Ironically... lack of parity is what made me a fan of the sport in the 80's. I loved watching the Los Angeles Lakers battle the Boston Celtics. My father cheered for Larry Bird and company while I rooted for the Showtime Lakers.
A few weeks ago, Billy over at Cardboard History showed off his 1983-84 BASF Kareem Abdul-Jabbar card which immediately took me back to those days of sitting in front of the television with my pops. I immediately headed over to Beckett to check out who else was on the checklist and that's when I noticed it contained one of Byron Scott's first basketball cards:
Scott was my favorite player back in the day, so this card instantly became a must have for my collection.
I left Beckett, headed over to eBay, looked up complete sets, and found a guy selling them with a best offer option. I threw out an offer of $10 (+ $3 shipping) and he accepted.
The 14 card set includes 13 players (highlighted by Abdul-Jabbar, Magic, and Worthy) and a team card. They're much larger than your standard sized card, which may turnoff some collectors. However if you remember my Griffey's, I'm don't discriminate against size.
A few days later, I stumbled across a Kenner SLU Hot List from back in 2001 over on the kennerstartinglineup blog and noticed the 1996-97 Kenner SLU Allen Iverson sitting atop the list. 2001 was probably the high point in his hobby fanfare. He was coming off of his 2000-01 MVP season and a strong NBA Finals performance.
Back in the late 90's, I really wanted this rookie figure, but Iverson's collectibles were always pretty popular which prevented me from picking up an affordable copy. Until recently.
I picked up this figure for $12 (free shipping) off of eBay:
As soon as it arrived, I remembered why I don't really collect SLU's anymore. I don't have any wall space in my office to hang it up, which means it'll end up being thrown into a box and stored in my parent's garage. But at least I can finally cross this figure off of my hobby bucket list.
Well that's it for today. Two basketball purchases made by a guy who doesn't really collect basketball anymore. There's actually one more basketball related purchase I made back in November, but I'm gonna save that for March Madness.
Until then...
Are you a NBA fan? Do you collect basketball cards? What about Kenner Starting Lineups?
Happy Saturday and sayonara!
19 comments:
I'll get you back in if it's the last thing I ever do! :) Seriously, I want to be able to send you stuff.
I lucked out by getting that Iverson figure on the peg at my local Kay Bee or Toys R Us back when it was new.
I think it's great to do out of character purchases every now and again. As a strictly hockey guy, I have acquired a few baseball cards in the past few years and enjoy them greatly because they are a bit different than what I normally collect and are ones I have a connection with one way or another.
I was a serious NBA hoops junkie a long time ago. I was a Celtics/Bill Russell fan and then adopted the Rockets as they (and I) were landing in Houston at roughly the same time. They played on the U of Houston campus, too. Went to a lot of games since I worked in the building.
Now I'm an NBA fan in the sense that I go to Rockets games on the cuff thanks to a friend of my sons who works for them. I love the games, always fun. I don't follow the league in general very closely tho.
I collected a couple of sets from my days as a real NBA fan. The 'tall-boy' 1970 set was a fun chase.
I don't own any SLUs. I used to have a Brooks Robinson but I gave it to my son who is named for him and he has it in his office. Conversation starter.
I have a bunch of 90's NBA cards stashed.One day I'll start a binder for it.As of today?No ,not big on the NBA at all.Big on SLU's ,though ;)
Oh,and 12 bucks for an Iverson Rookie piece Is a great deal!
Yes big NBA Fan
Nice set of oversized hoops cards! The Police sets are about that size and pretty nice too
Sweet cards. I've never heard of those and I've always been a big basketball collector. Good purchase I think. But don't get me started on Allen Iverson...
Nope, nope and nope.
Have never followed basketball, but I seem to know a lot of their names from watching things like Pardon the Interruption and other talk shows. I don't even understand certain parts of the game. Still haven't wrapped my head around things like "Foul To Give" and the "posession arrow".
I do have one set of '79-80 Topps and a couple of early 90's sets that I built for fun.
Ironically, I was just looking on eBay and COMC for "hits" of my local Wizards from when they made the Conference (Finals?) a season or two ago. figured I'd find some nice GU or autos of the starters at least.
I may build a more current set just to have one at some point if I see something I like. Mostly because I can't find football or hockey sets that I like any more.
I have a few SLU's for player collections, but I try to avoid stuff like that because the only space I have for them is atop my shelves and cabinets. They're getting full.
I used to like the Warriors. Back in the late 80s Run-TMC was great. Then they broke that up and that kind of sucked. But Nellie-ball and Šarūnas Marčiulionis were still fun. And then they drafted Chris Webber and that year was great and then it all went to hell and Chris Webber turned into Billy Owens and Latrell Sprewell choked the coach and yeah I gave up. I gave up so badly that the siren of the Curry bandwagon has no effect (although I am happy for all my friends who stayed with the team through those disastrous years that drove me away from the entire league).
No idea why I didn't collect basketball or football cards as a kid though. I must've realized my budget could only afford one sport.
Starting Lineups? I have a couple. Got a Candy Maldonado as a stadium giveaway. Had no idea what to expect. Was kind of disappointed in the toy. I took a sharpie to his bat because the figure has a wood-colored bat and Candy used a black one. Eventually bought a Will Clark for Will Clark-based reasons. Still have them. Still have no idea what to do with them displaywise.
Good stuff although I don’t collect NBA. I do collect Japanese B.League cards though. Never have been a fan of SLUs mainly because of storage issues. But I do admire folks who collect them though.
Same here! Back in middle school, I was a huge NBA fan and collected NBA cards much more heavily than MLB. I wish I pulled more high end inserts seeing what some of them go for now!
I still love the NBA and think it's probably the most entertaining pro sport right now. Along with NFL, it's the only sport I'll watch for marquee matchups if my team isn't involved. I cannot do that with baseball. Snoozefest!
As for SLUs, I have the boxed set of the '92 Dream Team which is awesome. I don't have any other individual ones though.
I remember seeing the BASF card on Billy's blog and admiring it. Nice to see a few more of 'em here.
Like Nick and many others, I lost interest in the NBA around the late '90s. Getting back into it now, as I've mentioned a few times. I've always loved SLUs but haven't prioritized them as much as I'd like. Big Tone's blog has kind of re-ignited my interest.
One out of character purchase for me has been non-sports cards. I almost never touched them until recently, but now I'm seeking out singles of shows/movies/actresses I like.
I mostly stopped watching basketball when they stopped dribbling. As a kid I did get some basketball cards, but I don't collect them now. SLUs - those were some good times. I went to almost every SLU Convention from Delaware, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, etc. Those were great. I still have way too many in the attic - lots of them opened.
I'm long time basketball card collector and Warriors fan. That's a real nice Laker's regional set you got there,just wish they made some Warriors regional sets over the years.
Sorry it took me so long to reply. Better late than never though...
billy kingsley - thanks billy. i'd love to exchange care packages with you. not sure if i'll dive headfirst back into the nba in the near future.
forestrydave - 100% agree. people say that variety is the spice of life.
commishbob - i actually miss going to warriors games. even after i stopped actively rooting for the lakers, i continued attending games. love the excitement of the crowd.
big tone - saw a bunch of slu's today at the card show i attended today. a few were only $2, but i didn't grab any.
mark hoyle - i'll try to send some celtics your way.
baltmoss68 - yeah. definitely appreciate the simple design.
bulldog - no love for the answer?
night owl - if they made a ron cey slu... would you want one?
gca - if there are certain players you're looking for (in regards to relics), let me know. i come across a lot of affordable memorabilia cards at the flea markets and card shows i attend. i have also started to run out of space on my shelves and cabinets.
nick vossbrink - run-tmc will always be my favorite era of warriors basketball. they were a blast to watch. shame it didn't last longer.
sumomenkoman - storage is the only issue i have with collecting slu's.
the lost collector - some of those 90's nba inserts are ridiculously priced. i'm glad i held onto my jordans. that boxed 1992 dream team set is awesome! i have one sitting in a box somewhere.
chris - big tone was my inspiration too ;)
runfore kelloggs - i never went to any slu conventions, but i sure wish i did. i went through a phase where i was chasing down the exclusive convention figures.
sg488 - i've seen one or two warriors oddball sets from the 90's. pretty sure they had a food issue or maybe a grocery story issue back in 1993. not 100% certain though.
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