Junk Wax 2.0 Has It's Advantages

I had posted this on Twitter when I got the card a few weeks ago, so if this seems familiar you aren’t experiencing déjà vu. 

I picked up this 2018 Panini National VIP Allen Iverson relic at the end of October and I paid less for the card ($3.58) than I did for shipping ($3.75). Ten years ago, you wouldn’t think that picking up a two-color patch of a Hall of Famer that is #/25 for under $4 would have ever been a reality, yet here we are. 

It is player worn, but it is a nice addition to my Iverson PC and at 180-pt I think it is the thickest card I have. 

Print It!

 A nice little addition to my Allen Iverson PC, a cyan printing plate from the 2016-17 Flawless Basketball. I do not have many printing plates in my collection because of the prohibitive price but every so often a gem falls in to my hands.

Jon Found The Answer

I am a bit behind on posting some of my recent trades and care packages. Knowing I am sometimes a bit lax on this I always send a thank you email when I receive the package, I don’t want anyone to think I don’t appreciate their kindness. 

Last month I received a care package from Jon from A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts, a gathering of Iversons for my collection. Allen Iverson was a more recent mini-PC for me and with Jon’s package I am at 63 Iverson cards, on my way to 100 unique AI cards.

Three 2000-01 Topps Heritage inserts that were all on my wants list.

A 2004-05 Fleer Traditions Hardcourt Tributes

A 2003-04 Fleer Platinum Big Signs fold-out card that I don’t think I had ever seen before.

Thank you, Jon, I really appreciate the additions to my Iverson PC

Monday Question Day- Bankruptcy Cards?

How do you feel about cards that made it to the streets as part of a company bankruptcy?

I want to make it clear that I am talking about cards that were legally sold as part of a bankruptcy/buy-out and not cards walking out the back door. 

 I picked up this 2003-04 Fleer Mystique Allen Iverson gold parallel on eBay not long ago that was part of Fleer’s bankruptcy vault clearance. The card is the same as the packed-out versions except for missing the serial numbering on the back (#/150). 

I think it is a cool addition to my Iverson collection, so I am happy to have it, I see it as a bit of an error of sorts, but I know that there are people out there who are against this type of card being sold.

Some Unique AI Pickups

A couple of unusual additions to my Allen Iverson collection. A 2000 Stadion Cards from the Czech Republic and a pair of 2003 Upper Deck Lego cards. 

The Stadion cards were part of a multi-national/multi-sport set out of the Czech Republic and was made up mostly of soccer (football) and hockey stars but they got in a couple of NBA players like Shaq, Kobe and Iverson. There are also cards from tennis, racing and cycling, an interesting idea for a set.

The Lego cards came from Upper Deck and I do not know exactly how they were distributed, I would expect as part of a promotion with Lego. The set is made up of 24 base cards as well as a 24 card Gold parallel, which have different images than the base set. 

   

A COMC Splurge

Like many people who purchase cards through COMC, I purchase some cards throughout the year and then wait until the Black Friday sale with free shipping to request their order. I ended up having 79 cards in my most recent order with most being Griffey and Buhner and the rest being a mixture of other PC/mini-PC collections, Star Wars and some oddballs. 

Most of the cards where under $2 but I did splurge on a card that I have wanted for almost 2 decades, a card that I missed out on this past October when I didn’t purchase any cards for my So You Don’t Have To piece.

I finally added a 1996-97 Topps Chrome Allen Iverson #171 rookie card. It was on sale over the Black Friday weekend for $18 and I didn’t want to miss out again so I picked it up.

AI, Durant And Warren

My recent COMC order included a large portion of Ken Griffey Jr but I always like to pick up some of the cards off of my personal want list. Usually these are cards that I have on my list that are essentially Gray Whales that I don’t consider unless they are on sale. Here are some of the cards that I had shipped following COMC’s Black Friday sale.

I wouldn’t say that Allen Iverson is one of my player collections but I do seem drawn to his cards. He was arrogant and lets not even touch on his feelings about practice but he is probably one of the most prominent guards of his generation and possibly an all-time Top 10 shooting guard. When it comes to basketball, I have pulled AI hits more than any other player so I kind of became a mini-pc collector by default.

These cards are from the 2012-13 & 2013-14 Panini Crusade releases. They both are from the Crusade Blue checklist.

This card is from the 2014-15 Court Kings release, specifically the Rookie Royalty insert. As I have said before I refuse to collect any player wearing the jersey of the team stolen from Seattle but I do have a couple of cards of Durant in a Sonics jersey and this card is now the top of Supersonics collection. Oddly this card rarely shows up but when it showed up for sale on COMC for a couple of bucks I grabbed it up quickly.

I added a couple of 1996 Pacific Chris Warren Litho Cel cards. These cards were an interesting idea originally coming out as promotional cards, these are the ones listed as Cel-000, and then later as part of the regular Pacific Litho set. When you line up the four levels (Bronze, Silver and two cels) you are supposed to see a color image of the player. I picked up two promo cards and one cyan cel insert card. I will eventually pick up the other cards to put together the image but it isn’t a rush and when I paid about $1 for all three I was happy.

A Noir Iverson

 

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after the NBA Hall of Fame induction, I was going through Allen Iverson cards. Probably not the best time to do it but I figured while I had his stuff on my mind I might as well look.

 

Iverson is one of my basketball mini-PCs so I came across some neat cards but it was his 2014-15 Panini Noir card that got me bidding. Normally Panini’s high end Noir cards are outside of what I want to pay for a base card but I think I just got caught up and the bidding didn’t get too bad with just over $10 shipped.

 

The checklist is broken in to two halves with cards #1-100 being black and white and #101-200 being color, this means each player has two cards with one on each side of the checklist. I am happy Panini decided to make each card a different image of the player, especially when you are paying $450+/box I would hope they didn’t use the same image. I wouldn’t mind picking up Iverson black and white #70 card but I wouldn’t pay the price that is being asked right now.

Welcome To The NBA Hall Of Fame

 Today the NBA welcomes 10 new members in to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The class includes Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, Sheryl Swoopes, Tom Izzo, Jerry Reinsdorf, John McClendon, Darrell Garretson, Zelmo Beaty and Cumberland Posey (Who is also in the Baseball Hall of Fame).

Shaq was the reason I returned to collecting in 1992, specifically the hunt for his 1992-93 Stadium Club card. A card which I consider such a big part of my collecting that it is my wallet card…I really need to take that out and take some photos.

The player out of this group that I collected was Allen Iverson, maybe not the most pleasant guy and he had an issue with practice but he played with heart and ferocity and he carried the 76ers to the 2001 NBA Finals. The thing about Iverson is he is the athlete out of all sports that I have pulled out of packs the most hits.

The NBA Hall Of Fame List Includes:

The 2016 NBA Hall of Fame inductees were announced today with Shaq leading the list. In addition to Shaquille O’Neal is Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, Sheryl Swoopes along with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo and the Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf. This is a solid group, though I am not completely sold on Yao Ming, and very collectible.

Shaq is the reason I returned to collecting in 1993, his 1992-93 Stadium Club #247 is my wallet card (though he didn’t get many photo ops last year), and his autographs are still highly collectible.

AI is one of my mini PCs, I actually pulled this autograph in 2007, one of my favorite auto pulls. His career didn’t flower like it should have and he definitely has a grating personality but he definitely is worthy of a HOF plaque. As long as there are no practices required Allen Iverson will be there.

When it comes to (recent) women’s professional basketball there are three names held in reverence, Lisa Leslie, Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes. Cynthia Cooper was inducted in to the Hall of Fame in 2009, Lisa Leslie was inducted in to the Hall of Fame last year so this year it is Sheryl Swoopes turn.

The final player being inducted is Yao Ming. I do not know how I feel about him being included, he had a decent career being an 8-time All-Star and was among the top centers during his career but he spent much of the time injured, never pushed the Rockets to an elite team and many are saying he is being included simply for being a foreign player that opened up the league to China, essentially an ambassador for the sport.

 

Is It The End For AI?

AI
Originally uploaded by Jumper48

My favorite a-hole, Allen Iverson, has been waived by the Memphis Grizzlies. I never thought that Memphis was a good fit for AI especially considering he would be sitting behind O.J. Mayo and Iverson is not someone who thinks he should ever be a backup.

At this point there does not seem to be much of an option for him, not this early in the season anyway. As the season grinds on and players get injured or later when teams begin clamoring for playoff position there may be a few buyers but AI may need to wait for the phone to ring. Hopefully when the time comes he ends up going somewhere that he can be used to his strengths… scoring points.

I never collected Allen Iverson cards while he was with Philadelphia, I thought he was an ass who could score but when he traded to Denver I started pulling AI cards out of almost every product. I figured it was time to give him a chance. Now I will grab up the occasional AI card when I see something interesting.