Collecting The NBA

A quick history of basketball and major basketball card releases (ignoring early tobacco and candy/food releases); In 1947 the BAA (Basketball Association of America) was founded. In 1949 the BAA joined with the NBL (National Basketball League) and the NBA was formed. This piece is connected to another post that I have planned for later today connected to the NBA Draft.

 

The Early Years 1947-1982

In 1957 Topps decided to create basketball cards in addition to baseball cards but it was a one and done deal. In 1961 Fleer tossed their hat in to the basketball card world but like Topps it was just a single release. Topps returned in 1969 with the “Tallboys” and a young Lew Alcindor. They continued making basketball sets until the 1981-82 season which is when their contract agreement ended with the NBA and the NBAPA and was not renewed.

 

The Lost Years 1983-1986

In 1983 Star Company signed a contract with the NBA to be the official producer of NBA cards, which kept them the only company to release NBA cards between 1983 and 1986. These Star cards, even though they were official, are often ignored in regards to the NBA rookies of these 3 years like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing leading to the rise of XRC cards later in the 1980s. These cards are extremely limited, some as low as 200-300 but a huge issue is they were often counterfeited so even today some collectors stay away. I personally love the Star cards.

 

The Return Years 1986-1990

Fleer was able to work out an agreement with the NBA and began printing basketball cards again for the 1986-87 season. The 1986-87 Fleer set is now one of the most famous releases because it included the XRCs of the upcoming 1980s stars like Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwan and Dominique Wilkins. Hoops jumped in with the 1989-90 release almost completely on the back of David Robinson and Danny Manning’s XRC cards.

 

The Junk Wax Years 1991-2000

1990s were the years where anyone who had a basketball card idea could make money. The printing presses were shifted to high gear and we saw a whole slew of manufacturers stand up, many of them disappeared but not all. We saw companies like: Fleer, Hoops, Skybox, Topps, Upper Deck, Classic, Pacific, Collectors Edge, Press Pass and Score.

Some of the positives we saw come from this era are inserts, limited short-prints, relics and autographs. Plus to keep a step up on the competition companies began using bright colors, strange designs, acetate, die-cuts and foil. Over the years these have been honed in but are still used.

 

The Downfall Years 2000-2003

The early 2000s were not really a “downfall” of basketball cards it was just the downfall of many of the junk wax era companies. This was the time where Topps, Upper Deck and what eventually became Panini stepped out of the remnants of the other companies and began buying up what remained.

 

The High-End and Exclusive License Years 2003-2010

In 2003 a basketball messiah appeared who was going to usher in a new level of basketball card, LeBron James. Upper Deck’s Exquisite, Ultimate and SP Authentic lines were bringing the price point of packs in the hundreds and collectors were willing to pay the price to get their hands on LeBron’s cards. Even Topps Finest and Chrome LeBron cards were hitting four and five digits on the secondary market.

Since that time Upper Deck has lost their NBA license, but they still hold an NCAA license and have exclusives with the two biggest NBA names in Jordan and LeBron. Topps was also squeezed out and Panini has the only NBA license.

 

The Panini Years 2010-2017

With Panini having the only NBA license they now run the ship (through at least 2017), which has left a number of basketball collectors disappointed feeling like the market is now stale. With one company’s designers creating so many sets in one year the designs seem to be similar in multiple releases.

Panini released 24 sets for the 2012-13 season and for the 2013-14 season they have already released 19 sets with one more release set for July- Panini Preferred Basketball. This would be the beginning of oversaturation of the basketball collecting market. In recent years, to try to keep things fresh, Panini has been pushing the limits on the high end product. We have now seen cards with gold and even jewels with last year’s release of the $1,250/pack Flawless Basketball.

The NBA Winds Of Change

This summer there are some potential big catches in the NBA. With Kevin Love looking to be traded, Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James already opting out of their contracts and the possibilities of Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade opting out by midnight Monday (June 30^th) there are teams that are already making some quick movements to make a run at the elite of the league.

 

Looking at each player let’s see what their moves will do to their collectability:

 

Love- Collectability Rising

 

Playing in Minnesota is difficult, he is such a star but the market is small. He has plenty of collectors but they are all in Minnesota. Rumors have him possibly going to Golden State, Boston, Phoenix or Chicago. If any of those locations materialize in a trade his collectability is skyrocketing.

 

 

Carmelo Anthony- Collectability Temporarily Stalled

 

Anthony collectors saw a meteoric rise in his prices when he moved to New York but not winning has left his collectors bummed. Rumors for a final landing spot for Anthony include Chicago, Miami, Dallas, Houston or the Clippers plus some murmurings of the Lakers. First thing first, no matter where he goes if he does not win his prices won’t change much. Chicago has Rose (if he can stay healthy), Houston has D. Howard and the Clippers have Griffin and Paul. There is a possibility of going the distance in any of those places. If he does end up in Miami and any of the Big Three remain his prices will jump immediately because NBA playoffs will always include Miami (for now). Dallas and LA Lakers would end up being a bad move. Both teams are aging and Anthony at 30 years old, does not want to be part of a rebuilding phase.

 

 

LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade- Collectability Stable + (Depending on signings)

 

Some people are clamoring that Miami is in free fall with James opting out, they are talking about the sky falling expecting Bosh and Wade to run too. From what I have read though over the last two weeks it has been expected that James would opt out (even before he made the announcement) to give him and Miami the ability to work a favorable contract to bring in more talent, like Anthony.

 

At this point I James will probably end up remaining in Miami, so his prices really won’t change much. But if Anthony were to sign in Miami and the other three remain I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of their prices run through the roof. The thing about James, collectability-wise, even if he is to move his Panini cards won’t change much. Any new relic card might have a premium in a new uniform but everyone knows the real money is in the autograph cards, which Upper Deck controls.

 

There are some other big names like Nowitzki, Lowry, Bledsoe and Gasol but I don’t see much affecting their prices. Dirk will re-sign with Dallas, Bledsoe will resign with Phoenix and Gasol is on the downside of his career so nothing big is expected. Lowry on the other hand is rumored to be returning to Houston so he may see a jump.

Chrome To The Eye

Have you bought a chrome or refractor card because you liked the way it looked or the color that it showed and then when you receive it you realize it looked a certain way because the scanner or camera flashed in a way to make it look cooler than it does in your hand?

 

This 2007 Bowman Best Griffey is a perfect example, these two cards are being sold by two different sellers but they are the same card. If you did not know you would assume (logically) that the left card would be a pink parallel but it isn't.

 

 

Chrome and foil cards are notorious for looking differently in hand versus in a picture or scan which can be frustrated if you are drawn to a card because the way it looks in the auction image. This is really common when it comes to the 1990s inserts when the companies first started using foil/chrome/etchings so the standards were quite different.

Delusional Sellers

A couple of years ago one of my favorite blogs was Bad Wax run by Mike Levine, also known as Chemgod on his blog (He was a chemist). One of his long running popular serials was “Craigslist Idiots” where he contacted people posting card related items for insane prices on Craigslist. Too often people responded to him negatively because they always claimed to know best.

 

I don’t pay much attention to Craigslist but I do keep an eye on strange eBay postings, what I call eBay toads. The other day I came across a seriously overpriced lot that included an Ultra 3-ring binder, nine 9-pocket sleeves and 129 cards. The cards were all 1990-1992 made up of Upper Deck, Score and Hi-Pro Marketing. There were big named players at the time like Griffey, Ripken, Gwynn and Rickey Henderson plus an Ivan Calderon autograph. All for the unbelievably low price of $250 or best offer.

 

I emailed them and being as polite as possible I let them know that the prices are well over valued. I gave them a rough estimate of what they could realistically expect (@$25-30) and explained that most of the cards can be found for .25-.50 cents each and that the binder was the most valuable item in the auction.

 

Here is the response I received
“I appreciate you letting me know. I did take a lot of time researching, and let's not forget it is "Or Best Offer" so the price is not $250. But due to the time I took to research them all, I am keeping it the way that it is.”

 

I love how people equate their time in to value, I was trying to help someone who doesn’t deal with sports cards and I get a “No help needed” response.

Panini Goes Dancing For The World Cup

Building on the opening matches of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil Panini has released an unannounced parallel to their insanely popular 2014 FIFA World Cup Prizm release. The “El Samba” (The Dance) parallel are all 1/1 and use a green and yellow printing pattern that was not used in the Prizm release. They will also be releasing an autograph El Samba parallel over the next couple of weeks.

 

The cards are only available on Panini’s eBay store beginning with a 99 cent opening bid and each day a new set of 10 cards will be available for 3-day auctions. The releases will correspond with World Cup games, which run through July 13^th.  I would expect players like Neymar, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Arjen Robben and Landon Donovan to demand a premium.

 

I think this is a pretty cool idea, it has worked well for Leaf and so far the first couple of rounds are doing well. The only negative mark in my book is the shipping charges, because Panini is using Fed Ex Ground they are charging $10.77 on shipping alone., the first couple of days they were actually charging $15 for shipping so I guess it has gotten better. If the shipping wasn't so high I would definitely bid on some of the cards.

Boba Fett's Sweet Sig

Jeremy Bullock played one of the most badass M-Fer in the universe, Boba Fett. The Fett man always got his man, as a bounty hunter he chased his marks across the galaxy leaving death and destruction in his path. So what is something you would not expect from Boba Fett? A beautiful autograph.

 

Jeremy Bullock played Boba Fett in Episode V- The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Ewoks and Episode VI- Return of the Jedi. He also played Captain Colton in Episode III- Revenge of the Sith. This has to be the most beautiful autograph from a villain ever.

A Quick Peek At 2014 Goodwin Champions

In 2009 Upper Deck introduced their new Goodwin Champions Baseball set. The product was designed around the 1888 Goodwin Champions baseball set and while the product was a baseball set it contained some interesting additions like the popular Entomology cards (who doesn’t love bugs?) as well as Landmarks (cards containing pieces of well-known landmarks like a piece of the Golden Gate Bridge and sand from Omaha Beach) and DNA Hair Cut cards of famous Thoroughbred horses.

 

In 2010 Upper Deck lost their MLB license and a 2010 set was not released. The 2011 release went through growing pains as the product changed from a sports product to a historical/oddities type product. By the time that the 2012 release hit the shelves Upper Deck had complete the transition to a mixture of historical, sports and interesting elements. There were hand-painted art cards, museum collection pieces, manufactured patches and even pieces of meteorites. The theme for 2012 was the Civil War. The 2013 set followed suit with a Wild West theme and now in 2014 it will be World War I, one my favorite historical era.

 

This year there will be some big named athletes on the checklist like Tony Gwynn, Ken Griffey Jr, Lindsey Vonn and Joe Montana. There will be base cards, minis, parallels, relics and autographs. That is just the meat and potatoes of what to expect. There are plenty of side-dishes for collectors of all sorts.

 

There will be Origin of Species manufactured patches, Monster 3D cards, Art of the Ages painted cards and World War I Museum Collection cards.

 

I have been a fan of the Goodwin Champion releases, going back to the original baseball sets. Upper Deck took a tough punch when they lost their baseball license but they have done what they can with what they have. I know that there are plenty of collectors who are not big fans of non-sports cards in what originally was a sports card release but what they may not realize is that many of these old sets from the late 1800s were actually mixed releases.

 

Think about it this way, when the product comes out July 2^nd each box will run around $75 and you will pull 3 hits (auto, relic, manufactured patch, Museum Collection or painted cards), 10 mini cards and a fun break. According to Upper Deck’s Chris Carlin the autographs are all live there will not be any redemptions, a nice addition.

 

I look forward to the release, hopefully I can open a box this year.

R.I.P. Tony Gwynn

 

Horrible news coming out of Poway, California today, the great Tony Gwynn has lost his battle against salivary gland cancer, he was 54.

 

Drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 1981 MLB Draft he spent his entire 20 year career with the club, a rarity. During his time in San Diego he was superstar with 15 All-Star appearances, 5 Gold Gloves, 7 Silver Slugger Awards and 8 NL Batting Champions Awards plus one World Series appearance in 1984 where the Padres lost to the Tigers. In 2004 the Padres retired his number and in 2007 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

During the 1980s and 1990s Gwynn was known as a pure hitter, his .394 BA in 1994 is the closest any player has come to hitting .400 since Ted Williams did it in 1941. His .3382 lifetime batting average puts him tied for 18^th on the highest career batting average.

 

His passing, while not a surprise due to his long battle against cancer, is still a saddening situation. Many of the older collectors, like me, grew up watching Tony Gwynn. He was a good man and even if you did not collect his cards you were still satisfied pulling a Gwynn card.

I remember back in 1996 I was at a Walmart with my (ex)wife and this was a time when the Walmarts had a small section near the entrances which were set up as a sports shop, they had jerseys and sports equipment but they also had a glass cabinet that had sports cards. I picked out a couple of packs of 1996 Upper Deck and on the way home I opened the packs and I pulled a Gwynn predictor card for highest NL Monthly Average Leader. I was so excited because at the time Gwynn was almost automatic at leading the NL in batting but unfortunately the month I had was a down month for him and I didn’t win. I held on to the card for so long, only selling a couple of years ago when I went through a major purge.

 

If you collected his cards or not, he will be missed.

The Art Gallery: 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night Of The Living Dead Johnny

This month’s Art Gallery design is from the 2012 Unstoppable Cards Night of the Living Dead release. The artist is Jerry Fleming, an amazing artist out of Los Angeles. He is well known for his appearances at Comic Cons around the country. The movie Night of the Living Dead is one of my favorite horror films. It was George Romero’s first film, and it was a giant step in establishing the zombie genre.

 

When the Night of the Living Dead cards were released I had talked with Unstoppable Cards owner Jason Wright, they are a small company out of the UK with a number of British entertainment licenses like The Avengers, Blakes 7 and Dr. Who. Jerry Fleming has done a number of sketch cards for the various Unstoppable Cards releases.

 

I picked up this card because it is from my favorite scene in the movie, the scene where Johnny and his sister Barbra are visiting their father’s grave and in the distance a staggering man appears shuffling along through the grave yard and Johnny does his famous “There coming to get you Barbra!’ line. The card was only a couple of dollars but cost another $4.31 in shipping because it was coming from England, a price I would happily pay again for a cool card like this.

A Question To Player Collectors

With the way I have been feeling lately I decided to hopefully reboot my love for the hobby by streamlining my collection and pulling aside cards that I do not have a connection to and use them as trade or to sell so I can focus on building my personal player collections. I am thinking that having cards that interest me in my collection I will feel renewed and ready to focus on the hobby and blogging.

So while I have been building a trade list and a wanted list I have been considering which cards I want to add to my various want lists and which cards to prioritize. I have a question for the player collectors out there, how do you go about building the ultimate collection of your favorite athlete?

Do you begin with the players first cards and build up to their most recent?

Do you begin with their most recent and build back to their first cards?

Do you pick up your favorites and build around what you like first and then pick up other cards as they appear?

 

Do you pick up cards based on price?

 

Do you focus on a player's autographs or relics first?