Handle With Care

I have a couple of “glass” cards like Leaf’s Trinity Pure cards and they are cool, but they aren’t glass and not super thick. Panini has released a couple of glass cards over the past few years and I was able to add a 2016-17 Panini Absolute Glass Steve Nash to my collection.

It is thick, about 240-pts, and inside a mag case. The case is scratched, and I have considered removing it from the Panini case and putting it in to a new one, so it will display nicely. When I purchased it, I was a bit worried, I have seen some of the card arrive shattered, but the seller did a wonderful job packaging the card. He even emailed me when it showed delivered to make sure that it came in undamaged. 

It doesn’t scan very well so I went the picture route, ignore the phone reflection. If I do remove it from the case I will scan it first and post the image on TCDB.

Enjoy Your Retirement Steve

This past weekend Steve Nash announced his retirement after 18.5 seasons in the NBA. He spent 10 years in Phoenix, 6 in Dallas and 2.5 abysmal years in Los Angeles. It was after another injury plagued season that he decided to hang up his shoes having played in only 65 games over the last 3 seasons.

During his career he played with some of the greats over the past two decades like Kevin Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. He isn’t an opposing player, standing 6’3” and weighing 180 lbs. but his speed was blinding and he sure knew how to control a game earning 2 MVP Awards and being selected for 8 All-Star Games. Unfortunately he never made it to the BIG GAME, falling short in the Western Conference Finals twice.

His last couple of season in Los Angeles he was just a fraction of his former self and it was depressing to watch him try to push through his back problems on a team that was also just a fraction of their former selves.

Nash is loved here in Phoenix, even though he did move on to the Lakers he is still beloved in the Valley. He is one of those guys that is so easy to like and so easy to collect. Here are a couple of my favorite Nash cards that I have picked up over the years.

His 1996-97 UD3 Rookie Card. Not even close to being one of his more expensive RCs but I have loved this card since I pulled it from a pack, the wood texture and image in the shape of the key is so cool of a design.

 A couple of 2005-06 SPx Winning Materials warm ups. I picked these up for a couple of bucks each. I liked the different colors so I got two.

A 2007-08 Stadium Club Beam Team relic. I love the Stadium Club sets and was so happy when Topps re-released the product in 2007. I pulled his Nash Beam Team relic and an Allen Iverson relic out of the same box.

 This last one I pulled from a tin of 2009-10 SP Game Used Basketball. It includes six swatches and is #/99 and as ecstatic as I was there was a bit of a let down too. The COA on the secondary card was stuck just above Nash’s relic and tore the paper a bit. Also the Nash, Billups and Iverson relics are not fit properly inside the die-cut and are hanging out. I pulled the card like this in 2010 but decided not to get an exchange when I heard horror stories about what some companies consider “Fair value trade”. I wasn’t looking forward to getting a Hasheem Thabeet rookie card #/750 or a Danny Green sticker autograph as a replacement.

Steve Nash- Game 1 Version

As I am watching the last few nail-biting minutes of the Suns game, I decided to keep tonight’s post short (so I can watch the Suns play hot and cold streaky basketball). This post is all about Steve Nash.

Here are a couple of Nash hits that I have come across over the years. I pulled one of the Winning Materials and then when I saw the black/red version on eBay I added it to my collection. The relics are from his warm-ups.

When Topps brought back Stadium Club I was a happy collector, when I came back to collecting during the 92-93 basketball season I stuck with Stadium Club because I loved the photography compared to other releases at the time. The interesting thing about this card is that the back contains facts about Steve Nash. Did you know that he practiced with the NY Red Bulls of the MLS in 2007?

The game has now ended, the Suns winning 111-102 over the Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. Steve Nash ends with 33 Pts, 3 Rebs and 10 Assists.