Really, how many of these do I need? ALL of them

Sometimes it just isn't right for my wife to see my Nic Batum RC collection.  It may be hard to explain.  I have no problem explaining collecting rarer stuff that's low numbered.  But when it comes to cards numbered /299 or greater - it just gets to be something that I'll keep to myself.  So in the case of regular blue variation RC's /499, I keep those in a binder where they're not so easily seen.  You can see 14 of them here (the other one is auto'd and put away in a box).

Really, how many of these do I need?  Well, all of them, actually.

And now with MORE Golden Chrome goodness

I feel like I was just saying yesterday that since I've been collecting 08/09 Nicolas Batum RC's, I've never seen any Gold Chrome Bowman versions of the card until last week when I snapped up the first ever copy I'd seen on ebay.  And wouldn't you know it.....

Not two days after buying the first copy, a second card showed up.  I originally bought 29/50 and 30/50 popped up right behind it.  What's a super-collector to do?  Whatever is necessary, of course.

Gentlemen, I give you 4% of all the Bowman Chrome Gold goodness a person can have.

For what I paid for these two cards alone, I could've purchased my first box of 2012 Heritage Baseball.  But that's not what it's about.  This will be worth a case of Heritage someday.  I've got a pretty good feeling about this.

Please join BasketballCardBlog.com is furthering a good cause

Some days it's hard to be a blogger - especially when you're a blogger who happens to have a blog that is heavy on basketball cards.  What do I even have to write about today?  The NBA season is in full force, and what has my hobby provider (Panini) given me to commemorate it?  Nothing.

If you check blowoutcards.com presell basketball page, you'll find a blank page.  There is nothing.  There isn't a single thing you could do today to ever PRE-purchase a new basketball card.  Sure, you could go to Panini's blog and read several articles about how excited Tracy Hackler is about upcoming basketball releases, but until there's wax on the market, all the talk in the world is worthless.

When Panini scored a coup and took the NBA license from Upper Deck and Topps, I was bummed - but if anybody goes back through the years of my blog, you'll see that I was more than supportive of a company looking to make its mark in the hobby.  I liked their first release.  It was a collectible basketball release - it was a prototype "Series One" style release for Panini; and they haven't made a followup to that release since.  There is nothing to tether yourself to in Panini's version of basketball cards.

As time went on, after the free boxes started rolling in from Panini, I began to realize that there was nothing of substance that made me want to continue to collect their basketball cards.  And as the layers of fluff and sticker autos began to be peeled back, we were left with a vision of a turn-style team that connected Panini and Beckett into a hype-machine that does nothing to benefit the collector, but only serves to be a lifeline to a dying model of providing collectibles.  I'm done.

I'm saying right now that I will not buy any products from Panini ever again.  Ever.  Not football, not baseball, and especially not basketball.  And it's because of my love for basketball cards that I'm taking this stand.

Pardon my french here, but it has to be said.  Could anybody Fuck Up an exclusivity contract with a league as badly as Panini has done with baskeball?  Anyone?  Anyone?  No.  Need proof?  Go to Panini America's own website and look at their upcoming releases.  3 football and 1 hockey and nothing basketball.  In fact, collector's won't get new basketball cards until "late February".  Oh, and the first release to come out?  A $200 pack for 4 cards.

Collector's everywhere rejoice!  Start saving now and you could bust a pack that retails for $50 a card.  Do they even get how back-ass-wards that is?  Even when they release cards, only the whales are going to even have the funds to bust them.  But as long as collecting remains in hobby shops, all will be well, right?

So today, I'm starting a letter writing campaign directly to the NBA to stop the exclusivity contract that Panini has.  Will it help?  Maybe not.  In fact, probably not.  Check that, it has 99.97% chance of failure.  But even when we vote in a general election, we realize that our one vote won't elect a president.  But with enough pestering, at least we can cause a discussion.  At least we can let the NBA know that they have fans who would still spend money on their licensed products if they were really worthwhile.

So how do we begin?  Let me lay it out there for you:

First you can write the NBA via email.  And you can do that here.  However, email is pretty impersonal, and a quick 'delete' will stop your voice from being heard.

The other choice is to send the NBA a direct letter.  The address is:

The National Basketball Association

645 Fifth Ave.

New York, NY 10022

Attn: Fan Relations

Some suggestions:

• Include a sports card in your letter.  Maybe an example of a wrong sticker auto, a card with severely outdated photography or simply just a horrible design. Or include a favorite card from past Topps or Upper Deck releases and show the NBA how bad it has become.
• Make your letter personal.  Include details about price gouging at LCS stores.  Include links to video breaks that have high percentages of redemptions.
• Let the NBA know how you feel about price points, return on investment and the lack of availability of cards now that their league is in full swing.
• Also, write to your favorite players and let them know how you feel about the Panini exclusivity contract.  They're millionaires, but who knows, maybe they never thought about how shitty a sticker auto is.  It couldn't hurt.

I for one will write the NBA two letters a week.  It sounds childish, but I'm a fairly decent writer, and with the the COMPLETE LACK OF BASKETBALL CARDS on the market, I have a fair amount of free time.

Batum furthers the value of my collection

This has been a good week in my house as far as it goes for rooting for favorite players.  I didn't mention it in the title, but rooting for Evgeni Malkin this week has been fun as hell as well.  Did anybody see the natural hat trick this week?  And Malkin now has my fantasy team in FIRST PLACE in my fantasy hockey league.  I'm not one to toot my own horn....but pass that damn tuba.

Now, back to the OTHER obsession I'm on, Blazers basketball and Nicolas Batum.  Holy shit.  All it took was for Camby to go down and Batum starts ramping up his production.  His game against Houston was the best all around game he's ever had as a Blazer.  He really was playing out of his mind.  His blocks are poetry in motion.  It makes me so happy that I chose the right guy to start a collection on.

His stats for the Houston game:
29 points
8 rebounds
4 blocks
1 assist 
1 steal
Shot 6/7 from 3pt line

Then he went and followed it up with a great game today in New Orleans:
19 points 
6 rebounds
1 steal

His production really is dependent on 'getting permission' to be a scorer.  Portland better be careful.  The league is taking notice.  If he becomes a restricted free agent, he may get some offers that Portland isn't ready to match.

Obsessive Recreation is again up and running

So this past summer, TJ and I opened up Obsessive Recreation, and we kept the focus on comic books and all around geek-culture.  But things happen.  TJ got pissed off at me.  I got pissed at TJ.  Emails were exchanged, things were said that couldn't be taken back.  In the end, we ended up with a couple of black eyes and some chipped teeth.........

No no.  None of that happened.  It turns out that blogging about comic books is hard work.  The money to fund it to maintain a current commentary is expensive.  And the results were less than ideal from a readership level.  Really, card collectors like their blogs more than comic readers do.  It's really that simple.  Plus TJ has a growing family, and my wife made me decide on a more reasonable number of comics for my sub list.  So we decided to shut down Obsessive Rec in it's past form.

But TJ was cool enough to give me control over the rights to the site - and I've changed it to make a new version of Obsessive Rec, a baseball-centric card blog.  I'm going to leave this site for my Batum collection, basketball card collecting and mockery, hockey cards and soccer stuff.  And I'm devoting a whole separate blog to baseball (and my upcoming run at 2012 Heritage).

So please, if you haven't linked Obsessive Recreation to your blog rolls, please do.  I'd be most appreciative.  I'm going to have fun with it.  The longer I hand around in the blogging arena, the more ideas I get to try things I've not seen done before and the more I refine and cut out what I know doesn't work.  Thanks.

And thanks to TJ.  Hopefully, we can hit a lottery and afford to do nothing but hit our kids fly balls and blog about nerdy comic books while drinking good beer...someday.  In any case, collaborating with you was fun buddy.  It's only a matter of time before you'll find your way back in again.

Murad needs posted

• I finally got on the ball and posted a link in the pages section (above) for my Murad basketball needs.  If you have any of the cards needed, please drop a line.

• My wife may not be completely on board with me starting a new endeavor into 2012 Heritage Baseball, but she's come a long ways into letting me do my thing since she was able to sit down and thumb through my expertly ordered binders full of cards.  The key to any relationship acceptance of our hobby is a great presentation.  Took me a few years to learn that, but I'm there. 

• I also got my wife into the idea of investing into certain hobby boxes and leaving them sealed.  It sounds crazy, but the only way to maintain a definitive investment potential into this hobby is to never actually open the boxes at all.  We both sat down on ebay today and just gawked at prices of some of the stuff out there that hasn't been opened up in a few years.  That may actually happen at some point.  How crazy is that?  She hated my card collection for the longest time, but the idea of buying boxes and never opening them got my wife on the verge of the hobby for a few minutes.

My precious....my precious.....

Call me Gollum, because that's how I'm acting right about now.  

Since 08/09 Bowman came out, I've not ever SEEN a Gold Chrome /50 copy of Nicolas Batum's rookie card.  And then last week...Poof!  A card showed up on ebay out of nowhere.  I knew that it had to be mine.  After coming off of a heavy trip to the dentist, Christmas shopping and paying rent, I knew that it would be tight.  But I was a man on a mission.

The card got quite a bit of late action, but I was still able to pull it down for just under $40 shipped.  I think I'm just about ready to get a second box to now hold my Batum RC's.  It's getting to be full to the brim here.

I decided not to scan it so that you could see the card in all of it's gold, shiny, chromey glory.  It's a beaut to see in person.  I've now got a copy of both gold cards (Chrome and the non-chrome).  Slowly but surely, I'm making headway into creating the greatest Batum Bowman collection on the planet.  Check out my sidebar for an updated count.  I win.