Vintage Card Of The Month: 2010 SportKings Series D And 1974 Towa Bruce Lee

 

This month’s VCoM is a double dose of the Master with the first card coming from a pseudo vintage set, the 2010 SportKings Series D. The Sports Kings name had been brought back in to existence by Dr. Brian Price in 2007 with the release of 2007 SportKings Series A and was produced through 2013 SportKings Series F and last year the brand was sold of Brian Grey of Leaf along with Dr. Prices other licenses.

Even though I was only a year old when Bruce Lee died I still felt like I was brought up watching him with my older brother. I grew up watching The Green Hornet reruns along with his movies. I looked up to him and like every other kid imitated his martial arts moves, eventually training in American Kenpo for years before I was disabled.

Lee does not have many collectibles even with his popularity the options are limited. Along with the 2010 SportKings release he is on the 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter’s checklist plus the 1966 Donruss The Green Hornet release. Additionally, he has a couple of foreign releases like the second half of the VCoM post, this 1974 Towa card from Japan. He does have a couple of relics and sketch cards but they are usually triple digits and up.

A Relic That Brings Back Memories

I think that most sports fans can appreciate the Harlem Globetrotters. The team, which began as the Chicago GlobeTrotters in 1926, has traveled the world enlightening both children and adults for 88 years. In that time they have won over 22,000 games and over the years they have had some serious talent wear the red, white and blue uniform including Wilt Chamberlin, Connie Hawkins, Marquis Haynes and even Baseball Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Ferguson Jenkins.

 

I loved watching the Globetrotters on Scooby Doo and Gilligan’s Island and a couple years ago I was able to take my son to a game, which is a memory of a lifetime. After the game the players sign autographs and we were able to get a couple of them to sign our program including the current “Showman” Special K. 

 

Growing up in the 70s and 80s was a special time to be a Globetrotters fan with Meadowlark Lemon playing “Showman” and Curly Neal dribbling the ball with a talent that is nearly impossible to duplicate. In recent years Topps and Panini have done a nice job getting some of these players in to their releases which has drawn plenty of attention. I have been hunting for years to add some of these cards but the relics and autographs tend to be on the expensive side but when I came across 2010 SportKings Curly Neal jersey relic I put in a bid of $10 and prayed to the eBay gods that my bid would outlast the torrent of bids that I expected in the last few minutes of the auction. In the end the clock ticked down and for a mere $8.50 plus $2.30 shipping I was holding this beautiful 2-color swatch.