Trade Report: The Legen....(wait for it).....dary JBF

Jaybarkerfan sent me a little care package this week and, as the video above suggests, it's LEGENDARY!

I'm fairly certain that this is my first "prime" relic in my collection.  That three-color swatch of jersey ribbing is superb.  Literally the only thing that would make it better were if it was from a pair of John Stockton shorty-shorts.  Since it's not, I'm going to enjoy it in all it's Jazz glory.

Also in the bubble mailer were two fellas that could end up having their own legendary status someday.

Thanks for the great cards JBF!  And enjoy your slabbed '73!

Neat Feats

Yeah, I'd call being the all-time steals AND assists leader a "neat feat".

Also, I hate everything about the design of this card, from the weird font on the front, to the odd colors, to the creepy double photo on the front, to the fact that John's head covers up a few letters on the back of the card.  Good concept, poor delivery. 

Put another way, this is the first card that I've posted that I would categorize with the Adam Carolla phrase, "good lenses, bad frames". 

Now This is Lin-Sanity

I'm sure you've heard by now that some of Jeremy Lin's cards have hit astronomical prices.  Well, I just saw an auction that takes the Lin-Sanity to a whole new Lin-evel.

Here is the auction.

And here is the write-up and a picture of the card.

2011 Panini Absolute Jeremy Lin Auto MAJOR DAMAGE

 I'm an idiot.

6 months ago I had this card in my ebay stack, just like everyone else.  It fell off the stack and got rolled over by an office chair.  I wasn't too upset back then, but then all this maddness happened. 


Check the damage, it looks just like you would expect a card to look like after a chair rolls over it. 


Running this at auction, so you crazy people can bid it up.

Out of curiousity, I kept the card in my watch list to see where it ended up.  When I left for work this morning, it was at $40, which is where it had lingered for a few days.

Imagine my surprise when I got home and saw that it had ended at a whopping  $192.51!!!

People be crazy!

The good news is that, if the seller is to be believed, 100% of this nearly $200 for a crappy card will be sent to the Make a Wish Foundation. 

Thoughts?

Golden Oldie

More John Stockton goodness that I missed out on during my years away from the hobby.

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

After my wife graduated from law school this past summer, we decided that she'd take the Colorado Bar Exam.  Since she didn't have a job lined up yet (since she hadn't passed the Bar), my parents offered to let us live in my Grandma's old house, which they and my uncle had inherited after she died in 2010.  It was great to be back in my home town and it was actually quite fun living in a house that carried so many fond memories of my childhood.

To make a long story short, my wife got a job in a nearby town, I found a teaching job in a nearby town, and we bought the house from my dad and uncle.  We've spent the past six months installing new flooring, painting the walls and molding, and remodeling the kitchen.  I think it has finally become "our house" and not "grandma's house" which is kinda cool.

While we were cleaning, we found this button that Grandma would wear to my high school basketball games, and, in typical Grandmotherly fashion, had safely stored away in her junk valuables drawer.

And why wouldn't she?  This freshman would eventually become a senior, and they'd HAVE to let him play then, right?  (Well, they'd let him start, but he would be subbed out by some Hochevar kid minutes into the game or after one bad pass, which ever came first).

And I'll give you one guess what my jersey number was.

The 15,000 Club

John Stockton had 15,806 career assists.  I've had 15,835 page views on my blog (as of last night when I wrote this post).  Weird that I'd stumble into both numbers today.  Even weirder that they'd be so close to each other.

So thanks to everyone who has viewed the pages of my blog and has helped me get higher numbers than John Stockton in something/anything.  A decade ago, when my high school guidance counselor foretold of this day, I thought he was just blowing smoke up my keister.  I guess I owe him an apology and I can probably ask that he be released from the state hospital now.

The Stockton Stash: Big Shots

This is another beauty that the Diamond King sent me.  This time it's a 97-98 Fleer Big Shots insert.

The Stockton Stash: Spark Plugs

It's time that I opened up my John Stockton Stash.

First up is a 1996 Topps Spark Plugs.

"Spark Plug" is a great moniker for a player of John's caliber.

Contest Results: A Big Pile of Royals and Randoms

I was one of the lucky dozen participants in the Royals and Randoms Big Pile Contest.  Luckily for me, I'm a HUGE fan of both Royals and Randoms!  Here, in classic Fave Five Fashion, are my winnings.

FIVE:  The Royals and Random Baseballers

FOUR: An Avalanche Stopper

THREE: Swingers

TWO:  Random Roundballers

ONE:  Not so random Broncos -- Eddy, Terrell, Karl, and Shannon

This was one time when I was glad to have a Big Pile dropped off at my front door.  Thanks Josh!

Trade Report: A Diamond King "Pick & Roll"

During the recent Diamond King mega-end-of-the-year-contest, I mentioned that I'm a huge John Stockton fan.  So, even though I didn't win the contest, the Diamond King wanted to know if he could send some Stocktons and Malones my way.

Now, let me go on the record with the fact that I never have and never will turn down Stocktons or Malones.  They the alpha & omega, the foundation & apex, the peanut butter & jelly, the peas & carrots, and, most fittingly, the pick & roll of my collecting life.

And, as usually happens with trades between bloggers, I was completely blown away with Diamond King's generosity with his portion of the trade.  He filled a TON of gaps in my Stockton and Malone collections.

Since he sent so many cards, I thought I'd break it into two posts, starting with the Mailman.  The Malone section was full of plenty of "style" and "shiny".

Of the many, many, MANY dozens of Malones included, this card was probably my favorite.  Not only is it a USA Basketball card (which I love) but it was produced during the hayday of my childhood collecting and I'd never once encountered it.

The card is a regular sized card with perforations between each "mini card".  You really can't beat four of the NBA's greatest big men on one card.

As for the Stocktons, I think I will forgo my usual multicard post and will take some time featuring them individually since John Stockton is my all-time favorite athlete and Diamond King sent some great cards that deserve heightened focus.

Thanks again for the cards Diamond King and I'm working on tracking down some items off your want list.

Fave Five: The Mailman

My Dad is the rural mailman in my hometown.  His route has him driving 100-plus miles every day delivering the mail to all the farming and ranching families in our area.  My Grandpa (my dad's dad) was also a mailman, but his route was the town route.

Since today is Father's Day, I thought I'd highlight my Fave Five Mailman cards.

FIVE -- Finest

FOUR -- Purple Highlight

THREE -- Gold Achievement

TWO -- Beam Team

ONE -- Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow...

Happy Father's Day!

Fave Five -- '90s Basketball Subsets from a $20 Box-o-cards

Last week I won two auctions on eBay.  Each auction was selling a USPS medium flat rate box full of cards (seller approximated 2200+ and I'd guess he was right) for $20 with free shipping.  One auction was for basketball cards and the other was for baseball cards.  I decided (and convinced the wife) that I couldn't pass these auctions up without at least making a bid, and I ended up winning both auctions.

I gave each box a once over once they arrived and then settled into the basketball box, which I spent a couple hours sorting last night.  I'll get to the baseball cards later this week.

My first (and maybe last, I haven't decided yet) Fave Five from the box of basketball cards is made up of my favorite 1990s subsets that I found in the box.

Number Five -- 1990 NBA Hoops "Current NBA Coaches Who Were Former NBA Players" 
(Although your price guide may have a different name for this subset than does mine.)

The mixing of vintage pictures and modernish card design is pretty successful with these cards.  And the backs of the cards show what the players look like now in their coaching roles.

Number Four -- 1995 NBA Hoops "Gold Mine"

I love the speckled-gold borders on these cards, they look much better in person than in the scan, which tends to be the case with shiny cards.  However, I could have done without the names being written in unreadable gold font.  And the backs are almost as illegible, especially the card numbers. 

Number Three -- 1994-95 Skybox Premium "Sky Slams," "Sky Shots," "Sky Swats," and "Sky Pilots"

I like how the multiple "Sky _______" monikers allowed the different talents of the different players to be displayed.  And once again Skybox shows that they have perfected the "Keep It Simple Stupid" school of card design.  

Number Two -- 1992-93 Skybox "Team Logos"

These are my favorite Skybox team logo cards so far.  It's a perfectly simple design and I like how they incorporated a player onto each card. 

Number One -- 1993-94 Skybox Premium "Nickname/Moniker/Movie Title Poster-Style Cards"
(Once again, check local listings for preferred subset name in your area.)

These cards are badass.  Period.

My $20 box of 1990s basketball card fun gave me some really good starts on some really cool mostly Skybox sets, which contain some badass subsets (see above). 

I'll be posting up some 1990s Skybox basketball wantlists later this week, so if you have any 1992-1996 Skybox basketball cards collecting dust that you'd like to trade away, let me know. 

Fave Five -- Shaq

Yesterday's announcement (via Twitter no less) of Shaq's retirement prompted me to dig out my basketball cards and select a Fave Five.

At one point in my collecting career, I probably had 30+ Shaq cards.  But, over the years, I've traded away or sold most of them.  I currently have a baker's dozen cards of the big guy and here are my Fave Five.

Fave #5 -- 1993 Upper Deck Collectors Choice (#232)

When I was a kid, I was infatuated with the autopenned signatures that many of the Upper Deck cards had on them.  They were definitely as close as I was ever going to get to having my favorite player's autographs.  And I was always amazed that Shaq had enough strength to get those ginormous feet off the ground.

Fave #4 -- 1992-93 Skybox Series 2 Rookie (#382)

This card is a pretty good representation of the impact Shaq had on the league:  Just stand back and watch.  This is the only rookie card I have left in my collection (I probably only had one or two back in the day) and I pulled it from a box of Series 2 that I opened a few months back.

Fave #3 -- 1993-94 Fleer Ultra Rebound King (9 of 10)

Fleer Ultra parallel sets were always my favorites when I was a kid.  And this card is no exception.  I am fairly certain that I pulled this one from a pack.  

Fave #2 -- 1993-94 Fleer Ultra USA Basketball (#M2)

Not the most flattering pose in the world, but a cool card none-the-less.

Fave #1 -- 1993-94 Topps Stadium Club Frequent Flyers (#358)

The Frequent Flyers mini-set was pretty cool when I was a kid.  I remember when my buddy pulled a Jordan FF card from a pack.  He couldn't have been any happier.  And I felt the same way when I pulled this one.

I always liked Shaq when I was a kid, but he was too hot of a commodity for me to personally collect, so I would use his cards as trade fodder to help me acquire more Stockton cards.  And a few of them have stuck around my collection to this day.

Finally, as you can probably tell from the above cards, my fondest memories of the big fella are from his Orlando Magic days.  Seeing him in other jerseys still looks odd to me.

He is probably the best example for me of a guy who has played on numerous teams, but he'll always be a member of (insert team here) in my mind.  I'd also put Jason Kidd and Grant Hill into this category in my mind.

Do you have any guys who have bounced around from team to team but you only think of them as a member of one team?

A Moving Discovery (Part IV) -- USA Basketball

The third and final mini-set that I found in my card album is definitely my favorite of the three.  Large flag background, shiny gold lettering, and horizontal card design, what's not to like about this 1993-94 Fleer Ultra USA Basketball team collection? 

These players came together to become the US National team that would bring home gold at the 1994 FIBA World Championship. 

The Shaq card is the oddball of the set.  It is numbered M2 while the rest of the card are numbered 361-372.  It also appears that there was a team card available, which I may need to track down eventually to round out the set.

All in all, it was great to stumble into this card album and these great cards from my youth.