Murad and Certified, the newest members

For a minute there, I went all introspective and sports reporter.  I guess I should show some basketball cards already.  Really, I couldn't be happier with these Certified Imports that I'm getting.  Now the market is getting flooded with the cards, the price is regularly dropping to the 1-2 dollar mark.  So this is a very affordable piece of the pie.  And I was worried it wouldn't be, since all the cards are numbered.  But Certified must be offering much more to the singles buyers that would have them pass over this offering.  Or it could be that only I would be going after lesser known international players.

Gasol, Turk and Casspi.  Really all pretty good players at good prices.  The only thing that I could gripe about this set is the "color" that denotes the numbering.  On these scans you really can't tell - but the color is from the 'Certified' emblem on the lower right hand corner of the card.

So they're numbered much like a Bowman - without really being different cards.  That's why I said that I'm putting the set together without regard to color or numbering - because the difference is so minor.

And then, through the wonders of combining shipping, I got a Laimbeer Murad relic that I still needed.  It puts my relic total at 20.  Suddenly 30 to go doesn't sound so tough.

I think that's what I'm really getting into the most in this Murad set is the variety.  As a one-player collector, I know that if I wasn't putting the entire Murad set together, I never would've had a Laimbeer relic - or a Larry Bird, for that matter.  And I can look at it and I know that my collection is just much more rich now that I know I'll have all these different players that I wouldn't normally have had.