Robinson who was in a unique situation. 81 players played their first game in 1989-90. More than 20 of them never got an NBA card. I do not know if it was a contractual reason, or just a lack of usable photos- most of the traded players are in posed shots like the one below, although the expansion players- the Timberwolves and Magic both debuted in 1989-90- have action photos. Either way, it's a missed opportunity and a lot of players who never got a card probably would have if rookies were included.

With the second set, you had players getting an updated base card in the same set for the first time ever.

Cadillac Anderson got card #7 with the Spurs, and card #342 after his trade to the Bucks. 

The card backs were revolutionary in their own right.

Design wise, I've never been a big fan of the light yellow on white theme they chose, despite yellow being my second favorite color- they just tend to blur together, especially on a card that isn't as darkly printed. Every player got full season stats and a bio, but the big deal was the photo of the player and the team logo. Team logos had appeared on card backs before, but never in full color. A photo of the player on the card back was a totally new concept. It has become the norm, now, But in 1989? That was unheard of! 

This was the first set to ever includes coaches in the regular set. Star had issued a small coach set in the 1984-85 season, but it did not include every team and coach, and it wasn't numbered with or issued as part of the base set. With this set, not only did each coach get a card, they were inserted into the packs just like any other card, and every team's coach was represented...there were even coach updates in the second series! Coaches would be included in Hoops from this set until 1996-97, and one more time in 2012-13. They are a glaring omission from the NBA card landscape currently.

This set was the first to ever have promo cards, at least for the NBA. There were two. The 100 card Hoops 100 Superstars set was a boxed set available through catalogs- I've heard the Sears catalog but I do not have confirmation on that. The cards use the same basic design, but the border on the front is bright yellow instead of white, and the backs tend to be lighter printed. The card numbers change but the backs are otherwise the same as the base cards. Fun fact: The first time I saw one of these cards, I had been collecting the NBA for only a few weeks at that point. I thought at first somebody had taken a highlighter to the border of the Scottie Pippen card I had, until I got his regular base card and discovered it was a different number!

This exact copy that was scanned, in fact...a bad scan, my old scanner had issues with this year's set. 

The second promo they issued is a significantly rare set...so rare that it took me more than 20 years to hunt down even a single example. The Hoops Announcers set was only available from the announcers themselves. When people talk about rare 80s cards, they usually bring up the Star Jordans, or the Fleer 3rd year Jordan that most people incorrectly call his rookie card. But those aren't rare. They are just expensive. The Hoops Announcers cards are truly rare. They did them in the same format in the 1990-91 season, and they are just as tough. I've never been able to get one, nor have I ever even seen one in person.

The backs of the announcers cards are not using the same design. It's just blue text on a white field. 

Planned variations are the bane of modern collecting...even worse than exclusive licenses. The very first one, ever, comes from this set. Card #353, the Detroit Pistons Champions card, is the final card in the set. It appears in two versions, the Pistons Logo on a silver backdrop with 1989 World Champions text, and a version showing the players holding the trophy. The player version is actually the rarer of the two. 

If my memory is correct, the photo version was short printed in Series 1, while the logo version was double printed in series 2. I know that I got the logo version shortly after I began collecting the NBA, but I didn't get the photo version until much later. I consider them both necessary to have a complete set. 

This is the first set to ever issue a correction for an error card. That generally only works if there are more than one series, and it happened here. There are six cards that exist in both Error and Corrected versions, most of them are minute and barely noticeable. I didn't know they existed until I was entering my collection on the Database, and then, after I knew what to look for, I discovered I had at least one of them residing in my duplicates box! 

I don't have any of them fully scanned, but here's an error. Can you spot it?

It's that little black like to the left of the card number. They issued a corrected version in series 2 that removed the line. That's it. There's one error with the wrong signed on date in the caption, another where the coach's birthday is wrong and one where they forgot to include the NBA logo! You can see a detailed description of all the errors, and see scans of them, here: Errors and Corrections 

The Hoops brand has been around for 30 years now...how can that be, especially in these days of exclusive licenses? The brand is actually owned by the NBA. This first set was actually produced by the NBA. Later sets would be under the Skybox family, which was absorbed by Fleer. Upper Deck produced the brand after they bought the remains of Fleer, and then, after 5 years with no Hoops sets, it returned under the Panini aegis and has been the flagship of the sport since 2011-12. (I actually have a theory that Pro Set may have actually printed the 1990-91 set, due to the cards' texture and very slight oversized nature. But, that's just a theory I have, with no real proof.) 

This is a very common set, that most people probably overlook at this point in time. Despite the fact that it's a common set, it's not that easy to complete. Some of the cards are short printed, and can be a challenge to find. The David Robinson cards (he has two, one from each series) are some of the most popular cards in their entire Hoops brand history. If you choose to buy the set, you can probably get the whole thing for the cost of a blaster and a half, or less. I preferred to do it the hard way, although to me, much more fun way. I built the entire set via repacks and trading, and a couple of sealed packs, which you could still find easily in 1996 when I began collecting the NBA. You can probably still find them with a little looking, although, as I have completed the set, I don't need to look anymore. However, it did take me almost 20 years to complete, and there are several cards I need to upgrade as well.

There is a printed paper checklist that you could get by writing to an address on the packs. This is very, very rare. Most people, myself included, have never seen one. 

The 1989-90 Hoops set is also the first NBA set I've ever seen an advertisement for. However, I know there were magazines for the hobby that predate Beckett, I don't have any and don't know if they included ads. I have seen an older ad, for the 1988 Maxx NASCAR set, so I know it's not the first ever in the hobby. 

30 years on, and the Hoops brand is nearly ubiquitous for the NBA. There have been more cards issued under the Hoops name than any other in the entire history of the sport.  There seems to be no signs of that slowing down, as Panini still continues to produce a Hoops set every year. I hope that somebody always will. 

cards as i now see them...in my hand

recently, jim, the legendary gcrl, from cards as i see them reached out to me for my address and a short time later a package arrived that can be described only as eclectic. let's take a look at some of the contents...

a big highlight were these 10 cards from 2018 donruss, the only real nascar set from each season, but i didn't get a whole lot of it this year. this is essentially only my 4th pack, i think. the terry labonte is an insert, too. they are not in number order, just in the order i scanned them in. the christopher bell card is only my second or third of him, he's going to go far in the sport.

getting the non-sports cards that topps puts in baseball sets is always a challenge for me, i never think to look for them on comc because i just go straight to the sports i actively collect, and by time i remember i'm out of money. this card is much appreciated and will appear ahead in my card of the day wrapup for july.

is the hot dog actually visible here, or just the slop they piled on it? we ended up with 16 hot dogs left over from our family reunion, all three members of my immediate family will get multiple meals out of that!

 there was some baseball...

 some football...

 some hockey...

 some basketball...

 and even some college football in the mix!

i have recently really embraced the multi-sport sets. for most of my life i considered them a waste. not part of my actual collection because they weren't specifically nba sets, which is all i cared about for the most part. now, though, i have come around on them and really enjoy them. they shined in this package, but i am not going to show most of them because i need them for another post which you will see in the first week of august (i hope) but here are a couple i can show now...

a whole bunch of minis from 2014 golden age. i just picked up the standard size ausbie back in january of this year, have not even scanned it yet. the minis were a mixture of mono blue and green backs. the dom dimaggio card is the first time any dimaggios appear in my collection.

9 out of the 10 1990 collegiate collection michigan state promos made an appearance. not coincidentally the 10th card that wasn't here is a certain mr. garvey.

 i had not even heard of the leaf best of sports brand before. it's a pretty nice set, actually, and i really hate that leaf is being shut out of the market by the exclusive licenses. they do pretty good work actually.

i think my favorite card in the mailer may be this one...

although i have not really talked about it much on cardboard history, (there aren't many cards that fit the bill) architecture and old buildings is a major interest of mine. and winter is my favorite season. if you look closely this photo was taken during a snowstorm, there is snow falling. it's hard to see but look at the door and the two barrels, there are a few snowflakes visible there. and the snow is still on the trees too, which does not last long after a storm.  this card is for the farmers museum in cooperstown, someplace i very well may go at some point in the next couple of years.

another card from the same insert joined this one:

 a very pretty lake. this actually reminds me a lot of lake george, my favorite place in the entire world, but this is lake otsego. it's about 3 hours west and a little south of lake george. lg's got higher hills and mountains though. i love the fact that i live in this part of the country, the lush greenery is everything i could ask for.

this was a really fantastic mailer, jim, i thank you. and there will be some more cards in a future post like i mentioned...in fact at least two future posts counting the card of the day. i don't have anything that fits your collections to send as a thank you but i will see what i can come up with.

jim's trademark is that he never, ever uses capital letters in his posts. i tried to do that here too but it's second nature to me to hit that shift key, in a few instances i found myself backspacing, and one or two may have slipped in. it's harder than it may seem to do that! 

Vintage and Serial Numbered local additions

I don't like to do a whole lot of "Hey look at my new stuff" posts, but that's pretty much what you are going to get here...because I got to visit a local dealer that I don't see too often and got to raid his bins, naturally targeting two of my favorite things- vintage and serially numbered cards. It's so rare for me to see this dealer, I was not collecting the NHL the last time I saw him. Here are some highlights...

 My first card from the set and of Mahovlich. 1968-69 Topps.

 1974-75 Fleer Cloth Stickers. These are not too common, and all 4 in my collection have come from this dealer. How can you tell this set is from 1974-75 and not 1973-74? The Jazz were an expansion team debuting in 1974-75. The adhesive has attacked the cloth on these unfortunately, every single example I've ever seen. Each team got two stickers, a logo and a logo over a basketball.

 An SLU oddball? Yes! OK, it's not numbered or vintage, but does date from the 1989-90 season. It does have a slight bend, but for under a dollar I'm not going to complain about that.

 Again not numbered, but not a common insert. From 1995-96 Skybox, one of the first sets I got as an NBA collector and it was new, it is only the second card from this insert in my collection.

 UD Exclusives is the longest running parallel in trading card history, debuting in 1998-99 in both the NBA and NHL and continuing to this day in the NHL, and lasted I believe until the end of the UD license for the NBA in 2009-10. This is my first UD Exclusives NHL card, I have about 15 or 20 from the NBA, but I've not actually counted.

 This is SN but hard to see the number, over the word Authentic.

Green foil? SN to 99? $2? YES!

I also added 9 more of the 1973-74 Topps Sticker insert. These were apparently one per pack and although I would not classify them as "easy" to find, they are not as hard to find as most of the other 1970s inserts. In fact, I even ended up with a couple of duplicates because I didn't remember which ones I had or which ones I picked up that day- ended up buying two of the Knicks/Bulls card the same day. It's slated to go to COMC in my next shipment unless somebody wants to trade for it now. (as usual, I'll take anything offered)

I really wish they had put the team logo and team banner on the same card instead of mix-and-matching them. I have no cards in my collection for the Capital Bullets, and this one will be counted as a multi-subject card as are all in this series.

 I didn't realize this was card #1 when I got it- I knew I didn't have it, and the price was right, so I got it. I like to have #1 cards for sets, for some reason.

 

This is actually my first card of Tony Esposito, my third from the set.

 I wasn't sure if I needed this card or not- I thought I did, so I took the chance, and it turned out that I was correct- I did need this card! Not anymore! 

 These cards are super thick, and every base card in the set is SN999, not just the rookies. This is only my second card from the set and of Taurean Green.

My third card from the 2009-10 Topps gold parallel. The last Topps NBA set, the cards are generally out of my price range due to the presence of the Steph Curry rookie card in the set.

 My first card of both player and set. 2005-06 Hot Prospects.

My first card of Jessiman, but not of the set. This is the same set as the Emerald Bouwmeester shown above, 2011-12 Artifacts.

There is one other numbered card I have not scanned yet as it's a mirror foil card and they are best done as a page of all foil together. It's a die cut parallel of Xavier Henry. I'll get it scanned at some point.

Thanks for reading!

30 Day Challenge 6: A card I spent more than $10 on

I'm a notable cheapskate. I don't like to spend a lot of money for stuff. I try to keep single card purchases these days to under $5. I recently had to be talked into dropping $15 on a card on COMC by my mom and brother. Granted, I don't have as much to spend as I once did, what with having to pay for the medicine that keeps me alive. A $20 bill is pretty much my monthly hobby budget these days, sometimes, if I am lucky, half of my month budget.

But there was a time when I would spend more than that on a single card. In fact, twice in my life, I've gone into triple digits on a single card. This was the first time I did so.

From 2003-04 Upper Deck Sweet Shot...it's Magic Johnson's autograph...on a baseball for some reason. (simulated, I believe). This scan is not very good- it's set back deep in the card so it doesn't look right. I spent $200 for this card...I set up a payment plan with my local dealer and paid in installments. I kind of regret spending that money on a single card, but I also know now that if I had not done it back then, there is no way I would ever be able to get it, because I can't do that now, even if I wanted to. Even if I could, I'm not sure mentally I could convince myself to...I do wonder sometimes what it might be like to be able to afford the rare cards, but I try not to let myself go there. Just in posting this I was thinking to myself what I could do with $200 on COMC or Ebay right now...how many cards I could get to fill holes in my collection(s). But it's really a fool's errand to think of that because I won't ever be able to do it, so why get all my hopes up, you know?

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.