The New Year and the Basketball Hobby

It's hard to know how viable my hobby's future is at this point.  After all, the NBA in general has taken some hits lately.  Attendance is way down in most areas, some franchises are on the verge of financial doom, referee scandals are at the forefront and - most importantly for people like me - the hobby sector of our sport has been singularized into one brand.

I've followed international soccer for some time, so I know that Panini isn't as foreign to the card industry as some people would fear.  They have their brand in some of the biggest leagues of the world, so I'm not worried about them being blind in the dark.  I just worry about monopolizing the source of my collecting OCD.

Two things are going to begin to happen though.  First off, with the open avenues people have to get boxes from years past, people will vote on the future of Panini with their wallets.  Even though Panini has the future, it has no ties to the past.  And people will spend on whichever is the better product.  Panini cannot rest on the license alone. 

Secondly, and this is kind of tied into the first, there may be an expanded new market for boxes from years past.  Some of the better UD and Topps releases will probably see prices rise, while the semi-succesful to the failures of the two companies will be able to be had shortly at really low prices.  We can see this as it's happened with the 03/04 hobby boxes.  The year that ushered in Lebron, Melo and Wade is still the highest priced stuff on the secondary market.  A box of Bowman from that year will now run you $250 plus, if you can even find it.

The same effect will be seen, to varying degrees, now that those companies aren't producing.  My favorite product, the 08/09 Bowman is now always over $100 a box.  It was the last true Bowman product for the hobby - if only because Bowman 48 doesn't count (thanks a lot Bowman).

It'll be interesting to see how the new year unfolds.  Eventually, people who bust basketball will want the chance to pull Michael Jordan and Lebron autos.  Now if Panini needs to get some cut sigs to make it happen, than they need to just make that happen until UD releases their investment into those signers.  But Panini needs to do more.  I don't know what it will need to be.  But it has to be something to keep people buying current product as opposed to defaulting to offerings of the past.

Does that mean forging ahead with all on-card autos?  Maybe.  Will they have to offer their products with ZERO redemptions?  Possibly.

The fact is, UD and Topps have set the market up the way they've wanted it - and we all had to accept it.  Panini, and UD and Topps too, can now use this new landscape to re-invent the wheel as it were.  If your company is only focusing on one sport, you shouldn't have the same issues that you used to.  If you can focus on one sport, and can focus on six to eight offerings instead of 20 - 30 per year, there is no reason why the product and service we get isn't the best possible. 

So here's to 2010.  Be lazy and just say twenty ten.  No more of this two thousand and....crap.  And here's to Panini having their finger on the pulse of the hobby.  Please?

Was 08/09 Radiance UD's last best auto set?

Every time I come up on a player on ebay and see all the various autos available, I can't get over how much better the UD Radiance autos look than the rest of the offerings.  Now Exquisite has on-card autos with the best card stock.  But often times they can be visually lacking.

Radiance on the other hand employs the sticker auto, but let's be honest, if you had to get a sticker auto, you could do worse than this card.

The action shot alongside the pose is so well done.  And the various color schemes are just astounding.  From the green Bayless I wrote about earlier, to the pinks and blues of others, they're just phenomenal.  Soon enough with UD having two Exquisites released at the same time, the Radiance boxes will drop below $100.  At that point you'll probably see a box review or two here on this website.  I can't justify an above 100 dollar box with all that's available to break, but there will come a day when the price will make this a steal.

The Great Mr. Eastwood

So I think I'm the last person in the US to see Gran Torino.  Holy crap was that a good movie.  I'm thinking about maybe putting it top ten all time for myself.  Really well done.

Either way, there's been a ton of stuff done by card companies for celeb cards and card autos, so I thought I'd give it a try to see if Eastwood has been featured yet.  Putting in 'Clint Eastwood Card' into the ebay search engine actually pulled up quite a few items - I was surprised.  A Clint Eastwood auto can be had for less than $20 in most cases - though it's not from an Americana release.

I know this isn't a basketball card post, but I was so impressed with that movie that I couldn't help myself. 

Why I stopped collecting baseball

Let me begin by saying that I love baseball.  I love the math.  I love the rhythm.  I love the season and the long days combining with the crack of the bat.

That being said, I was soured on baseball collecting from a multitude of factors.  Now, like most people I collected as a kid and stopped somewhere in my search for all things grown-up and mature.  Then I became a grown-up and didn't like the having to be mature all the time.  So I went looking to take up a hobby that reconnected me to my youth - collecting cards.

I live in Portland OR, but grew up in Montana.  I didn't have a team to root for.  Portland's AAA team is the Beavers and they go onto play for the Padres.  After years of following the Beavers, all my favorite players became Padres, so I became a Padres fan by proxy...or something.  Either way, this love of local players led me to watching the Padres, and Jake Peavy.  Peavy was pretty key in solidifying my support of the Pads.  What a fool I was.

I didn't know that the Pads had one of the worst front-offices known to sports.  But I began collecting Padres anyways.  Peavy, Kouzmanoff, Everth Cabrera, Adrian, E-Gon, and Headley.  I watched every game religiously.  And more often than not, had a better time having a beer than watching the Pads.  Then things started to fall down in Padre Land.  Matty V, the best voice of the Padres, went to MLB TV.  Peavy got traded (I cried a little that day), and E-Gon couldn't get a foot in the infield anymore.  Oh yeah, they let Bud Black keep his job.  I cursed a lot.  And I swore off baseball.  But swearing off baseball is easy to do in October.  Now, I'm probably ready again to watch.  I'm emotional like that.

But the collecting of baseball cards....that I got turned off by my LCS and Upper Deck.  I got back into baseball and, like a fool, went to the LCS to get my first box for nostalgia purposes.  I got talked into buying 08 Legendary Cuts for $145.  I bought three boxes over the summer.  I had no idea there was a blowoutcards or dacardworld.  I got robbed.  The inserts sold for a buck or two on ebay.  The base set sold for a buck on ebay.  But....I did pull a Mystery Cut.  Oohhs and aahhhs all around.

I got my redemption (nine months later from UD by the way)....and it was Maurice Richard.  Now he's like the man in hockey.  I respect that.  But I spent all that money for baseball and got hockey?  I watch some hockey, but UD just couldn't find a way to keep Richard cut autos for hockey boxes and some other great baseballers for baseball?

I swore them off.  All baseball cards.  Even though I love baseball.  I love the flagships, the Heritage, A&G etc etc.  But no worries.  I've still got this great thing called basketball.  I'll still keep telling my daughters (I have three) about the beauty of baseball.  But I won't mind if they root for the Dodgers like their grandpa.  Or root for the Mariners like the rest of Portland.  Just as long as they know that no matter what happens, they root for the Blazers in the winter.  The rest will sort itself out.

Or maybe one day they'll grow up and just love hockey and curse the day their old man sold that Maurice Richard auto for 70 bucks on ebay to buy more basketball cards.

Is there no justice?

So I was browsing the NBA.com website today when a story popped up that I hadn't heard yet.  Click here for story...or don't, and I'll just give the quick rundown.

Pretty much, Tracy McGrady (aka T-Mac, aka Punk @ss, aka Captain DNP) is the second leading vote getter for the All-Star game in the West, only trailing Kobe Bryant.  He's a guard, so that means that a player like Brandon Roy or Deron Williams won't get in if the NBA doesn't intervene.  T-Mac has only played in six games this year...for a total of 46 minutes. 

Now he's not a fan favorite.  He's got a popular name, so when people vote who don't know much about the other players in the list, they pick a popular name.  It's partially the NBA's fault for making people vote for every position.  If you're a Boston Celtics honk, and you log on to vote for Kevin Garnett, you shouldn't be forced to vote for every position in both conferences.  Especially if you're just scrolling the list and you pick a name you know to get it done quick.

Secondly, the report is that China has adopted the Houston Rockets as their national NBA team.  And because Yao isn't playing, they're still voting all Rockets for the All-Star game.  Even the ones who don't play.  Freaking Chinese.  Don't they have enough to worry about with a billion people without having to involve themselves in the All-Star voting?

Now the NBA could fix this.  All they have to do is say that a player must play in 50% of the games leading up to the All-Star game.  It's not an unfair rule, and it actually will make sense.  They can even call it the T-Mac rule if they want to.  Nobody here cares.  But instead, Daniel Stern will try to figure out how not to piss off a billion Chinese who buy NBA licensed merchandise.  Hooray us.  Or T-Mac could just step the hell back and decline.  But that probably won't happen.

What's the solution?  Well, if we don't make him stay home, then we need to be fair and open up one more spot on each roster.  It's the All-Star game after all.  One more star player probably won't make or break the thing.  We suffer through T-Mac, hope the Dallas fans boo him, keep the Chinese happy and get one more deserving player in the game.

Oh, we can vote with our wallets too.  Don't buy this card.  A T-Mac RC is better in the burn pile than the Ebay BIN lists.

The Internationals

When it comes to baseball, I root American.  There's so much international influence in baseball, but I still rooted for the Americans in the WBC.  I actually watched all of the WBC - not many folks can say that.  And yet I also speak Spanish, which opens up many more doors in the land of 'Fandom'.  Some days I speak more Spanish than English.  But I still love watching the guys who grew up playing on the same ragged diamonds that I played on.  Not that I have a problem with the Latino players - there's quite a few who I follow and pull for; but I still like to get behind the guys who came from where I came from.

And soccer?  Forget about it.  I love the American international team almost as much as I love the Blazers (that's a lot).  When the US played Mexico this last summer, I abandoned my Mexican-American heritage and cursed all the players in the green jerseys.  And I cursed in general.  The Americans lost.

However, when it comes to my beloved basketball, I love to root for the internationals.  And I'm blessed to have a couple of players on my team from across the pond in Rudy Fernandez and Nic Batum.  The international game is so unassuming.  It's polished and honed, but it's still got a lot of flair.  And the NBA has taken notice that there is a lot of rising stock in other countries.  In this past year's draft, 6 international players were taken in the first round.  6 players out of 30.  That's saying something.  Out of all the colleges, and all the press and hype that the college tourney gets, 6 players still managed to get ahead of those other kids and into the first round. 

I must have an affinity for the French though.  I don't know why.  But Nic Batum just caught my eye right off the bat.  This year, Rodrigue Beaubois became the next in a line of Frenchmen (well Guadeloupe, actually) to enter the NBA ranks.  The kid will have a good chance to develop in Dallas.  Getting trained by Jason Kidd probably doesn't hurt.  Oh, and he gets to play alongside another pretty famous international, Dirk Nowitzki.  The luck of the draw I guess.  The kid even got a flag auto in his rookie year.  Even the card companies know that the flag in the card will sell as well, if not better, than the signature. 

A sleeper pick for a future star

This post serves two purposes.  First and foremost, it's to highlight a rookie who's not on anybody's radar, but who is really impressing me.  Secondly, it's to highlight the idiocy that is ebay 'Buy It Now' listings.

Let me start with the positives of this young player, Sam Young.  First, from a collector's standpoint, Sam Young plays for Memphis.  That's good, because there aren't many passionate fans in Memphis and their games are seldom nationally televised.  So if you can find a good rookie to collect from a small market, it's so much more financially accessible.

Sam Young was a 2nd round pick, so right away, his initial 'offering', as it were, to the public market is at a very reasonable price.  Yet, he's making a difference already for a young Memphis team.  He's averaging just over 7 points a game and nearly 3 rebounds.  That's pretty good for a second-round bench player.  But his upside is phenomenal.  Really.

He played at Pitt for four years...and never missed a game.  Seriously, I know what it's like to root for players that are always getting hurt.  But it just isn't in the kid to not play.  And he finished 4th all time in the school's scoring leader list.  The kid's a machine that made for durability and scoring.  If I wasn't already making a collection of Nicolas Batum, I'd start a collection based on this guy.  In fact, I'm wondering if I shouldn't at least build a small collection anyway.  I think the upside is really that high for him.

NOW TO THE 2ND PART...EBAY BIN'S

First the card found on ebay:

Now, I'm not a fan of this particular Exquisite signature series.  But Sam Young's auto holds up better here in blank space than the Ricky Rubio's did that I posted on earlier.  Either way, this card is a steal for 19.99 BIN.  I'm almost ready to snatch one up at the discounted price because I know that by the time that this kid is out of his rookie contract, these cards WILL sell for much more than that.

But what boggles me, is that right below this perfectly priced card, is another Sam Young Exquisite auto /225 with a BIN of $199.99.  Really?  Are people just too busy to do a quick ebay search on a guy before they list their cards?  Or do people really think that because they paid an enitre rent payment to open a box of Exquisite that they're entitled to sell every card in the pack for 200$ or more.  I know that it's the other guys loss for listing a card that won't sell, but it's frustrating to me nonetheless.

If you ever wanted to get in ground floor on a great rookie though, buy up some of this kid's offerings and you won't regret that you did.

Christmas Day Basketball

Today has been a bit underwhelming as far as the basketball is concerned.  I was really looking forward to the Kobe vs. Lebron game, but the Lakers just haven't shown up to play.  As a Blazers fan, I can't tell you how much I love to watch the Lakers lose, but still, I was hoping for a bit of a better game to watch than a 102-87 blowout.

Tonight we get to watch the Blazers play Denver.  That should be a good game (we hope).  The NBA does all things possible to make Christmas Day games compelling, but this is hard to do when they schedule games in the pre-season.  The one story line missing from the day is any big rookie playing on one of the most watched basketball days of the year.

If anybody is trying to get a foot into basketball, or rookie collecting, the NBA does a rookie power ranking here.  And really surprisingly, the only rookie playing today from the top ten list of rookies is Ty Lawson (at #8).  I know the NBA tried to do it's best with Kobe/Lebron and Celtics/Magic, but truth be told, it hasn't lived up to the hype.

But from the Portland perspective, I'm hoping that Denver's Ty Lawson isn't much of a factor.  He's one of the fastest players in the league (truly quick player) and I'm hoping he doesn't use the national television coverage for a coming-out party.  Here's an offering of one of Ty's RC offerings:

At least I got Star Wars

No NBA action today.  That's kind of odd in itself.  5 major games tomorrow, but none today?  OK then.

Lucky for me, Spike TV has been Star Wars central.  I'm kicking my day off with Episode IV.  Seriously, thinking outside the box here, I'd give almost anything to have Sir Guiness look me in the eye and say, "you need to learn the ways of the Force." 

Since I've already opened my two hobby boxes well in advance of Christmas.  I'll have to content myself with this purchase off of ebay.  Currently the only numbered variation up for sale of Batum's Bowman RC at the moment. 

Not a bad little guilty pleasure at $1.99.

Stock Watch: Jerryd Bayless is a BUY

So last night I watched, live, as Joel Przybilla went down for the year with a knee injury.  The injury is so severe that he may be out for at least 12-13 months.  That would cut into a considerable piece of the next season.  We may have seen Joel's last game in a Blazer uniform as next year is an opt-out year.

And if that wasn't enough, Brandon Roy went down last night with a shoulder injury.  He's not playing tonight against San Antonio so Jerryd Bayless is getting the start.  Jerryd's cards already shot back to collecting prominence when Jerryd hit a career high of 29 points a week ago - at least among local collectors of the team.

Jerryd is an electric player.  I'm surprised he hasn't recieved more playing time to this point.  Tonight is his night to shine.  He'll be starting tonight and all of the young players will get a national stage when the Blazers play the Nuggets on Christmas day on ESPN.

Here's Jerryd's most striking card available on ebay right now.  At 40$ it's a steal in my opinion.  If he plays as we know he's able, this card will be sold for more at a future date.  Not even a TD Waterhouse can give you better advice.  Jerryd Bayless RC's are a green light to BUY.

A revision of the Panini flagship grade

I opened my second box of 09/10 Panini without waiting for Christmas.  I told my wife that it's just too much to leave an unopened box of cards in the closet.  If you're reading this, you know.

Upon opening my second box, I was hoping to make some serious headway into completing the rookie set and coming close to completing the 7 different insert sets.  I couldn't have been more dissapointed in the draw of the cards.

For example, I'd gotten a pretty good sprinkling of inserts in the first box.  In my second box I got 24 Dupes of insets I already had.  I'd beaten the insert seeding of 1 insert per two packs...only to get the EXACT same inserts I got in the first box.  The problem is that a couple of the inserts really look well done, and I want to complete them.  So I'll have to make a run to the price gouging LCS to see if I can't rummage through their singles before resorting to ebay to complete the sets.

Secondly, there is one RC per pack.  I got 25 new RC's and 11 Dupes.  I'm left with 60 of the 100 RC's from 2 boxes of 36 packs.  Not good enough.  At this rate, even if I actually bought a third box, I don't know if I'd really come any closer to completing the RC's and the inserts.  $40 in the LCS and ebay could go a long way to completing the set - maybe more so than the value of an additional box.

Another problem I didn't realize when I opened the first box is that there is no checklist.  This sounds trivial I know.  But what I didn't know is that many of the RC's are of the same player.  Hasheen Thabeet, for instance, is on card #'s 352, 305 and 302.  Many rookies have more than one RC.  I don't know why this is.  And without going to the Panini website to check their online checklist, I don't really know if I'm going to end up with different RC's when I complete the set -  or just more of the same guys I've got already.

The bright spot of the break was another great auto.  I pulled a Dante Cunningham auto.  I'm a big fan of both Tyreke Evans and Dante Cunningham and I'm glad to have pulled a couple of their autos.

So, based on really poor seeding of boxes I assumed came from the same case, I'm having to drop this products grade to a B.

Two boxes should get me more in the way of inserts and RC's.  For a flagship product in any sport, 2 boxes at least lets you build the entire base set, if not the majority of insert set that are only set of 10 to 20 cards.  Panini needed to do a bit better with this.

Will we get a decent retro set this year in basketball?

First off, let me say that I'm a Bowman fan.  I love the parrallel chase.  I love how a good blue chrome card done right is just a great cornerstone of a RC collection.  That being said, Bowman this year decided to go retro.  I'm not sure why.  This year had a wonderful draft class, and I'm not sure that retro was the way to go.  Principally because Bowman is great for what it is.  And it is most certaintly not a retro set.  It's almost like Topps knew that it was going to stop doing basketball, so it decided to mate Bowman and Murad to try to please two groups of buyers with one release.  And what you got was something like this:

Forgive B Roy's sig.  It truly is one of the worst autos for an All-Star caliber player.  But this card just doesn't work.  I love retro, and I love Bowman, but this card took the worst of both themes and stuck them together.

Bowman base cards typically have better than average action shots.  And Bowman, let's be honest, is about collecting as many parallels of your favorite player as possible.  The card better look good to collect multiple versions of it.  This B Roy card doesn't inspire me to seek out it's multi-colored cousins.

And for the retro stance, it's just a card without meaning.  An action shot devoid of any point of reference for the action.  It's surrounded by quasi-Blazer red coloring and just feels empty to me.  It reminds me of baseballs Goudey, without being quite so gawdy. 

Now, the only other retro realease due up is from Upper Deck Greats of the Game.  And Upper Deck just decided to steal a line from Press Pass basketball.  The only way to get around the logo issues was to do a complete college release.  Example, the great MJ:

Now I wouldn't be one to throw away many of the auto's that will be found in this set.  But I'm not going to buy a college release.  Well, I mean I might if I'm creating a basketball card blog...but you know what I mean.  I'll probably end up reviewing it because I collect basketball cards, and because it's looks to be one of UD's last releases in this sector of the hobby.  But college?  I'm not even looking forward to it.

It looks to me like a glorified sticker dump.  Which, any kind of a sticker dump will be better than Topps Signature release of last year.  So we're kind of stuck with Panini to come up with something that will entice collectors of retro themes to come back to basketball.

The retro market is too huge for Panini to ignore it at all.  So it's just a matter of time.  But c'mon Panini, we need something better than this.  Chances are, to fulfill my retro fix, I'll get a couple boxes of A&G this year, but it sure would be nice to have something in basketball.  A Nic Batum auto'd retro mini?  I can only hope.

What a waste of cardboard

Hands down, Exquisite has given us some of the most astounding cards ever in the basketball hobby.  Rookie patch autos of any year can just be gorgeous (if that word is even allowed talking about a card).  But this card below is puzzling to me.  It's has no great action shot, the picture is undersized, and the blank space seems to eat the signature alive. 

Now part of the problem is Ricky Rubio's auto, but the card would be a massive failure to anybody who pulled it.

Now, the only reason I found this card is because once in a while, I'll punch in Ricky Rubio's name into ebay just to see what his stuff is doing.  There's still a huge market for the guy.  I'm only mildly curious in the "point and laugh" sense, though.  I really did point and laugh when Minnesota drafted like six points guards in this year's draft.  And then Rubio told them he'd rather play in Europe than come play for the clowns running the T'wolves.  Ouch.

In any event, it just goes to show that an on-card auto can be botched too.  Just another reminder why buying high-end is just not worth the risk.

I plunked down $40 on a box of cards and got a non-numbered, sticker auto from a great rookie.  And in the end, I feel better about my menial pull than the guy selling this card on ebay feels about his.  The cards price?  $100.  For a guy not playing in the NBA.  For a guy with no time-table for playing in the NBA.  Good luck with that auction.

The pain of the missed ebay buy...

A gold Bowman Chrome Batum was up for auction.  I thought that with $20, it's be mine for sure.  I was wrong. 

It's become apparant to me that there is another Batum collector out there who is as rabid as I.  Just as I was about to put in a $30 bid, the auction ended.  The buyer won it for 26.00. 

I can only hope that the buyer puts it up for sale at some point.  It is my goal to own as many of these variations as is humanly possible.  I'm just a little bummed out right now.

Sometimes you just feel like giving someone an elbow off the top rope.

Who's gonna buy Panini Contenders?

I admit I was a little dismayed by Panini taking over the NBA liscense.  UD has done some great stuff with basketball, and Topps, well, Topps was either really great or really horrible.

But, after opening my first box of Panini basketball, I'm at least encouraged by what I'm seeing come out of the early attempts by Panini.  But looking at upcoming releases on blowoutcards, UD has one set coming up later next year, and the rest are Panini.

I'm still planning on buying some Threads, and Studio looks like it could be a winner.  My only question is, how well will Panini deal with high-end?  Topps has remarkably bad high-end stuff.  Just my opinion.

UD is the king of high-end, but with ebay, there really isn't an incentive to buy high-end when you can buy most singles you want for less than what a dinner out would cost you.

And Panini has released it's products correctly so far, in my opinion.  Nothing too expensive, and pretty good value.  Contenders is the only release they have scheduled that's going to be over 100$.  And I'm a bit skeptical as to how much to plunk down on just one box from a first-year company.  If both Studio and Contenders have the same amount of hits, comparable card count per box, why would I spend an extra forty for the Contenders?

I hope that Panini doesn't go the route that UD and Topps sometimes do.  I'd rather see three really great releases at appropriate price points than see six or seven releases that are all kind of inter-changeable. 

Review of 2009 Panini Basketball (flagship)

All in all, I gotta say that this was a success for Panini.  The action shots were good for a baseline brand and the inserts were eye-catching and accessable.  The box had 36 packs of 12 cards, and really, one of the best things about this product is that there is no wasted space.  The product has no jersey cards or other memorabilia, so there is no need to put in dummy cards.  Instead, they put in really well done stickers.  I haven't been this impressed by stickers since I was five.

What they got right:

• A ton of cards for the money - really 36 packs at 12 cards a pack...for around forty bucks?  Nice.
• Great looking inserts.  While I build this set, I'm really looking forward to completing "The Franchise" series.
• Simple parrallel.  Only one variation numbered to /199.  Not too scarce at all.

What they got wrong:

• Speaking of the parallel, it really ought to be slightly set apart from the base set.  "Artist Proof" isn't enough.
• Only 36 RC's per box?  That's okay if you're not featuring 100 rookies.  I shouldn't have to buy 3 boxes to complete the set.
• Auto uses a clear, see-though, sticker that's hard to read against a dark card.  A foil sticker would've worked better here.

The breakdown:

• 84% completion of set including rookies.  The second box I'll open should render the full base set of veterans, but will still leave me short of RC's.  The price that people charge to ship singles on ebay could make this set a little spendier to put together than it ought to be.

• Auto:  1 auto per box and I got Tyreke Evans.  This really made the box for me.  To get an auto of a high class rookie was a surprise.

• Inserts:  All inserts are runs of ten or twenty cards.  The inserts were well done.  I'm actually more inclined to build the inserts sets ahead of the rookie set.

The Grade:
I have to give this product an A for what it is.  The pricepoint, the seeding, the quantity and quality all lead to an enjoyable breaking experience with no real ding to the wallet.  I know I lucked out with the auto, but this isn't a product that you buy for the hits.  If I'd gotten a scrub rookie auto, it still would've been a fun break with the inserts it provided.  I had a great time with my wife and one of my daughters opening a box for 40 dollars than I've had opening a box that cost 150$ that the kids couldn't touch.

If you're thinking about a basketball box, this is a great, no-guilt purchase.

The card that got me back into collecting...

Back in 2003, the coming of the great Lebron pulled a lot of people, myself included, out of collecting exile.  I remember going to the card shop and paying one twenty after another to bust packs of Topps Chrome.  I loved the look, the feel, the chase...

By the time I'd spent the last part of my paycheck I'd managed to pull a numbered variation of the Lebron RC.  I had no idea that the numbering was a huge deal at this point.  I mean I was like two weeks out of collecting retirement.  In the end, I had the Lebron, the Carmello, Dwayne Wade and some bum named Darko.  Still a bum that Darko.

It was a strange time in my life.  I ended up selling that card, and several others to the card shop owner not three months after I'd pulled them.  He bought them at rock bottom prices.  But I sold them to buy a train ticket to be with a woman I'd been missing.  The next year I ended up marrying that woman. 

But sometimes I look at what Lebron RC's are selling for - especially slabbed (though I can't stand the practice) - and can't help but wonder what would have been if I'd chose the Lebron over the lady.  I think I still made out pretty good.

The cost of falling in love with a Rookie of the Year contender...

Tyreke Evans, the rookie for the Kings, is by far and away the most talented (and productive) rookie this year.  His biggest problem is that he plays for Sacramento.  In case some of you didn't know, unless you're the Lakers, all teams on the West Coast just don't get that much love or air-play.  So maybe just take my word for it, this kid is good.

And I feel sorry for any fan of his that is setting out to make a collection out of his card offerings.  I was fortunate to have a man-crush on Nicolas Batum.  He's not a top ten pick, he's French and he's known for defense.  Batum's most expensive cards are his Exquisite rookie autos, and they can be had for around 60-80 bucks at this point.

Tyreke Evans fans will have it rough.  And it's too bad.  He's a fun player to watch and he's so easy to root for.  His basketball just looks liquid.  He's the kind of guy that makes it fun for fans.

But....he was picked 4th in the draft.  And he's the front runner Rookie of the Year pick. 

This is from Topps.  It was pulled from a pack of Topps' flagship.  It's a black chrome parallel numbered to 50.  It's for sale now for 150$.  I'm guessing it'll sell for slightly less than that.  But if you put Tyreke Evans into an ebay search, more often than not you're going to find cards that are out of your price range.

Sorry kids, maybe try making a run at some Ricky Rubio cards.  He's not even playing the NBA this year, so he might be a more affordable option.

I'll just go hug my blue chrome Batum rookies now.  I'm so glad I didn't dip into the rent to have to get them.

Panini Threads jersey card...kinda cool actually

I was on youtube watching Chris from the Hobby Box busting cards today.  I typically skip over all the football and baseball unless it's real high-end stuff.  So once I see a basketball break, I shoot right over.  He was doing some Panini Threads, and even though I know I've seen a box break or two, I must not have been paying much attention, because Threads has one of the coolest inserts I've seen in a while.  Here's a sample:

They're jesey shaped cards of the major stars of the league in home and away fashions.  Now, I know that detractors will say that they are plain, will have corner issues and are "gimmicky".  But I think that these are brilliant because they are so un-bedazzled.  There is no chrome, holographics or refraction whatsoever.  There isn't even a picture of the player.

But these inserts are so simple and appeal to my sense of looking for something different from a pack of cards.  I think that Panini / Donruss has proven (time and time again) that they can do bright, metallic cards with a whole lot of issues of poor photo positioning.

Kudos to the member of the design team that went against the Panini grain and talked them into something a bit more understated.

After I build my set of Panini flagship, I'll definetely be checking out threads to see if I can't put that insert set together.  How good would an on card auto be on these bad boys?  Tons of potential coming out of Panini if they can grow this NBA contract.

Blog Entry Number 1...(my new little experiment)

Hello all,

I've blogged before.  I've done family blogs, personal blogs, some sports reporting blogs and other random writing.  But I've never done any sports card blogging - which is odd considering that I love to collect sports cards.

I've collected basketball cards back when the Shaquille O'Neal rookie was the first real redemption that had to be sent out to collector's.  Then, as most people in the card blogoshpere will also relate with, I quit collecting through my late teens and early twenties.  Priorities, you know.

But now I'm back.  I'd never considered blogging before about cards because I was a huge fan of Wax Heaven.  Mario did it best, and I was content to check his site twice or three times a day for news and commentary.  Now he's gone.  He's got no idea how respected he was. 

Now, what kind of a collector am I?  Well, I love the Steelers for football, but I've never collected football cards.  I love baseball, and watching the Padres, but collecting baseball is a huge undertaking, and building sets sometimes feels like it's archiving more than collecting.  And I love boxing and MMA, but those kind of cards are new in the making.  I love soccer, US team and English Premier League, but there are no cards of those.  SO......

That leaves me with my beloved Trail Blazers.  Love the Blazers.  Absolutely love them.  I scream and pump my fist.  I curse officials and coaching.  And I've decided that my sweet tooth for collecting is best satisfied with collecting basketball cards.  In particular, I like to build sets.  My first set to build of this year will be the Panini flagship.  I've got two boxes coming my way for Christmas.  I'll video tape my breaks and give commentary.

But my collecting passion, my true niche, is collecting (and I hesitate to say it out loud in case somebody starts sniping my ebay buys) is Nicolas Batum Bowman Rookie cards.  I've got a real fine collecting going of the Bowman and Bowman Chrome variations of Batum.  And I look forward to sharing it all here.  I'm going to get active in commenting on the blogosphere, and I hope you all check me out from time to time.

Oh, how cool is it that I got http://www.basketballcardblog.com/?  So simple, and it was available for ten bucks a year.  It must be a sign.