When my Little League career ended back in the mid 80's... my hoops career bounced and took off. A few years after that my interest in collecting basketball cards followed. This lasted throughout the 90's until I sold off my collection in the early 2000's and picked up right where I left off when I returned to the hobby in 2008. Sometime around 2010 my interest in the NBA and buying basketball cards faded and hasn't bounced back.
These days I will still add them to my collection when I stumble across deals that are too good to pass up or when fellow bloggers send them my way. I'd estimate basketball makes up less than 10% of my collection. That's quite the fall from grace when you consider that they once represented 30 to 35% of my collection a decade ago.
That being said... I still have thousands of basketball cards sitting in boxes. Two weeks ago I decided to sit down and organize a 5,000ct. box filled with stuff I've tossed in there over the past decade or so. And since we're in the midst of the NBA Finals, I figured I'd show off some hidden treasures from my sort.
2009-10 Panini Basketball HOF #46 (#'d 001/599)
Next up are a pair of Stephen Curry inserts from his rookie year. Both are run-of-the-mill cheap looking, overproduced inserts:
2009-10 Panini Generations #8
2009-10 Panini Rookies & Stars Studio Rookies #9
The next card is probably the most valuable card I found:
The saying "they don't make them like they used to" definitely applies to modern day inserts. This card is made of two parts... the sleeve (shown above) and another card that fits inside:
I was surprised that I wasn't familiar with this insert set, since 1998/99 was one of my peaks in basketball card interest (thanks to Vince Carter). Part of it might have to do with the fact that these inserts were tough pulls (1:288 packs).
2009-10 UD Greats of the Game #36 (#'d 30/50)
I might not follow hoops on a regular basis... but even I know The Beard. It was pretty cool to find this rookie card #'d to 50 of this future hall of famer.
1997-98 Metal Universe Planet Metal #11PM
This insert set became popular a few years ago when Michael Jordan inserts started soaring in value. It doesn't command triple digits like MJ, but it's still a cool card to add to my insert binder.
And last but certainly not least is this card of The Glove:
1998-99 Ultra Exclamation Points #13EP
Basketball card posts are pretty rare on this blog, so I might as well kill two birds with one stone and feature some cards recently donated to my collection.
First up are some more cards from Reader X... also known as Xavier Higgins. He sent me two large care packages which included a few Los Angeles Lakers cards. I already showed off the Kobe cards here. Here are the rest of the Lakers he sent my way:
Lopez already has a place in my Stanford PC. Now he has found a home in my Los Angeles Lakers PC as well.
2019-20 Panini Chronicles #75
2019-20 Panini Chronicles #162
2019-20 Panini Chronicles #176
I will happily accept any King James cards people want to send my way... especially ones featuring him with the Lakers.
2017-18 Panini Status Materials #M-BLP
Next up are a quartet of basketball cards sent to me by Elliptical Man:
1996 Skybox Texaco USA Basketball #1
1996 Skybox Texaco USA Basketball #4
1996 Skybox Texaco USA Basketball #11
Food issues receive a lot of press on blogs. Gas station issues need love too. Here's the team card:
1996 Skybox Texaco USA Basketball #14
Team USA has some basketball fans worried as they prepare for this year's Summer Olympics.
That didn't seem to be the issue back in 1996. That team featured eleven future hall of famers (sorry Glenn Robinson) and went 5-0 on their way to winning a 2nd consecutive gold medal.
Elliptical Man also sent me a few San Francisco 49ers cards... which for the most part will be passed along to my students. However... I did add these two to my binder collection:
2019 Panini Black Friday #35
2011 Topps Super Bowl Legends #SBL-XXIV
Thank you Xavier and Elliptical Man! I might have lost interest in the sport, but I still enjoy adding basketball cards to my collection.
What about you...
Are there any sports you've lost interest in over the years?
If so...
Do you still collect their cards?
I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend. Mine was exceptionally busy and included my first trip to a flea market in over a year. Stay tuned.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
Overtime
This weekend Papa Fuji celebrated his birthday. I wasn't able to visit him in Las Vegas, but the family did sing him Happy Birthday over Zoom.
2009-10 Bowman '48 Locker Room Collection Autograph Patch #LRCAP-LB (#'d 12/24)
He's not an avid basketball fan, but he enjoyed rooting for the Celtics back in the 80's... while I supported the Lakers. Good times. Happy birthday Dad!
14 comments:
I have lost all interest in the NFL. When I was a kid, I followed the St. Louis Cardinals. They moved. I didn't watch the NFL. When the Rams moved to St. Louis, I started watching again. When it became clear that the Rams were moving back to LA, I stopped watching the NFL. Two teams is enough, I am never going back.
Hoops is definitely the last thing I think of in collecting...then I see a terrific post with the great Piston Bob Lanier...now I need to get some of his cards.
Good Job. 👍
My career sounds a lot like yours. Played little league. Retired. Then got into basketball and did better and started collecting it some too.
I’ve lost interest in hoops ever since Jordan retired. I don’t collect it anymore but still have most of the cards I got in a box.
I remember that Texaco Team USA set from middle school. Don’t think I ever got packs from it, but I got a number of cards from friends at church and was like 1-2 cards away from completing the set. Are you going to try for the set? I can send you what I have.
Yep, FB and BKB, and no longer collect. Happy belated BDay to Papa Fuji
Both football and basketball. Just have a small number of cards for each and don't watch anymore.
One of my biggest collecting regrets is that I stopped collecting basketball after about 1998.
Can't say I've lost interest in any sport. I have never had an interest in the NBA, so that's been a constant. Same with some other sports like golf and college football. ... It helps cut down on all those extra cards.
That Fleer insert is great. I agree modern inserts are usually very boring in comparison to things that happened in the 90s.
I've never particularly fallen out of love with a sport but I have gradually drifted away. I watched the British Forumla 1 Grand Prix on Sunday for the first time in probably 20 years or so. I don't think I will get back into it though.
Besides baseball, my interest in other sports [NFL and NBA] has remained constant but perhaps as a casual, there is more interest when it comes to the playoffs where [at least for the NBA] there isn't the tendency to watch regular season games [unless there is a 'notable player' to watch for].
I'm mostly a baseball card guy through and through because it maybe too hard to focus on one sport as is.
I was having a conversation with a fellow basketball enthusiast in regards to following the current NBA and our rooting interests. Though we both support and/or identify as fans of particular Teams I came to the realization that Big Picture most people casually have a rooting interest in Either The Lakers or The Celtics from a historical perspective regardless of their upbringing.
Pre-Pandemic I regularly traded Baseball for 90's to 00's basketball cards which ended up paying dividends during the Card-Boom. Still have a couple of decent RC's to show for my efforts.
Keep an eye peeled for another brick of cards Bruh!
I lost interest in NASCAR a while back and stopped collecting the cards too. Racing was too vanilla in the end.
I bought a fair amount of basketball and hockey in the early 90s but I stopped following those sports and collecting those cards. I will pick up a luc robitaille card every once in a while though.
Great Steph cards. Always fun to open up the boxes to see what gems are hiding in them. Fun post.
the snorting bull - i imagine that's how oakland raiders feel. in regards to the rams, i liked them when they were in los angeles the first time around
john sharp - i think lanier wrapped his playing career up right about the time i was starting to get interested in the nba.
jeremya1um - that's good that you kept your jordans. you should dig them out and look them up. they've really soared in value over the past decade or so. as for the texaco set, i don't have any immediate plans to build it. they are cool though. thanks for the offer
johnnys trading spot - just curious... did you collect the falcons and hawks?
jeff b - i've cut back on buying football cards... but still enjoy following my teams and rooting for them.
the lost collector - i regret not heavily collecting basketball in 1996. i was focused on hockey that year.
night owl - i've been cutting down on all sports except baseball... regardless of whether or not i follow the sport. although... i do hope to one day own a card of collin morikawa.
jongudmund - back in the 90's card companies were forced to be creative with their inserts and parallels, bc if they didn't do it... another card company would. that's why i wish mlb would give panini and upper deck licenses to create cards. i never got into racing... but i feel like if i dug deep enough, i could find a formula 1 trading card somewhere in my collection
laurens - yeah i think i wore my collection too thin when i was trying to buy cards for all of my team collections. the past few years i've mainly focused on my baseball pc's, but i do enjoy grabbing singles every now and then for other collections
xavier higgins - received that brick in the mail today. congratulations on trading for 90's basketball. so many of those cards are selling for crazy money
sumomenkoman - i tried collecting rusty wallace back in the day. never really watched any races, but i liked the miller genuine draft commercials he made
gcrl - i don't nearly have as many hockey cards left in my collection, but i do have a small box of inserts and parallels. one of these days i'll get around to sorting that and i'll try to remember to look for robitaille cards for you
bulldog - i quit following basketball at the wrong time. wish i would have stuck around for one more year and stocked up on his rookie cards ;D
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