Sharing my collection

[Zedlaw]

I recently started reorganizing my collection. I thought, why not, let’s take some pics and share what I’ve put together over the years. My glory collecting years, apart from the next, are probably from when I was seven. The Suns nabbed Barkley, with my mother being the only Phoenician heartbroken (she loved Hornacek).

Along with Barkley came new uniforms, a new arena and fresh hope to bring some liveliness to downtown. The start of a thirty year oddesy to make downtown a destination instead of an after work ghost town. But in 93 you could still grab dinner at the taco shack across the street and get free parking for the game. The Suns proceeded to race out to the best record in the league and the playoffs are announced over our elementary school PA on game days, reenacting the starting lineups, accompained by Alan Parsons and ending with my favorite, #7, KJ, Kevin Johnson. The city was locked in, after getting a scare from the Lakers in the first round, the Suns advanced to the Finals only to be undone by Jordan and the Bulls. But I’ve stayed a lifelong NBA fan.

Afternoons at the Forum on NBA on NBC were my Saturday cartoons. ASU had Plummer but weren’t yet Rose Bowl bound. The Diamondbacks were only a twinkle in Colangelo’s eye. The Cardinals always blackedout. For a seven year old, we had the Suns and UofA for march madness. So, like everyone in Phoenix, our loyalties were mixed. Coming from Canadian parents, I also wanted to play infield like Alomar and goalie like Roy. I still remember shooting tennis balls past my dad playing goal while listening to the Canadians v Kings Finals on the radio. I don’t think he’s ever watched an entire playoff game without a few long walks to calm his nerves.

My interest in organized sports began to rise with a seemily cultural shift to the rise of cards. Our local mall went from a single sportscard booth one year to multiple card shops the next. And Skybox was my early jam. My brother loved his Shaq rookie but I was more partcial to the following year; 1993-94 Skybox Premium is still my favorite base set to this day. While my brother leaned star power, I leaned towards the smaller guys. KJ, Penny and soon enough Stoudamire and Iverson were my guys.

1994-95 was my biggest pack opening year. Finest always seemed out of reach at five dollars a pack but I opened plenty of Flair. A new release with their highend thick shiny stock packed into a little two piece cardboard box.



With a growing addiction to cardboard comes with my parents trying to set a budget. Five bucks a week if I do my chores without complaint. So there I sit cleaning the stair railings thinking about the next pack release. Well, the following year brought a new chase. UofA’s own Damon Stoudamire gets drafted to the Raptors. Of course a Blue Jays fan is excited for that. And his Finest rookie is the first single I ever buy, $12. The card shop raved about it’s prefect centering and sharp corners. Two things the community still cares about way more than me. I was just excited for my first Finest card. Later that year I buy the SP diecut and open a “hot pack” of Flair. Stackhouse and Stoudamire in the same pack! How lucky was I. My brother then proceeds to unvail a Jordan Hot Numbers card and it’s $300 book value. Later that summer SPx is released. Finest broke the mold with the $5 pack so SPx comes in with a one card pack. I rip mine wishing for Stoudamire while my brother rips his wishing for Jordan. Amazingly, there he is, I pull Damon Stoudamire. Doubly amazing, my brother shows off his Jordan holoview hero. Stoudamire has remained my main chase. His Rack Pack refractor was another card I was excited to add later on.

1996-97 Ultra was the first box I ever opened. I got it for my birthday that year and opened tons of Kobe, AI, Nash and Camby rookies. No golds or platinums in that box but a hole I looked to fill early when I stumbled back into cardboard 7 years ago.



The following is what I have been able to put together in the last 7 years, with some base cards sprinkled in from the childhood stash. Modest by standards here, but I’ve had fun watching it come together, with many holes that remain to be filled.

Beckett had an issue calling Garnett’s E-XL rookie one of their top cards. I opened many packs back in the day looking for this card. I don’t know what drove me into looking through my childhood cards, but after seeing Garnett’s SP rookie sitting there something was triggered and I just needed his E-XL. So I logged onto ebay and haven’t logged off since. I had just moved into my condo a few years earlier, I was living alone and making comfortable money for the first time. And now my mailbox is full of bubble mailers. I add Shaq’s Upper Deck and Topps rookie. AI’s Finest rookie and his first year Flair run.



Everything seemed so cheap. Most of the time shipping was more expensive than the card. So now I’m looking to buy multiples from the same dealers to cut out shipping costs.



I discover Bowman’s Best cards and add Stoudamire’s run. I could never pull the trigger on a Nash atomic but I’m happy with Iverson’s refractor and a Kobe base. Skyview had crazy pack odds so I was finally able to pair Jordan’s Power Palette with his more sophisticated sibling.



I’ll always have a soft spot for Flair and it was great to add Stoudamire’s first year Legacies. And in 1999 Flair rebranded itself and did away with their tiered approach and made each player’s Legacy out of 20. I haven’t even seen another Iverson popup after getting this one years ago.

For mainly a rookie card collector, the Raptors had back to back to back exciting drafts. Stoudamire to Camby to Tmac. And Tmac’s rookie year was a great year of basketball cards to dive into. The Suns being the Suns, basically punted on the draft for a decade. I missed out on this Tmac Ultra Platinum its first go at auction. But it was soon relisted. The left edge is pretty beatup, but I was happy to get it for a discount. The atomic Bowman was my first auction loss. I never used ebay until I got back into cards and I was stoked to be winning this atomic at a great price all the way up until 10secs before the end, and that’s when I learned about sniping. Up until that point I was mainly buying more common cards and as it turned out, over paying for buy it nows. But the prices seemed great because everything was still way less than what they were going for in the early 2000s. You don’t see too many Triumvirate Illuminators.



Finest was still the gold standard of 90s basketball in my mind and the 1996-97 golds are my favorite cards. Unfortunately a lot of the early Finest are starting to passify and go green. But for me Finest ushered in the era of modern basketball cards. Shiny, chromium stock and refractor parallels. In 1993 it was hard to even distinguish if you had a refractor.





Jordan is base, Barkley is refractor. You get the slightest rainbow reflection with the Barkley in the right light.



Before colored parallels we had tiers (think Finest bronze, silver and gold or Flair’s Rows) and effects (refractors, embossed, atomic, stamping or shine). Bowman’s Best utilized an atomic effect for their chase cards and I really like the picture of Russell v Wilt with the same but subtler effect.





I was team Finest growing up, it was always the go to rookie card in my mind. But since reemerging into the hobby, at some point Topps Chrome took the mantle. Where Finest pushed the whimsical, chrome stayed simple. For the second year of Z Force we got parallels. Raves and Super Raves out of 50. And in 1997 Flair went landscape with their scarcest row.



Flair also had some memorable inserts. After winning rookie of year Stoudamire was a fairly hot prospect so he was apart of a lot of cool insert sets at the time, Hot Shots being one. The late 90s saw the rise of tech, an NBA lockout and second retirement of Jordan. Culminating in the takeit2.net issue. To keep Jordan in the set Flair had to meet some contractual obligations, so out goes Tmac and in comes Jordan with the print count shooting up to 1000.



1995-96 Finest didn’t have any rookie refractors and Flair wouldn’t implement Legacy cards until the following year. So the top (scarcest) cards with this year’s class were Upper Deck’s Electric gold, Topps Gallery Player’s Private Gallery, and Collector’s Choice Platinum Club. I never really liked the picture of Stoudamire posing against a ladder during his Collector’s Choice photo shoot, so I haven’t looked that hard into purchasing it. Fleer’s Classic 61 is another subtly impossible card to track down for Iverson.



Every basketball collection needs Jordan. And early Jordan inserts are fun.



When I first think of Jordan I think about the back to back Finals versus the Jazz. So I wanted to have a nice pairing of Stockton and Malone. Upper Deck’s first foray into serial numbered cards were Diamond Dimensions and Profiles III. Now that serial number stamping has become ubiquitous, the hand numbering on these is quite charming. I feel like I’ll forever be looking for a Stoudamire Grand Finale.



Credentials, my favorite brand run. Stoudamire’s 97 credential out of 20 actually popped on this site a few years back. The only one I’ve seen. Sadly, I lowballed (retroactively) and justifiably never heard back.



Another important lineage of late 90s basketball cards, Metal. EX was high end on release, but Metal had humbler roots. I never pulled a 96 precious metal as a kid, but I did get a spotlight Jordan from the first year. My family is from the prairies of Canada, and the joke is you can stand on your wallet and watch your dog run away for a week. Saskatchewan is a long way from Toronto but I don’t believe you have to scale any mountains to get there, so I’m guessing someone took a wrong turn and ended up in Calgary for Stoudamire’s 1997-98 Metal Championship design. The Billups was one of my first big purchases, an overpay at 350 bucks. There was a Dumars and Tmac for sale at the same time. I couldn’t justify $950 for the Tmac and I’m probably too young to really appreciate Dumars. Ebay ran one of there everything 10% off sales and I finally caved on the price, it’s a rookie I told myself. Every time a Stoudamire precious metal red pops up I always balk at the price. When I’m ready to pay $200 they go for $350, when I’m ready to pay $350 it goes for $600. I don’t even want to guess what it’ll go for now. And I’m pretty content on having Wesley Person’s two best cards, as funny as that may sound.



There was a time when I thought about buying every Stoudamire Jambalaya that popped up. The prices raised and I couldn’t keep up, so I have three. The Camby Portrait came from a local shop that had a client bust open a box looking for gems. No gems but I got a cool card. I looked for this stupid Fusion out of 40 forever. I balked once at what I thought was a too high of a price only to miss out and give in later while spending an extra 50% on a different copy. Even when I try to show patience, sometimes it is tough to follow through.



Same Stoudamire Rack Pack refractor to show with the rarer Person test Rack Pack from the year prior. These guys really don’t surface. I think I’ve only seen Kidd and Hill popup once a piece. The ones I’ve seen have also gone green, but this Person is holding firm so far. The Robinson was an impulse buy. If I couldn’t find a Stoudamire of any particular set I’d buy someone else to mute any rise in prices, so when I finally nab the Stoudamire I’d sell the other one. Well, I enjoy having both.



Same idea with the Pippen. Stoudamire’s Brilliant 24k Gold tops my want list. I’ve never seen one.



I’ve had three Ultra Stars gold of Stoudamire. Each time I relist them on COMC for a price I feel comfortable letting them go and each time I’m sad when they’re gone. One recently sold for $250 graded, sadly I didn’t jump. For some reason I wont budge past $150. One of these days I’ll get one to keep.



My Iverson collection has steadily grown



One of the best cards I pulled as a kid was a refractor reprint of Bird’s and Magic’s Topps rookie. As prices for 90s cards started to take off, I found myself gravitating towards vintage. And I liked the idea of pairing Bird, Magic and DrJ. I thought I had a 1981 Erving, I’ll have to track down another copy.



Once you start buying DrJs, you quickly realize you need to pair them with a Moses Malone. Cashed in some COMC equity to grab the two autos. I still don’t fully understand Star cards, every year looks the same and the different sets had different distributions. But in the hand, the color’s pop and they’re beautiful cards for the time period, a more vibrant option to the more muted feel of 80s Fleer.



I have a large extended family. And for a couple years during my childhood we’d draw names out of a hat and buy one cousin a Christmas gift, a cousin that we wouldn’t normally see during the holidays. One year I got a perfect 1988 Fleer set from my older cousin Darren from Edmonton. I thought the Rodman rookie was a coolest card.



One day I brought the 1988 Fleer set to class to show off. Another kid was into basketball cards. He was older and I was impressable. I traded the Pippen rookie for a beatup copy of Jordan’s A Cut Above. The Pippen was one of the first cards I rebought off ebay after coming back.



My goal with vintage was to get a copy of the big releases, aside from the tallboys, who I haven’t got excited about finding a way to store them. I missed the boat on a Wilt or Oscar rookie but I was still happy to add copies from their in action subset. I thought the Bob Pettit was cool because 1957 is around when he won the title and was winning MVPs, probably why the maxed out the print run on his card. The same thing with the Willis Topps Test issue. He was kind of the bridge between a fading Wilt and rising Kareem as the most dominate big in 1968. If Frazier doesn’t get hurt, the Knicks had the squad to go back to back and take a title from Russell.



I don’t have many Stoudamire autos, mainly because I don’t really like his auto. His 96 Autographics always ends way higher than I’m willing to go, so here’s a third year. But the SP AKA auto is a sharp card, I like that it’s pays homage to his ROY award. There’s something about a nice blue auto. Big Men on Court might be the most divergent year to year run in sportcard design. And I jumped on this Iverson Slam Bams years ago and I still can’t track down the Bams version to pair it with. They certainly don’t popup as often as their print run would suggest.



It's cool seeing Topps Chrome evolve from the clean silver borders of the early releases to colored base and refractors in the later years.



Another important 90s run, Skybox Rubies. I had a trade lined up with a member here, this Jeter star rubies for a 97 Stoudamire rubies. Fortunately and unfortunately for both of us, they noticed the Jeter was short and likely trimmed. At the time I never noticed but it’s obvious when held up against the base, plus the edges aren’t even straight, so an amateur job at that. The search continues for another Stoudamire, while I sit with an untradeable Jeter. Which isn’t terrible, if beatup cards have a home, it’s my PC. Crazily a 99 Stoudamire rubies did $1k recently. It’s the only copy I’ve even seen, so maybe set builders were involved but I have no idea why Stoudamire sells for significantly higher than similar, if not better, contemporaries.



Yellow is my favorite color. I don’t want to like the Lakers but man do those jerseys make for pretty cards. I stumbled on this Kobe and thought it was a really cool looking card. I’ve tried to comp it recently, but other copies never seem to show up. It’s kind of a hidden gem with its cartoon styling and ruby red serial stamping. And I’m a sucker when I see rare Iverson inserts popup. Again the black and yellow gold tinge to the Playmakers Theatre is a dream design.



As new 90s cards got harder and harder to track down I started to fall down the Panini rabbit hole. At first I was very confused where Fleer and Topps and Upper Deck went and why every new release was a Panini brand, a company I didn’t recognize. The first release I really liked was Noir and Vintage Art is still my favorite set every year. I’m not jazzed about the gold frame changing to a FOTL exclusive out of 11 resulting in a tougher and more expensive chase. A lot of times Panini seems to release very similar insert designs every year but Vintage Art always seems to have it’s own yearly flair.



As I got more comfortable with Panini, I started opening packs. I’d swing over to Target on a lunch break to see what they had in stock. I was chasing Luka. I opened a bunch and sold a lot of base. Which I was happy enough to sell for $15 a pop. I never anticipated the base boom that was to come. Packs becoming harder and more costly to find was a good thing to tamper this addictive cycle I’d falling into. But I did find some cool cards. I got dozens of purple pulsars, always a non star, but only one green pulsar. Green pulsars being the much tougher find coming out of blaster boxes, so it was really cool to pull a Curry.



2017 was my Tatum chase as 2018 was Luka. I had to have one Noir gold rookie and it happened to be 25/25. So when another popped up with Tatum in his road uni, I had to get the matching serial numbers. At release ebay was littered with Silhouettes. I picked up what I thought was his prettiest auto. I also opened a bunch of 2017 Optic, never got a Holo Tatum but I thought the checkboards looked cool. So I saved some money and just bought a Tatum checkerboard instead of continuing to chase packs.



I really like first year Optic



Amare might be my most polarizing athlete. He frustrated the hell out of me while playing for the Suns. But now thinking back he was a great ride and a great offensive player. Every year he improved, while every year his body broke down a little more.



Continuing the theme of Suns players in other team’s uniforms. Diaw has been fun to chase because he’s the same rookie year as Lebron. His RPA isn’t a million dollars, but it is kinda million dollar adjacent, maybe. I thought I wouldn’t like the “cut auto” in the Diaw autographics, but it actually looks pretty sharp. A better design twist than the simple sticker auto. And I’ve also joined the chase for early Prizm golds.



Slowly putting together the Exquisite run of Nash and Amare. They don’t come up for auction often and I haven’t jumped at the slight overpay for the ones sitting with a BIN.



As 90s basketball inserts spiked in price I was driven into baseball territory. My tiny goal was to pair a nice 90s card with a players rookie. Still looking for a Randy Johnson credentials.



Crazily, out of all the money and time I’ve sunken into basketball cards, these two are probably the breadwinners.

But without further ado, my top 15





It’s been a ride, thanks for letting me share.

[dengbang]

There are some beautiful cards in here that you don't see often at all like the test refractors. Nice selection of Mighty Mouse as well. Thanks for sharing

[chelseafc11]

Incredibly solid and well-rounded collection. You have great taste regardless of the era!

[GOATcards]

more verbose than I am 99% of the time, and anyway, where's the Garnett Natural Born Killers, Kobe EX Credentials, and the Duncan Platinum Medallion? disappointing

(commenting before everything loaded, thinking it was just '90s non-grail cards. 80T Bird/Doc/Magic is kinda impressive, I guess 61F Russell is not exactly disappointing either)

[pokemaniac]

Damn! They kept getting better and better. The picture on the Mourning Profiles 3 is great, lol.

[SPauthentic84]

Fantastic collection!

[the mesiah]

Man that’s a AWESOME collection! Faves are the iversons and that Mitch rubies

[phdbeckett]

My understanding is your Jeter rubies is NOT trimmed. I have one as well, and apparently they were all cut short. I asked about it here, and was told this is the case only for 2000 Star Rubies.

Very nice collection!

[byronscott4ever]

So many nice cards!

[Kingofkings1281]

That’s a hell of a flashback. The Penny Skybox rookie means a whole lot to me.

[frisbeesteve]

What an absolutely breathtaking collection! Just an incredible assortment and wide representation of players, sets, eras, and card types (base, parallels, inserts, etc.) I really loved not knowing what I was going to see in the next picture, and the next... and the next.

[ljandkg]

A truly great post.
I wish there were more like this and less complaining about this and that.

I loved the slow crescendo in cards from the early base lots of us started collecting with to the top 15.

Salute!

[ninjabum87]

This is about as close as I'll ever get to taking a time machine back to 6th grade. What a trip. Thanks for sharing!

[fabiani12333]

Cool cards -- thanks for sharing.

[Beavers98]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

[LovelyLlamas]

Skyview was a holy grail to me. I remember the 480 pack odds and that seemed impossible back in 95. I remember seeing one for the first time at an outdoor flea market and fell in love with it. Bought a box of series 2 some 14 years back and found the MJ Skyview in the first pack and finally completed the set!

Love the Fleer Tiffany as well. Just an amazing design.

Thanks for sharing!

[hoopstaj]

What the hell just happened! What amazing cards


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mondogenerator]

now this is a post i can get behind - always love seeing another Damon collector!

the diamond dimensions 1/100 is great - pretty jelly of that one

[sethc1020]

Absolutely awesome stuff! Took me for a ride down memory lane for a bit! If you happen to ever want to let go of any of your 93 finest basketball refractors let me know. Trying to put that set together. Thanks again for sharing!

[montej1695]

That must have taken you a while to post... well done!

Thx for sharing the amazing collection, so many nostalgic cards/sets there.

Love that Bird/Magic dual auto... IP autos?

[bkcardcollector]

Nice Damon's, Tmac's, Curry's and Iversons, that was an amazing trip. thank you

[2010GBPackers]

'68 Reed Topps Test, '93 Jordan SK, and Iverson Playmaker's Theatre are awesome!

[maconithappen]

Wow! What a great collection! Some very iconic cards you have in your pc. Thanks for sharing.

[thenwhatjk]

What a post

[Zedlaw]

Originally Posted by dengbang

There are some beautiful cards in here that you don't see often at all like the test refractors. Nice selection of Mighty Mouse as well. Thanks for sharing

Thanks for looking. The hope when logging into ebay is to be surprised and see something new. Almost like slots, the big one is always the next spin.

Originally Posted by chelseafc11

Incredibly solid and well-rounded collection. You have great taste regardless of the era!

Thank you. I do try to gently thread the collection with NBA history. Not always successful but the goal non the less

Originally Posted by GOATcards

more verbose than I am 99% of the time, and anyway, where's the Garnett Natural Born Killers, Kobe EX Credentials, and the Duncan Platinum Medallion? disappointing

(commenting before everything loaded, thinking it was just '90s non-grail cards. 80T Bird/Doc/Magic is kinda impressive, I guess 61F Russell is not exactly disappointing either)

A Suns fan can only have so much of Kobe and Duncan. I've been close to pulling the trigger on a Garnett Natural Born Killer. But I'm kind of the opposite of a set builder. Once I have one example of a card, the thirst is quenched and I'm on to the next.

Originally Posted by pokemaniac

Damn! They kept getting better and better. The picture on the Mourning Profiles 3 is great, lol.

Thanks, it's a cool card, very subtle embossing too.

Originally Posted by SPauthentic84

Fantastic collection!

Thank you

Originally Posted by the mesiah

Man that’s a AWESOME collection! Faves are the iversons and that Mitch rubies

Thanks, 97 rubies is a showstopper of a set

Originally Posted by phdbeckett

My understanding is your Jeter rubies is NOT trimmed. I have one as well, and apparently they were all cut short. I asked about it here, and was told this is the case only for 2000 Star Rubies.

Very nice collection!

Well that's exciting. I'll chase some different examples and see how they line up.

Originally Posted by byronscott4ever

So many nice cards!

Thanks

Originally Posted by Kingofkings1281

That’s a hell of a flashback. The Penny Skybox rookie means a whole lot to me.

It was a great time to be an NBA fan

Originally Posted by frisbeesteve

What an absolutely breathtaking collection! Just an incredible assortment and wide representation of players, sets, eras, and card types (base, parallels, inserts, etc.) I really loved not knowing what I was going to see in the next picture, and the next... and the next.

Gotta keep the readers on their toes. Thanks for looking

Originally Posted by ljandkg

A truly great post.
I wish there were more like this and less complaining about this and that.

I loved the slow crescendo in cards from the early base lots of us started collecting with to the top 15.

Salute!

Thanks, stay tuned for another update in 7 years

Originally Posted by ninjabum87

This is about as close as I'll ever get to taking a time machine back to 6th grade. What a trip. Thanks for sharing!

I definitely had fun going through all my cards and thinking through how to organize my tale of collecting.

Originally Posted by fabiani12333

Cool cards -- thanks for sharing.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Beavers98

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks

Originally Posted by LovelyLlamas

Skyview was a holy grail to me. I remember the 480 pack odds and that seemed impossible back in 95. I remember seeing one for the first time at an outdoor flea market and fell in love with it. Bought a box of series 2 some 14 years back and found the MJ Skyview in the first pack and finally completed the set!

Love the Fleer Tiffany as well. Just an amazing design.

Thanks for sharing!

That's an amazing pull

Originally Posted by hoopstaj

What the hell just happened! What amazing cards


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks, just a trip down memory lane

Originally Posted by mondogenerator

now this is a post i can get behind - always love seeing another Damon collector!

the diamond dimensions 1/100 is great - pretty jelly of that one

We are out there, someone keeps bidding against me. Love looking at your stuff too

Originally Posted by sethc1020

Absolutely awesome stuff! Took me for a ride down memory lane for a bit! If you happen to ever want to let go of any of your 93 finest basketball refractors let me know. Trying to put that set together. Thanks again for sharing!

The Barkley is the only refractor, but that's a fun set to put together. Good luck

Originally Posted by montej1695

That must have taken you a while to post... well done!

Thx for sharing the amazing collection, so many nostalgic cards/sets there.

Love that Bird/Magic dual auto... IP autos?

Thanks, the hardest part was figuring a way to shrink the size of the pictures, I thought imgbb had a button, but I couldn't for the life of me find it. But I enjoyed doing the writeup. I recently bought some new binders, so I was going through everything anyways.

My understanding is the Bird and Magic is one of the first packed out autos. But there are lots of IP versions out there, even with the stamping. You can never be sure with these things I tried to sift through and find one with the right auto design and pen use for a packed out copy

Originally Posted by bkcardcollector

Nice Damon's, Tmac's, Curry's and Iversons, that was an amazing trip. thank you

Thanks for coming along

Thanks,

Originally Posted by 2010GBPackers

'68 Reed Topps Test, '93 Jordan SK, and Iverson Playmaker's Theatre are awesome!

Every decade has something special for every taste. Thanks

Originally Posted by maconithappen

Wow! What a great collection! Some very iconic cards you have in your pc. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks