Some more highlights from the collection I bought

Just some random cards I want to say something about that I found in the collection.

 This card, 1997-98 Topps Chrome #102, became the 91,000th different NBA card in my collection.

 I got a bunch of new cards for the 2000 Topps USA set, which I ranked as my all-time least favorite set. At least the Women's Team got actual in-uniform photos, unlike the Men's Team, which was all poorly done photoshop.

 2000-01 Bowman's Best is a really under rated set. And it looks fantastic in hand.

 2000-01 Fleer Mystique Gold #77. Funny thing about this set- the Gold set, which is not common, I think one per box, but I am not sure- I have gotten three copies of the Chris Porter card, this is my first card of the set that is not another example of that one card. What are the odds?

After seeing this, now I want to hunt down an actual autograph of Cedric Ceballos, Even if his actual signature looks like it reads "Glo Cilill"!

 I saw a big lot of 1991-92 Fleer and thought they were just going to be duplicates, but since I check every card just to be sure, I was able to find that two of them were the Tony's Pizza food issues, both of which I needed! (not shown: Vlade Divac)

 Another insert from 1996-97 Metal.

 These Flair Showcase cards are spectacular in hand.

 I never even noticed the Soaring Stars insert had a parallel until I got this one...which is bad as not only are they listed on the Database, more than half the set has scans. Not sure this was the best photo to use given the position of his left hand!

 1997-98 Topps was the first set I ever made a wantlist for, on Looseleaf. I didn't include these Minted in Springfield parallels, only base cards. I got one of the 4 base I needed in this collection, and I'm sure I'll find an excuse to post it, once I get it scanned.

 This card really shows the Refractor-ness of a Refractor. This isn't just a base refractor either, this is the Coverless refractor! (which means it's actually a thin plastic card, and both sides are Refractor technology)

I always have loved the 1999-00 HoloGrFx set. (even if it has a stupid name). This looks so much better in hand! This is the gold AUsome parallel of this insert, I also got the standard silver version, but have not scanned it yet. Or maybe I already had it. I don't remember. I've been through roughly 40,000 cards since I got this collection and I'm barely above "overwhelmed"!

 This card, from 1995-96 SP, is actually an error. The "Future NBA All-Stars" wording at the top is triple printed, but none of them line up, making it quite a challenge to read. The prediction was correct, though. He would be an All-Star in the 2000-01 season, and probably could have gotten more if not for a devastating knee injury that cost him all of the 2002-03 season and adversely affected his explosive jumping ability going forward.

1995-96 Ultra is one of those sets that really mean a lot to me- when I was first beginning to collect, and first learning about the sport, it was one of the first sets that entered my collection. While I only know the exact order of the first two sets for sure- 1995-96 Fleer and 1995-96 Hoops, Ultra would have been somewhere in the 3rd-5th slot for entering my collection. My gut feeling is 3rd. I'm still a few cards away but I knocked 6 off my wantlist with this collection, including all three of the rookies I needed! Not pictured, yet, are Brent Barry and Mario Bennett. I have not scanned them yet.

This was actually the first card I added to my collection from the Sousafly Collection. I was really excited when I opened the box and saw a case labeled 1995-96 Collector's Choice Debut Trade. I was a little less excited when I realized I wouldn't be completing my set...it was 132 copies of this same card! I later found more, and I'm now over 150 copies. I've never seen that many copies of one card before.

some Serial Numbered cards from the collection I bought

If you've been reading here for any length of time, you know that Serial Numbered cards are one of my major addictions. I've never met a SN card I didn't like. Today I'm going to highlight some of them that have come in this collection- you've already seen a couple in the first post I made showing some highlights, so I'm not going to repost them. And there's a couple I have not scanned yet, too.

 1998-99 SPx Finite #131. SN5400, the 1998-99 SPx set was the first in NBA history where every card was SN. The various subsets were numbered lower than the base veteran cards. This is one of those subsets.

 2000-01 Finest #139. Surprisingly, this is my first rookie card from the set, even though I did a box if it when it was new!

 2000-01 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #93

 2000-01 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #97. This is the other card I accidentally marked as part of my collection on the Trading Card Database back in 2012, but didn't actually get until 2018. I had the Class 2 card from the box I opened when the set was new, but I mistakenly marked that I had the class 1. Now, I do!

2000-01 Upper Deck UD Exclusives #62. This one has the number clearly visible. Not every card in this parallel is so easy to read.

 I said I wasn't going to post this card, but I changed my mind. The yellow is almost invisible on the scan.

 A card from the first year of UD Exclusives! This insert would run to the end of the Upper Deck era (with the exception of 2001-02, when it was renamed UDX to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Upper Deck NBA cards). This is only my third from the set. I pulled one each from series 1 and series 2 back in the day- Michael Finley from s1, one of the dozens of Michael Jordan cards from s2. this Abdur-Rahim card is #182 and is SN 086/100.

 This card, from 1999-00 EX, is actually an error because the holofoil was incorrectly applied. For now it's part of my main collection, if I ever get another copy it will be moved to the Error collection.

I can't remember the last time I got one of the Xceeding Xpectations subset cards from 2002-03 Topps Xpectations. (SN750). It's been a long time.

This insert, from 1999-00 Fleer Mystique, is even brighter and crazier in hand than the scan shows. You can barely see the pattern in the card in the scan.

Error Gallery : Caught in Packaging

Most people consider this damage. I do not. While it's not an error in card production- it's an error made by the card company, as they package the cards. It's something you can pull from packs, and I have...many times over. I've also traded for them when I have been able to.

It's the second most common error in the hobby. It's also one of the hardest to get to show up in a scan, and I have a bunch more I'm not bothering to show, because you can't see anything in the scan at all.

1994-95 Hoops #436

1995-96 Skybox #32

2012-13 Panini Marquee #3

This LeBron is actually my newest example of this error, I pulled it from a box.

2007 Press Pass VIP #46

This one was so badly mangled that the card isn't even square anymore.

1993-94 Hoops 5th Anniversary #317

 Interestingly, this one got it right under the bottom foil stripe to the bottom of the card.

1993-94 Skybox #214

1994-95 Upper Deck #222

 Caught so tightly that the top right of the card is actually ripped at the crimp.

1995-96 Upper Deck #164

 When it comes on foil it's actually easier to see.

1996-97 Skybox #200

This one is hard to see in the scan, but you can see it a little bit on his leg. I mostly included this scan so I could thank Chris of The Collector for sending it to me.

This was another that was a little painful to pull. It remains my only card from this insert out of my all-time favorite set to this day, now 22 years after I pulled it.

I have a lot more that I have not even scanned yet...but I could say that about every error. When I do, it will give me more to post.

One more to finish this project...which I have scheduled for noon tomorrow. When this post goes live I will be at the world's largest model car show, the NNL East, in Wayne, NJ.

June 2017 Trade Recap

I pulled off a few trades in June, and hit a couple of milestones in the process.

First was a small three cards for three cards trade with Trading Card Database member SaveDaKid. This is our second trade in a short time. In this trade I got two cards from 1997-98 Topps and one from 1992-93 Stadium Club. I only scanned one so I would have a card to post, both sets are done on the Database so normally I set them aside for future scanning.

Next was a BIG trade with Jay O'Neill, also of the Database. I got a bunch of 1994-95 Finest cards, almost 50 of them, covering both series but mostly series 1, which I had less of to begin with.

I scanned 18 of them but here are 4...and the first Milestone of the month. The Grant Long card shown is my 87,000 different NBA card...I think. My records are probably off because I just went and scanned a card recently, went to upload it to the Database...only to find it was already there, and that I had posted it! That's not right...

But the trade included other NBA as well...here's an example from each set included.

 1992-93 Fleer is a favorite set of mine. This is only my second card from this insert set.

 1994-95 Emotion is a pretty rare set to get in trade. The E-Series from Fleer/Skybox ran until 2006-07 as a standalone set and still appears as an insert in an NHL set.

 More 1994-95 Flair. I've taken in more of these in trade in 2017 than I had in the last decade combined!

1994-95 Ultra is close to my least favorite issue of my favorite brand...I am slowly knocking out my needs from the set via trade and I still wish to complete it some day.

I made another big trade with Shawn Norris, and got more Marvel and DC cards.

The Punisher War Journal card is my 1000th Marvel Comics card in my collection...which is a bit of a surprise as I have never been a Marvel reader. I am not sure if the number is correct, because it may be a combination of comic and Movie cards or it may be just comic cards. I need to recount some day.

This card, from the 1992 Impel DC Comics set, was my 14000th non-sport card overall, with a huge asterisk as I know I have more that are missing, including, I could swear, a complete set of this set, which would make this one a duplicate and not new. But since I can't find it, I can't count it as part of my collection.

I completed a trade with Rhinomeadows that brought me only 4 cards, but they were good ones.
The centerpiece is the SP variation from 1989-90 Hoops, which completes the set!

It took me a very long time to complete this set, but finally I can say it's done. There are a couple of variations I don't have yet but I don't consider variations necessary to have the complete set...unless they are something major like a totally different card front, like this one has.
The other three cards:

Both 1994-95 Fleer and 1996-97 Upper Deck made it into my Top 20 favorite sets of all time, and on the Vin Baker card it shows my all-time favorite jersey in NBA history. So a good trade for me! The fact that two of the cards were team cards doesn't hurt, either.

I thought there would be a couple more but they didn't arrive until July. Overall a very successful month for me!