Saturday, January 31, 2015

A Truly Epic Mailday (Part 1)

The term Epic is thrown around a lot these days. Many times, what's being described as epic doesn't really deserve that tagline.

I think my mail day today might be truly epic.
I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...


The first picture shows the three boxes and the three padded envelopes I received. One of the small envelopes was a small two card purchase I had made, the rest were all gifts from fellow hobbyists, including my first gift from a fellow blogger, The Prowling Cat. I've heard that fellow bloggers were a generous bunch, and I saw that in action today.

The medium sized brown box in the middle was jam-packed with cards from a friend on the Database. He essentially sent me his duplicate stash. Many of them are hockey, but there was a little bit of everything in there.

The large box on the bottom, and the small white box, were both from my friend Ricky. He's taken it upon himself to help me build a better collection...especially hockey. In fact, when I sent him a message about finishing looking at all the cards, he was at an NHL game. The second photo is what greeted me when I opened the large box...wow is an adequate word to describe it. The big box weighed 16 pounds! It's the heaviest box of cards I've ever gotten in the mail.

The third photo shows all the cards after I put them into my boxes. Actually, not all of them made it into the boxes, the small stack with the Clint Bowyer card in the toploader are also new. I now have a small stash of duplicate hockey cards as well, visible in the top of the photo.

I have to say though, that this was my favorite card...
A Press Pass Ebay preview! This one got an audible "Holy Crap!" that my family heard on a whole other floor. I tried to win several of these Ebay previews when they were doing them, but I never succeeded. I had never actually seen one in person before today. This one, from the 2004 set, would have been on Ebay around Thanksgiving 2003, which is before I had an Ebay account, I joined in January 2006.

Before today, my hockey collection was a grand total of 29 cards. I don't know how many hockey cards I got today...but it's well into the 4 digits. It's going to be a few DAYS before I know for sure. (I keep very detailed records of my collection, including the order I get them in, so I will know for sure which hockey card is #1000....) I also got my first completed hockey set, and my first completed set of 2015. None of those 29 cards I had were from this 200 card set.

Today marks the first day where I got all 5 major sports and non-sports in the same day. I've been collecting since 1988.

I can't wait to find out how many new sets entered my collection today. Remember back in early December when I was happy to get 22 new sets in one day, which was my all time record? Well, that record fell today. I don't know if today's record will ever fall...I would not be surprised if I hit 100 new sets today. That will be something I post in part 2, in  few days, when I've fully documented everything.

There is another record that may have fallen today. As I stated, I keep track of my collection down to the very small details. I know, for example, how many cards I've gotten each day going back to 2000 (although it's not perfect- I only tracked NBA until 2003, and I haven't always kept up with it, something I really regret). My record for new cards in one day is 1388, set on July 9th, 2002. Christmas day 2002 also cleared 1000 new cards. (1208 to be exact) I know that my birthday in 1997 almost surely did as well, as my brother gave me 20 200 count boxes that day, but since I didn't yet keep records it's lost to history how many I got. I never thought it possible that the record of 1388 could ever fall for me. I can't spend the money on cards that I once did, and even that was a bit of a "Perfect Storm" situation that could be described as "once-in-a-lifetime". (I'll detail that in it's own post some day)
I believe I got more than 1000 cards today, and I am very much looking forward to finding out how many...but it will be a few days before I can sort them all, remove the duplicates and count the new additions. I would not be surprised if I actually hit 1500 today- and 2000 would not even really shock me.
With my hockey, football and baseball collections being very small, almost every card was new. The duplicates shown in photo #3- they were all cards that I got more than one copy of today. It's not like the NBA, where I can get a lot of cards and have most of them be duplicates. Case in point, my brother brought me one of those 75 card clamshells from Target a few nights ago, and I got 12 new cards, the rest being duplicates. That percentage is not going to be the case here.

Thank you for reading, and stay tuned to Part 2 where I share just how many new cards, sets and records that happened today...along with some more highlights of cards included! (I didn't even show the autograph, promos, or my first serially numbered hockey cards, etc!)

Friday, January 30, 2015

NASCAR Hall of Fame 2015 Induction Class

Later tonight, NASCAR will induct it's 2015 Class into the Hall of Fame, so I thought I would take a look at the cards issued for the 5 men going in. I will give a brief bio, with links to their career statistics, trading cards, and diecast replicas, which is another one of my hobbies (now retired)

The induction ceremony airs beginning at 7PM Eastern Standard Time on NBCSports network.

I must begin with Wendell Scott. As you may have seen previously on my blog, Wendell Scott is someone I idolize. He overcame massive amounts of discrimination to do what he loved to do, which is drive race cars. He is the only driver I know of to not be allowed to enter a racetrack simply due to the color of his skin. He is the only driver to not win Rookie of the Year for the same reason. He is the only driver to not get credited with his win for the same reason. I believe he most likely has more than the one major win he is credited with as well.

Some people argue that he only has one recognized victory- but it's awfully hard to win races when they don't even let you into the track. That's a simplification of the struggles he went through, but it gets the point across. What he overcame, what he accomplished, he is without a shadow of a doubt Hall of Fame Worthy. Also, it's the Hall of Fame, not the Hall of Wins.

Aside from his one recognized Grand National victory, which came December 1st, 1963 at Jacksonville, Florida, he also won several lower level championships and an unknown- but high number- of races. Unfortunately records were not kept that I know of.

He raced 495 GN/Winston Cup races, from 1961-1973, and would likely have raced longer if not for injuries he suffered at Talladega. Unfortunately he passed away in 1990, from cancer.
Wendell Scott Career Statistics /// Wendell Scott's Trading Cards /// Wendell Scott's Diecast replicas

Mr. Scott has not received many trading cards. He got several in the early 1990s, and two were issued in his lifetime- one was a topic of a previous post- but then he went from 1994 to 2010 without a single card. I just learned the 2010 card existed today, as I was getting the links to create this post, so it is not credited to him on the Database as yet. He was not included in any of the Legends issues Press Pass produced from 2005 through 2013.

I have a bit of a personal connection to Mr. Scott and his entry into the Hall of Fame, although small. Back in either 2008 or 2009, I discovered that there was not a single page on Facebook honoring him. So, I created one, and it became THE place to go for Wendell Scott information and pictures on Facebook, which eventually led to being the place to organize his fans for voting in the Hall of Fame fan balloting, which he won. It's a light connection, to be sure, but it is a small connection. What's even better though is the fact that I've since become friends with many of his other fans, and even two of his children and one of his grandchildren. That's the most rewarding aspect of all.
NASCAR Legend Wendell Scott on Facebook


Both cards shown come from the 1991 K&M Sports Legends Wendell Scott issue, a 30 card release dedicated solely to Mr. Scott's life.


Joe Weatherly, aka Little Joe or the Clown Prince of Racing, was the only multiple Championship winning driver not yet enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Of the 5 going in, I know the least about him, mainly due to the fact that he was killed in an accident more than 20 years before I was born. He ran 230 Grand National races, winning 25 of them, along with the 1962 and 1963 Championships. He was running with the same team in 1964, when a crash at Riverside ended his life on January 19th of that year. Unfortunately the most well known fact about Mr. Weatherly is not a fact at all, but a myth- he did NOT, absolutely under any circumstances, hit his head on the wall, as has been making the rounds for years and even appears on NASCAR.com. I've seen pictures of the accident (and wish I hadn't) but his helmet was fine- not even scratched. He was known as a practical jokester- and his fun with Curtis Turner is legendary. (As an aside, I fully expect and hope Curtis Turner will be in the class of 2016)
Joe Weatherly Career Statistics /// Joe Weatherly Trading Cards /// Joe Weatherly Diecast Replica

Mr. Weatherly has very little in the way of cards. The Database turns up a paltry 7, 5 of them coming from the Galfield Press Pioneers of Racing set, as shown below.

Rex White, 1960 NASCAR Champion, is the oldest living former Champion of NASCAR's top division, and holds the mark of winning the closest race ever held to my home, roughly 35 minutes away, at a track visited by NASCAR only once, during 1960. Mr. White ran 233 races between 1956 and 64, winning 28 of them, mostly on short tracks. The majority of his races were in cars he co-owned with Louie Clements. Mr. White is currently enjoying his retirement, and has been spotted at many get togethers of the sport's past, which unfortunately for me are held nowhere close to where I am.
Rex White Career Statistics /// Rex White Trading Cards /// Rex White Diecast Replica

Mr. White has appeared on many cards, over 100, including many of the Legends sets produced by Press Pass.
Shown here is 1991 Pro Set Legends and his autograph from 2009 Press Pass Legends.


Next comes Fred Lorenzen, winner of the 1965 Daytona 500. Illinois born Lorenzen is one of few northerners to be accepted whole-heartedly by many southern fans (I've actually been on the receiving end of a few rather unpleasant remarks by some rather unintelligent people due to being a NASCAR fan from New York state), and picked up the nickname "Golden Boy" due to his success at a young age and yellow hair (which sometimes appears to be brown or even black in black and white photos). Before moving to NASCAR, Lorenzen raced in the USAC stock car series. He ran 158 races between 1956 and 1972, and won 26 of them. He never ran a full schedule so he never had a chance to win the Championship. The most he ever ran in one year was 29 of the 55 races, in 1963 (he won 6 of them). He retired during the 1967 season but made a comeback in 1970, however, he never won again. After he hung up the helmet for good after 1972, he dealt in real estate. He is currently in extremely poor health, living in an Illinois nursing home. I saw on Facebook that he was able to get to the Hall of Fame for tonight's ceremonies, which I am happy to see.
Fred Lorenzen Career Stats /// Fred Lorenzen Trading Cards /// Fred Lorenzen Diecast replicas

He has been a popular subject for trading card releases, appearing on over 200. He is one of the few early drivers to have cards released during his career, getting two cards in the 1972 STP set, which is not too surprising considering they were his sponsor that season. They are quite rare and expensive, and I don't have any in my collection to show.



Last comes Bill Elliott, who while certainly has a Hall of Fame worthy career, I don't think should be in yet. For this year, NASCAR waved the 5 year retirement rule, and Elliott raced as late as 2012. I think he should not have been eligible until 2017, but...I don't make the rules. Let me state again, he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, without question. Not to take anything away from Mr. Elliott, he has actually put up the best numbers of any of the Class of 2015, appearing in 828 races over 37 years (!) and winning 44 of them. He also won the 1988 Winston Cup Championship and the 1985 Winston Million, which is winning three of NASCAR's Crown Jewel events in the same season- one of only three drivers to do so. (LeeRoy Yarbrough, Jeff Gordon). Elliott also holds the record for the fastest pole speed in NASCAR, putting up a staggering 212 mile per hour lap at Talladega in 1987. (granted, without restrictor plates, they would be going around 230 MPH there now, or more) Elliott was still winning in 2003 when he decided to not race full time anymore, and finally decided in 2012 to concentrate on helping his son Chase Elliott move up in NASCAR's world- which was apparently a good choice, as Chase became the first ever rookie Champion in 2014, and we learned yesterday he will be moving to Cup full time in 2016. Bill Elliott also won the Most Popular Driver award 16 times, most of them consecutively. It's been a truly amazing career, and entire generations of fans- myself included- don't know a NASCAR without Bill Elliott. After all, he's been involved since 1976.
Bill Elliott Career Statistics /// Bill Elliott Trading Cards /// Bill Elliott Diecast Replicas

Bill Elliott also has more cards than all the rest of the 2015 Inductees combined, nearly 1500 cards. And that is even with the fact that he was not signed to Press Pass from 2001-2009!

The cards shown are the Skidmarks parallel from 1999 Press Pass- my copy is serially numbered 001/125, and his autograph from 2000 SP Authentic.

The Hall of Fame is the recognition of a life's work - the highest honor NASCAR can bestow on it's contributors - and all five men in the Class of 2015 are certainly worthy of being memorialized forever.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you join me in the television audience tonight.

 

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Being sick is not a lot of fun. Updated with photo.

Sick again. I woke up sick on January first, got better, and then got sick again-worse than before, in fact. Of the 29 days of the month, (and really, we're on day 29 already? How'd that happen!?) I've been not-sick maybe 6 of them.

And that's not counting the permanent health problems I have, but I'm talking about your common, annoying, cold. This one hit me so bad I can barely even talk- although I'm not much of a talker in the first place.

It has put my card stuff on a bit of a hold as well. It's hard to concentrate on cards when you are feeling this bad- I've essentially lost several days of getting my tradelist entered into the Database. Let alone scanning or posting anything. I didn't accomplish anything at all yesterday other than watching one of the two Simpsons episodes I've missed; I would have watched both but the Cablevision On Demand was not working right. I tried to watch the movie Midway but fell asleep early on, the last thing I remember was when they determined that it was indeed Midway that was the target. I'm a big history buff and the battle of Midway is my favorite from WWII to read about.

But being sick does make me think of how athletes play through sickness. The most incredible time I can recall was when Michael Jordan was poisoned during the 1997-98 finals. He literally turned green, yet he still nearly single-handedly won the game. He needed help to walk off the court, yet still put up, if I recall correctly, 38 points.

Why can't I do something like that? (well, aside from the fact that I'm nowhere near as talented as MJ).

And I couldn't imagine driving in a race while being sick. I know it's been done. One of the worst things I can imagine is projectile vomiting while wearing a full face helmet...but it's happened. Eww. (Fun fact- if you remove the seat and dashboard, NASCAR cars can be cleaned with a common hose. The dashboard has electronic scoring and in some cases lighting, and the seat has a cloth covering that could probably be hosed down, but wouldn't dry as quickly). Score one for mandated simplicity.

I am feeling better today, and I hope to get one of the features I want to post to Cardboard History typed up, or at least partially typed up. I have two pages I want to create- but I've been putting them off while I worked on the duplicates. Not sure I'm up to that yet (I may try, though- and don't worry, cards don't carry germs; I never stopped doing cards when I was sick when I was in school and going through them in later years never once made me sick, in fact I went nearly a decade without getting sick and never stopped dealing with the same cards. I also wash my hands constantly- every 20 minutes or less) The pages appear at the top of each post and the main page, so by nature they are important topics. Even if I do get one done I doubt I will get them both posted, because one of them is going to require more than one day's worth of work to create. It requires planning and research...

The NBA's duplicates have almost caught NASCAR's, and I believe they will surpass them in the next session I get for entering them- two of the largest sets are ahead of me still, plus I still have all of 2004-05 through 2011-12 and the 1980s to enter, plus some 2013-14 and 14-15. (Not as many as it sounds like as I took a break from the NBA from 2006-07 through 2011-12, so it's only a couple hundred cards, and at least 1/3rd of them are probably from 2005-06 Rookie Debut, a set I did two boxes of.) The margin is only around 400 cards. Of course, if I could find the rest of my NBA duplicates, they would have a several thousand card lead...someday.

One last thing, the mail came after I went to sleep, and I got a dual patch in the mail! I don't have the mental energy needed to deal with the scanner I use for patches right now (my normal scanner has no depth of field whatsoever, the one that does is damaged and needs a LOT of work to fix a scan for posting) but hopefully I can get it posted up in a new feature I plan to debut in a few days.
EDIT: I don't know why it didn't occur to me sooner, but, why not take a real, genuine photograph? Duh...


As always, thanks for reading!






Friday, January 23, 2015

The largest trade I've ever made

I've been in this hobby a long time. Since 1988, to be exact. I began trading in 1996, when I was in the 5th grade, and I still have the first card I traded for, although I have a better example in my collection.

I've done several hundred online trades, and more than a few offline trades over the years, probably 2 or 3 thousand or so cards all told, 18 years combined.

But they all pale in comparison to this one!

As I stated a few days ago, having a working tradelist is a great and helpful thing. Having a working wantlist is helpful to, although for me I only add cards to my wantlist when I get the set close enough to completion that buying a box would be a waste of money. There are plenty of cards I want to add to my collection that are not on the official wantlist. (You can see that on the right side of the blog)

Just two days ago, I got a box from fellow Trading Card Database member Collect-A-Set. It included 344 new cards, 3 upgrades for damaged cards, and 4 cards I had forgotten to remove from my wantlist which ended up being duplicates. I will be sending him over 400 cards - I don't have an accurate count yet, and some of which will be a surprise to him, as he didn't know I had some available, for a trade involving more than 700 cards total.

All the cards I received from him are in excellent condition- fresh from pack quality, and to be honest, the ones that were duplicates are probably in better condition than the ones I already had!
While I didn't complete any sets, it did move two sets to 1 card away, (1993-94 Upper Deck, 1997-98 Metal Universe Championship) and I added one new person to my collection- Rex Hughes, who coached the Sacramento Kings for part of 1991-92. He is a One Hit Wonder, the 1991-92 Fleer card is the only one ever made for him.

The pictures below show each different set that got a card added to my collection. I generally don't like to take pictures of cards, preferring scanning them much more, but there are so many new cards I will be scanning them for some time to come, and wanted to get this post up while it was still fresh in my mind.
I accidentally cut off part of the 1991-92 Skybox card, almost totally cutting off Charles Oakley. Oops!




I hope to do more trades with him in the future. I have more cards waiting to be entered into the tradelist, so hopefully he will need some and we can do another great trade.

By the way, this brings the list of cards I've traded for since I finished the bulk of my NASCAR tradelist on the Database to around 700. All since the second week of December! I got a trade with 30 something NASCAR cards the same day I got these cards. I will be sending mostly NASCAR back to Collect-A-Set.

For posterity, future reference and my own obsessive self, here is a complete list of cards I received in this trade: (And by doing a numbered list, it will tell me if I got my math correct, math is not one of my strong suits)
Inserts in red, parallels in blue.
  1. 1989-90 Hoops #203 David Rivers
  2. 1989-90 Hoops #218 Muggsy Bogues
  3. 1989-90 Hoops #284b James Edwards
  4. 1989-90 Fleer '89 All-Star Sticker #8 Dale Ellis
  5. 1991-92 Skybox #351 Atlanta Hawks
  6. 1991-92 Skybox #476 New York Knicks
  7. 1991-92 Skybox #489 B.J. Armstrong
  8. 1991-92 Skybox #522 Brian Williams RC
  9. 1991-92 Skybox #581 Ron Harper
  10. 1991-92 Skybox #654 Checklist 351-404
  11. 1991-92 Hoops #407 Mark Acres
  12. 1991-92 Hoops #435 Sean Higgins RC
  13. 1991-92 Hoops #441 Nate McMillan
  14. 1991-92 Upper Deck Rookie Standouts #R4 Felton Spencer
  15. 1991-92 Upper Deck Rookie Standouts #R5 Bo Kimble
  16. 1991-92 Upper Deck Rookie Standouts #R6 Willie Burton
  17. 1991-92 Upper Deck Rookie Standouts #R15 Elden Campbell
  18. 1991-92 Upper Deck Rookie Standouts #R31 Doug Smith
  19. 1991-92 Fleer #253 Kenny Gattison
  20. 1991-92 Fleer #295 Kenny Williams
  21. 1991-92 Fleer #329 Brian Quinnett
  22. 1991-92 Fleer #340 Andrew Lang
  23. 1991-92 Fleer #342 Tim Perry
  24. 1991-92 Fleer #344 Alaa Abdelnaby
  25. 1991-92 Fleer #349 Rex Hughes
  26. 1991-92 Fleer #362 David Benoit RC
  27. 1992-93 Ultra #9 Dee Brown
  28. 1992-93 Ultra #16 Ed Pinckney
  29. 1992-93 Ultra #18 Dell Curry
  30. 1992-93 Ultra #19 Kenny Gattison
  31. 1992-93 Ultra #23 J.R. Reid
  32. 1992-93 Ultra #33 John Battle
  33. 1992-93 Ultra #35 Brad Daugherty
  34. 1992-93 Ultra #37 Larry Nance
  35. 1992-93 Ultra #40 John Williams
  36. 1992-93 Ultra #41 Terry Davis
  37. 1992-93 Ultra #42 Derek Harper
  38. 1992-93 Ultra #45 Fat Lever
  39. 1992-93 Ultra #46 Doug Smith
  40. 1992-93 Ultra #50 Marcus Liberty
  41. 1992-93 Ultra #51 Todd Lichti
  42. 1992-93 Ultra #71 Vernon Maxwell
  43. 1992-93 Ultra #74 Otis Thorpe
  44. 1992-93 Ultra #100 Grant Long
  45. 1992-93 Ultra #107 Fred Roberts
  46. 1992-93 Ultra #108 Alvin Robertson
  47. 1992-93 Ultra #119 Chris Morris
  48. 1992-93 Ultra #157 Duane Causwell
  49. 1992-93 Ultra #162 Willie Anderson
  50. 1992-93 Ultra #163 Antoine Carr
  51. 1992-93 Ultra #169 Benoit Benjamin
  52. 1992-93 Ultra #170 Michael Cage
  53. 1992-93 Ultra #178 Mike Brown
  54. 1992-93 Ultra #180 Mark Eaton
  55. 1992-93 Ultra #200 Checklist 105-200
  56. 1992-93 Ultra #278 Kenny Williams
  57. 1992-93 Ultra #283 John Williams
  58. 1992-93 Ultra #374 Checklist 267-330
  59. 1992-93 Hoops #325 Adam Keefe RC
  60. 1992-93 Hoops #364 Corey Williams RC
  61. 1992-93 Hoops #371 Brian Howard
  62. 1992-93 Hoops #375 LaPhonso Ellis RC
  63. 1992-93 Hoops #404 Elmore Spencer RC
  64. 1992-93 Hoops #408 Alex Blackwell RC
  65. 1992-93 Hoops #409 Duane Cooper RC
  66. 1992-93 Hoops #411 Keith Askins
  67. 1992-93 Hoops #413 Harold Miner RC
  68. 1992-93 Hoops #416 Todd Day RC
  69. 1992-93 Hoops #424 Chris Smith RC
  70. 1992-93 Hoops #438 Charles Smith
  71. 1992-93 Hoops #440 Litterial Green RC
  72. 1992-93 Hoops #446 Andrew Lang
  73. 1992-93 Hoops #453 Oliver Miller RC
  74. 1992-93 Hoops #456 Dave Johnson RC
  75. 1992-93 Hoops #463 Walt Williams RC
  76. 1992-93 Hoops #473 Stephen Howard R
  77. 1992-93 Hoops #475 Larry Krystkowiak
  78. 1992-93 Hoops #488 Checklist Rookies
  79. 1992-93 Fleer #195 Duane Causwell
  80. 1992-93 Fleer #221 Mark Eaton
  81. 1992-93 Fleer #264 Checklist 177-264
  82. 1992-93 Fleer #316 Corey Williams RC
  83. 1992-93 Fleer #335 Isaiah Morris RC
  84. 1992-93 Stadium Club #382 Walter Bond
  85. 1992-93 Skybox School Ties #ST15 Elmore Spencer / Gerald Paddio
  86. 1993-94 Ultra #25 David Wingate
  87. 1993-94 Ultra #213 Scott Burrell
  88. 1993-94 Ultra #218 Corie Blount
  89. 1993-94 Ultra #225 John Battle
  90. 1993-94 Ultra #233 Tim Legler
  91. 1993-94 Ultra #242 Sean Elliott
  92. 1993-94 Ultra #244 Lindsey Hunter RC
  93. 1993-94 Ultra #248 Josh Grant RC
  94. 1993-94 Ultra #249 Jeff Grayer
  95. 1993-94 Ultra #255 Mario Elie
  96. 1993-94 Ultra #289 Tellis Frank
  97. 1993-94 Ultra #313 Warren Kidd
  98. 1993-94 Ultra #321 Joe Kleine
  99. 1993-94 Ultra #347 Walter Bond
  100. 1993-94 Ultra #314 Eric Leckner
  101. 1993-94 Upper Deck #185 1993 NBA Playoffs Round 1 Seattle vs. Utah
  102. 1993-94 Upper Deck Special Edition #205 Denver Nuggets
  103. 1993-94 Hoops #348 LaSalle Thompson
  104. 1993-94 Stadium Club #29 Ron Harper
  105. 1993-94 Stadium Club #75 Greg Kite
  106. 1993-94 Stadium Club #77 Randy White
  107. 1993-94 Stadium Club #79 Kevin Brooks
  108. 1993-94 Stadium Club #158 Clifford Robinson
  109. 1993-94 Stadium Club #193 Ken Norman
  110. 1993-94 Stadium Club #207 Dale Ellis
  111. 1993-94 Stadium Club #209 Kevin Gamble
  112. 1993-94 Stadium Club #228 Tim Perry
  113. 1993-94 Stadium Club #330 Kenny Anderson
  114. 1993-94 Stadium Club #351 Ron Harper Frequent Flyers
  115. 1993-94 Skybox #1 Checklist 1-77
  116. 1993-94 Skybox #21 John Paxson
  117. 1993-94 Skybox #25 Mookie Blaylock
  118. 1993-94 Skybox #30 Dee Brown
  119. 1993-94 Skybox #43 Bill Cartwright
  120. 1993-94 Skybox #119 Micheal Williams
  121. 1993-94 Skybox #151 Harvey Grant
  122. 1993-94 Skybox #152 Jerome Kersey
  123. 1993-94 Skybox #154 Clifford Robinson
  124. 1993-94 Skybox #165 Dale Ellis
  125. 1994-95 Fleer #15 Xavier McDaniel
  126. 1994-95 Fleer #45 Gerald Wilkins
  127. 1994-95 Fleer #52 Fat Lever
  128. 1994-95 Fleer #54 Sean Rooks
  129. 1994-95 Fleer #86 Kenny Smith
  130. 1994-95 Fleer #126 Blue Edwards
  131. 1994-95 Fleer #130 Derek Strong
  132. 1994-95 Fleer #133 Christian Laettner
  133. 1994-95 Fleer #136 Chris Smith
  134. 1994-95 Fleer #140 Benoit Benjamin
  135. 1994-95 Fleer #155 Charles Smith
  136. 1994-95 Fleer #210 Vincent Askew
  137. 1994-95 Fleer #211 Michael Cage
  138. 1994-95 Fleer #214 Nate McMillan
  139. 1994-95 Fleer #239 Checklist 115-227
  140. 1994-95 Fleer #249 Eric Montross RC
  141. 1994-95 Fleer #262 Will Perdue
  142. 1994-95 Fleer #274 Cliff Levingston
  143. 1994-95 Fleer #282 Mark Macon
  144. 1994-95 Fleer #296 Mark Jackson
  145. 1994-95 Fleer #300 Lamond Murray RC
  146. 1994-95 Fleer #309 Anthony Miller RC
  147. 1994-95 Fleer #311 Kevin Gamble
  148. 1994-95 Fleer #319 Ed Pinckney
  149. 1994-95 Fleer #325 Donyell Marshall RC
  150. 1994-95 Fleer #333 Charlie Ward RC
  151. 1994-95 Fleer #349 Danny Manning
  152. 1994-95 Fleer #350 Elliot Perry
  153. 1994-95 Fleer #352 Trevor Ruffin RC
  154. 1994-95 Fleer #357 Chris Dudley
  155. 1994-95 Fleer #363 Brian Grant RC
  156. 1994-95 Fleer #364 Michael Smith RC
  157. 1994-95 Fleer #367 Avery Johnson
  158. 1994-95 Fleer #370 Chuck Person
  159. 1994-95 Fleer #371 Chris Whitney
  160. 1994-95 Fleer #379 Jamie Watson RC
  161. 1994-95 Fleer #382 Jim McIlvane RC
  162. 1994-95 Emotion #6 Dino Radja
  163. 1994-95 Emotion #11 B.J. Armstrong
  164. 1994-95 Emotion #14 Dickey Simpkins RC
  165. 1994-95 Emotion #16 Chris Mills
  166. 1994-95 Emotion #26 Bill Curley RC
  167. 1994-95 Emotion #33 Clifford Rozier RC
  168. 1994-95 Emotion #83 Clifford Robinson
  169. 1994-95 Skybox Slammin' Universe #SU27 Rod Strickland
  170. 1994-95 Flair #71 Elden Campbell
  171. 1994-95 Flair #98 Hubert Davis
  172. 1994-95 SP Championship #28 Stacey Augmon
  173. 1994-95 SP Championship #92 Kenny Anderson
  174. 1994-95 Ultra #28 Luc Longley
  175. 1994-95 Ultra #40 Terry Davis
  176. 1994-95 Ultra #68 Vernon Maxwell
  177. 1994-95 Ultra #82 Elmore Spencer
  178. 1994-95 Ultra #89 Anthony Peeler
  179. 1994-95 Ultra #94 Matt Geiger
  180. 1994-95 Ultra #100 Brian Shaw
  181. 1994-95 Ultra #107 Thurl Bailey
  182. 1994-95 Ultra #141 Jeff Malone
  183. 1994-95 Ultra #154 Mark Bryant
  184. 1994-95 Ultra #164 Duane Causwell
  185. 1994-95 Ultra #184 Jeff Hornacek
  186. 1994-95 Ultra #191 Rex Chapman
  187. 1994-95 Ultra #198 Checklist 1-92
  188. 1994-95 Upper Deck #27 Vernon Maxwell
  189. 1994-95 Upper Deck #43 Avery Johnson
  190. 1994-95 Upper Deck #88 Hersey Hawkins
  191. 1994-95 Upper Deck #165 Wesley Person RC
  192. 1994-95 Upper Deck #173 Steve Smith USA
  193. 1994-95 Upper Deck #201 Dickey Simpkins RC
  194. 1994-95 Upper Deck #202 Johnny Dawkins
  195. 1994-95 Upper Deck #251 John Williams
  196. 1994-95 Upper Deck #258 Matt Fish RC
  197. 1994-95 Upper Deck #297 Kevin Duckworth
  198. 1994-95 Upper Deck #334 Michael Cage
  199. 1994-95 Upper Deck #335 Brooks Thompson RC
  200. 1994-95 Upper Deck #344 Willie Burton
  201. 1994-95 Upper Deck #360 Tom "Satch" Sanders
  202. 1994-95 Stadium Club #12 P.J. Brown
  203. 1994-95 Stadium Club #22 Kevin Duckworth
  204. 1994-95 Stadium Club #26 Vern Fleming
  205. 1994-95 Stadium Club #28 Rodney Rogers
  206. 1994-95 Stadium Club #47 Charles Smith
  207. 1994-95 Stadium Club #52 J.R. Reid
  208. 1994-95 Stadium Club #87 Elmore Spencer
  209. 1994-95 Stadium Club #97 Blair Rasmussen
  210. 1994-95 Stadium Club #127 Charles Oakley
  211. 1994-95 Stadium Club #141 Johnny Dawkins
  212. 1994-95 Stadium Club #150 LaPhonso Ellis
  213. 1994-95 Stadium Club #170 Ervin Johnson
  214. 1994-95 Stadium Club #176 Greg Graham
  215. 1994-95 Stadium Club #198 Malik Sealy
  216. 1994-95 Stadium Club #234 Chris Whitney
  217. 1994-95 Stadium Club #242 James Edwards
  218. 1994-95 Stadium Club #256 Johnny Dawkins
  219. 1994-95 Stadium Club #264 Craig Ehlo
  220. 1994-95 Stadium Club #323 Rik Smits
  221. 1994-95 Stadium Club #337 Donald Hodge
  222. 1994-95 Topps #163 David Benoit
  223. 1994-95 Topps #232 Malik Sealy
  224. 1994-95 Topps #235 Olden Polynice
  225. 1994-95 Topps #267 Ricky Pierce
  226. 1995-96 Metal #2 Mookie Blaylock
  227. 1995-96 Metal #7 Eric Montross
  228. 1995-96 Metal #8 Dino Radja
  229. 1995-96 Metal #10 Scott Burell
  230. 1995-96 Metal #21 Popeye Jones
  231. 1995-96 Metal #31 Terry Mills
  232. 1995-96 Metal #42 Dale Davis
  233. 1995-96 Metal #44 Derrick McKey
  234. 1995-96 Metal #49 Malik Sealy
  235. 1995-96 Metal #50 Loy Vaught
  236. 1995-96 Metal #51 Elden Campbell
  237. 1995-96 Metal #56 Bimbo Coles
  238. 1995-96 Metal #58 Khalid Reeves
  239. 1995-96 Metal #63 Eric Murdock
  240. 1995-96 Metal #65 Tom Gugliotta
  241. 1995-96 Metal #69 P.J. Jones
  242. 1995-96 Metal #81 Shawn Bradley
  243. 1995-96 Metal #83 Sharone Wright
  244. 1995-96 Metal #85 Kevin Johnson
  245. 1995-96 Metal #90 Rod Strickland
  246. 1995-96 Metal #92 Buck Williams
  247. 1995-96 Metal #96 Walt Williams
  248. 1995-96 Metal #106 Oliver Miller
  249. 1995-96 Metal #108 David Benoit
  250. 1995-96 Metal #109 Jeff Hornacek
  251. 1995-96 Metal #112 Greg Anthony
  252. 1995-96 Flair #63 Loy Vaught
  253. 1995-96 Flair #81 Doug West
  254. 1995-96 Flair #142 Blue Edwards
  255. 1995-96 SP #10 Eric Montross
  256. 1995-96 SP #117 Walt Williams
  257. 1995-96 SP #120 Avery Johnson
  258. 1995-96 Topps #142 Ron Harper
  259. 1995-96 Ultra #44 Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf
  260. 1995-96 Ultra #114 Armon Gilliam
  261. 1995-96 Ultra #138 Danny Ainge
  262. 1995-96 Ultra #170 Hersey Hawkins
  263. 1996-97 SP #21 Bob Sura
  264. 1996-97 Hoops #208 Ervin Johnson
  265. 1996-97 Hoops #241 Hubert Davis
  266. 1996-97 Hoops #267 Brian Hill
  267. 1996-97 Ultra #21 Chris Mills
  268. 1996-97 Ultra #113 Chris Morris
  269. 1996-97 Ultra #165 Tyrone Hill
  270. 1996-97 Ultra #181 Grant Long
  271. 1996-97 Ultra #184 Jerome Williams RC
  272. 1996-97 Ultra #188 Felton Spencer
  273. 1996-97 Ultra #200 Rodney Rogers
  274. 1996-97 Ultra #215 Stojko Vrankovic
  275. 1996-97 Ultra #227 Gerald Wilkins
  276. 1996-97 Ultra #229 Lucious Harris
  277. 1996-97 Ultra #240 Billy Owens
  278. 1996-97 Ultra #260 Roy Rogers RC
  279. 1996-97 Upper Deck #116 Detlef Schrempf
  280. 1997-98 Metal Universe #69 Othella Harrington
  281. 1997-98 Metal Universe #79 Erick Dampier
  282. 1997-98 Metal Universe #89 Tony Delk
  283. 1997-98 Metal Universe #102 Vitaly Potapenko
  284. 1997-98 Hoops #182 Ed Gray RC
  285. 1997-98 Metal Universe Championship #10 Avery Johnson
  286. 1997-98 Metal Universe Championship #53 Rod Strickland
  287. 1997-98 Collector's Choice #220 Keith Booth
  288. 1997-98 Collector's Choice #254 Eddie Johnson
  289. 1997-98 Collector's Choice #273 Charles Smith RC
  290. 1997-98 Collector's Choice #297 Derek Strong
  291. 1997-98 Collector's Choice #344 Antoine Carr
  292. 1997-98 Collector's Choice #396 Checklist 201-240
  293. 1997-98 Stadium Club #13 Horace Grant
  294. 1997-98 Stadium Club #49 Lorenzen Wright
  295. 1997-98 Stadium Club #63 Steve Kerr
  296. 1997-98 Stadium Club #110 Tracy Murray
  297. 1997-98 Stadium Club #130 Kendall Gill
  298. 1997-98 Stadium Club #137 Elden Campbell
  299. 1997-98 Stadium Club #150 Avery Johnson
  300. 1997-98 Stadium Club #172 David Wingate
  301. 1997-98 Stadium Club #175 Detlef Schrempf
  302. 1997-98 Stadium Club #182 Doug West
  303. 1997-98 Ultra #6 Vlade Divac
  304. 1997-98 Ultra #7 Mookie Blaylock
  305. 1997-98 Ultra #78 Lorenzen Wright
  306. 1997-98 Ultra #101 Derek Harper
  307. 1997-98 Ultra #150 Checklist inserts
  308. 1997-98 Skybox #3 Vinny Del Negro
  309. 1997-98 Skybox #81 Mario Elie
  310. 1997-98 Skybox #85 LaPhonso Ellis
  311. 1997-98 Upper Deck #287 Tariq Abdul-Wahad RC
  312. 1997-98 Topps #15 Detlef Schrempf
  313. 1997-98 Topps #30 John Williams
  314. 1998-99 Molten Metal #12 Arvydas Sabonis
  315. 1998-99 Molten Metal #13 David Wesley
  316. 1998-99 Molten Metal #60 Tyrone Hill
  317. 1998-99 Molten Metal #70 Bryon Russell
  318. 1998-99 Molten Metal #119 Derek Anderson
  319. 1998-99 Skybox #170 Antonio McDyess
  320. 1998-99 Stadium Club #161 Kenny Anderson
  321. 1998-99 Stadium Club #164 Jayson Williams
  322. 1998-99 Stadium Club #172 Eric Piatkowski
  323. 1998-99 Stadium Club #178 Wesley Person
  324. 1998-99 Stadium Club #186 Zydrunas Ilgauskas
  325. 1998-99 Stadium Club #228 Luc Longley
  326. 1998-99 UD Choice #15 J.R. Reid
  327. 1997-99 UD Choice #16 Bobby Phills
  328. 1998-99 UD Choice #27 Cedric Henderson
  329. 1998-99 UD Choice #40 Brian Williams
  330. 1998-99 UD Choice #42 Lindsey Hunter
  331. 1998-99 UD Choice #44 Eric Montross
  332. 1998-99 UD Choice #67 Corie Blount
  333. 1998-99 UD Choice #71 Sean Rooks
  334. 1998-99 UD Choice #73 P.J. Brown
  335. 1998-99 UD Choice #88 Micheal Williams
  336. 1998-99 UD Choice #99 Chris Mills
  337. 1998-99 UD Choice #122 Olden Polynice
  338. 1998-99 UD Choice #124 Lawrence Funderburke
  339. 1998-99 UD Choice #133 Nate McMillan
  340. 2003-04 Upper Deck #82 Pepe Sanchez
  341. 2005-06 Topps Total Silver #117 Kenny Thomas
  342. 2005-06 Topps Total Silver #123 Lindsey Hunter
  343. 2005-06 Topps Total Silver #128 Trevor Ariza
  344. 2005-06 Topps Total Silver #336 Boris Diaw
Well, there's the list, and I think the most amazing thing about is that I actually counted correctly.

One thing I didn't mention above, he wanted to wait and see if I was satisfied with my end of the trade before I mailed him his. That would be a resounding YES, and I hope to get the box out in the mail later today, or tomorrow more likely, unless of course we are having a major snowstorm, which they are saying is possible. In that case it will have to wait until Monday.

As always, thanks for reading!

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

A Brief explanation of my Top 10 Most Wanted Cards

For years, people have been asking me, "What's you most wanted list?" and finally, last night, I came up with it. For now...it's sure to change as I think of something I've forgotten, or, hopefully, get some of the 10 cards added to my collection.

I thought I would break down WHY each of the 10 cards make the Top 10 list. Most are common cards that have just eluded me, only one is expensive, although some others are hard to find. It is a mix of racing, NBA and non-sports.

Reasons are in bold.

  • 1. 1992 Langenberg ARCA Flash #101 Tony Schwengel's car Both #1 and #2 on the list were sold as a factory set only. However, my factory set included two copies of two cards and no copies of two others, they are tied for #1 most wanted but appear here in numerical order.
  • 2. 1992 Langenberg ARCA Flash #106 Bob Schact
  • 3. 1995-96 Upper Deck Electric Court #168 David Robinson Both #3 and #4 also go together. As is well known, when I add a card to my collection, it stays there. Forever. I have held true to this most of my life, but in 1996, I opened a pack of Upper Deck and pulled a David Robinson Electric Court card. I then traded it to one of my friends- I don't remember who or what I got in return, but to this date, it is the only card I ever had in my collection and no longer do. It's been nagging me ever since. I don't remember which card, I know it was NOT the first subset card, but I don't remember if it was the series 1 or 2 base card. It may have even been the USA subset, which I now have, but I think it was one of the base cards. Both are on this list.
  • 4. 1995-96 Upper Deck Electric Court #310 David Robinson
  • 5. 2003 Press Pass Signings Jeff Gordon I am more about base cards, but I also collect autographs and relics. Every card that exists is one I would like to have. I've always wanted Jeff's autograph, but I've never been lucky enough to pull it. If I could get his 2003 Signings card, I might be able to do the entire set. I pulled the Dale Jr. card (from a retail pack, no less!) so if I could get the big two, it would be a good start. Also, it predates when he and several others started putting stickers over their autographs. (I would not turn down any of them though!)
  • 6. 1994-95 Topps Embossed #57 Micheal Williams Last I need to complete the set.
  • 7. 1991 Maxx Sample Bill Elliott 1991 Maxx is one of my favorite NASCAR sets ever, and I have every card except this one.
  • 8. 1993-94 Topps #384 Michael Jordan Scoring Leader Last one I need to complete the set.
  • 9. 1991 Topps Desert Storm #7 (variation) Merrill McPeak While there are lots of variations I don't have for this set (The entire 1st series of 88 cards has 4 variations each!) this is the only time there is a totally different card. I did a box, and the box I did was the first release, which means this card was not included.
  • 10. 1998 Maxx 10th Anniversary Promo #P1 Rusty Wallace Another of my favorite sets, and my favorite Upper Deck NASCAR set. Maxx was always my favorite company and this set uses the designs of the first 6 years' of Maxx sets. It was also the first set I ever made a paper listing for, although I had to recreate it as I did a lousy job. I completed the base set in 2009, but I don't have the promo. I've never even seen it.

  • As always, thanks for reading!

    The importance of having a working tradelist

    As I mentioned last night, I was planning to write up a piece about the importance of having a working tradelist before we lost our Great Aunt. Tonight was a tough one and I have to admit I was not able to hold it together totally, but I did get to spend some time with my family, even though it was not a happy time. I even ended up talking about cards briefly, with a cousin who is a basketball player on his high school team. I'm going to be giving him a stack of cards soon, all duplicates...they will do more good with him than in a box in my storage unit.

    Anyway, I need to think about happy things, and I mentioned that I would be posting about card topics this week. Might as well start now!

    I've been collecting cards since 1988, and my favorite way to add to my collection is by lots. I have a semi-local card shop that fills 660 count boxes with cards and sells them for $19. I used to be able to get boxes like this at closer sources, and lower prices, but the shops have disappeared. Even though I get a lot of duplicates, I am a sucker for these boxes. For my birthday in 1997 my brother got me about 20 of them (200 count boxes), that was the true foundation of my collection.

    I even keep getting the 100 card clamshells you can find in Target even though most of the cards end up being duplicates. I am happy if I get more than 5 new cards from one of them. Yes, you read that right, I go in expecting 95 duplicates. Last year my brother brought one of them home for me and it contained 26 new cards- unheard of since the 1990s!

    I've been collecting these duplicates in boxes for more than 20 years, and I have tried to trade them, but it hasn't always been easy, as I had no idea what I had....I would have to go through the boxes all the time to see if I could fill requests on the various card message boards I frequent. or used to, in the early 2000s. Finding them is not always easy. I know there are more out there somewhere, in one or more likely all three of my storage units. I'll find them eventually. I did give and trade away quite a few of them over the years as well. A few years back I traded about 10,000 cards for 3 cards, and I have no regrets about it. (well, actually, I do- the shop went out of business before I could get everything I wanted!)

    In November 2014 I really started to work on posting my duplicates to the trade list section on the Trading Card Database. It turned out to be a very good thing to do. I have only a portion on there, but in the month or so since I finished the NASCAR cards, I've already gotten around 300 cards, and have a trade in the mail that is about 350-400 more, the largest trade I've ever made. WOW! I've sent out several hundred of my own- the trade I'm waiting for, I owe 392 cards to him. He wants to wait until I get mine before I send to him or else I would have them going out tomorrow morning.

    So, now for the past week, I've been working on posting my duplicate NBA cards, or at least, the ones I could find. I could not find as many as I thought I could, but I'm still looking at several thousand cards. As of right this instant, I've typed in this many cards (after removing those I've already traded away)
    And I still have the largest, third and fourth largest years ahead of me. They alone take up almost 1/4th of the duplicate stash.

    And these numbers only include those cards I deemed perfect. I've rejected several thousand, of both NBA and NASCAR, as untradeable, usually for minor corner dings or scratches. For some reason a lot of the NASCAR cards have scratches so bad they look like they have been used as knife sharpening blocks. They arrived to me that way, I treat my cards better. Luckily, I've found people who don't mind having these cards, and most of these damaged cards will be finding their way to new homes within the next few weeks.
    Some of these cards are not really in bad shape, and the majority of them- especially the NBA cards, which are generally in better shape for some reason- if they were not duplicates I would not look for replacements. Some are in too bad shape and I won't burden my friends with them, they will stay with me. My friend who is getting the NASCAR cards only wants the Winston Cup era so all the 2004 and later will end up staying with me for now, hopefully I can find someone to give them to at some point.

    I still have roughly a week's worth of work on the NBA cards, I have the rest of the multi-sport and other sports (I have a very small stash of football, hockey and baseball available- around 5 cards each, and the baseball cards may be too damaged to list) then I have to finish the non-sport cards, They are about half done. I have much less of them than I do either of my sports, due largely to the fact that I totally ignored them from roughly 1996 through 2010. I regret that now, but I can't change it...I can only make sure I don't ignore them going forward. It does mean I have less work to do to organize them, but it does also mean I have less trade bait.

    And that brings me to my next topic. I mostly deal in base cards. Yes, there are some relics and one or two autographs on my tradelist, but base cards make up 99% of them. I know there are still set collectors out there, after all, I am still able to trade from time to time. But what I've been able to trade has surprised me. Specifically, 1991 Maxx. This is one of my all time favorite sets...but it's so common, I figured anyone who wanted it, probably already has it. It is by far the most common NASCAR set, and there is never a time you can't find a set for sale for $5 or less. Yet almost every trade has included some of them, and my large trade I'm working on almost cleans out my trade stash. I'm happy that they will be residing in a new home that will appreciate them, but I'm surprised all the same. (I have three times as many that are imperfect, they will all be going to my friend I mentioned above shortly). One of the cards, a Mark Martin card from the 1990 Race Winners subset, I had three copies available. I traded all three copies in a month's time! I did not expect that at all. It seems that I am not the only one who is still trying to complete some very common sets, because I have been trading them off faster than the slightly rarer, or even the genuinely rare promotional issues I also have available, which shocks me. But in a good way.

    I don't actually enjoy posting my trade stash to my tradelist. It's a slow process and not particularly fun, but it's very much worth the effort. I'd much rather be scanning, editing and posting, but the thought of working some trades makes me want to push on and finish. That and the fact that I don't want to have both duplicates and the collection out at the same time, so there's no chance of getting them mixed up, also plays a role. It's not totally unenjoyable, though. I've found several variations that I didn't know were variations, and I've found a few minor errors. a couple that were slightly miscut, one that should have been UV coated and wasn't, and one that had it's wording on the back printed twice, leading to a unique look, almost appearing bolded but slightly out of focus. I LOVE error cards and these have actually moved from my duplicate stash to part of the main collection.

    There are direct links to my tradelist(s) on the top right of each page here on my blog. I've got nearly 200 positive feedbacks going back to circa 2003 on card forums if you want to make a trade with me. I sometimes can only ship on Saturdays but sometimes (rarely) I can get to the PO during the week.

    Thanks for reading, and hopefully trading with me in the future!

    Monday, January 19, 2015

    Cards in a time of pain.

    Several days ago, I was planning what my next post would be, (the importance of having a tradelist, if you are wondering) but that all came to a halt, as one of my very favorite people in the world, my Great Aunt, lost her battle with cancer. I didn't feel much like typing, or doing anything else for that matter. I would describe my mindset over the past few days as "devastated"...and I don't know when or how that feeling will ever go away. I am sure I will find some form of happiness again, even if it doesn't seem like it now, and it will probably come from my cards. (To be totally honest, happiness and myself are not usually concepts that go together to begin with) And that got me to thinking about the last time I felt this bad, which was when I lost my father to cancer, in 2002.

    Back then I attempted to assuage my pain with a steady stream of new cards. A few thousand in a week was the norm in 2002.

    It didn't work.

    BUT...when I look back on those times now, I remember the cards....not always the specifics, but the big highlights I do- hitting 30,000 different NBA cards and having it feature my all time favorite player, hitting 40,000 different 6 months later, on my brother's birthday no less- I think back now and it does give me a smile. And I kept very detailed records on my collection (I still do) and when I look at my paper listings, and see all the different colors denoting each different day I got cards, well that...that makes me smile. I wasn't smiling too much at the time.

    I don't remember much of anything else from that time, but I remember the cards. (even if I need a visual reminder from time to time).

    As I sit here now, in pain again, cards once again help me. I can't afford to go nuts buying them anymore, as I now need to pay for very expensive medicine to keep me alive, but I'm working on my tradelist. I've been working on it now for a week today, and I still have a way to go. I've been able to distract myself, at least somewhat, for a short time. Able to lose myself in my cards, it's a hollow feeling, I'll admit- but it keeps me from thinking about the fact that I'll never see one of my favorite people again.

    I was going to write up a post about how I lost myself in my cards (or tried to) after I lost my dad next month, which will be the 13th anniversary of when we lost him. But I had to write it now. It took me three days before I could even compose myself enough to create this post. I'm sorry that it's not a happy post, but I am not a happy person- especially not right now. I needed to get this out now, tomorrow is going to be tough as I will be going to her wake. Normally I don't go to them, I have in fact not been to one since my dad's. My health plays a large role in why I don't go. But I will be going tomorrow, and I know I won't be able to type this up tomorrow.

    I will try and force myself to write up some happy posts in the coming week, each post requires a lot of concentration so hopefully that will help me in at least some small way. I do have several topics to write about.

    2015 has started very badly. Not only did we lose my Great Aunt, we lost a 24 year old cousin to pneumonia, I've been sick since January 1st, although for the past week it's been more physically ill from grief than the cold I had, a friend from my scale model club lost his 26 year old daughter today, and my mom's health problems still cause me a great deal of worry. I didn't think it could be worse than 2014 was, but I was wrong.

    Thank you for reading. Hopefully it gets better from here.

    Friday, January 9, 2015

    One Hit Wonders NBA #1 Scott Meents

    As I believe I've stated in the past. I prefer to get cards of obscure players more than common superstars that are in every set. I recently posted about my project of getting at least one card of every person who has an NBA card. What if that person only ever had one card? That makes them a One Hit Wonder!

    Some people, if you look them up on the Database or Beckett, will show multiple cards, but for this blog (and my collection), only NBA cards count. (I don't have that problem for NASCAR, which will also be included in OHW).

    There probably won't be any players who make OHW in the Panini Era. With the massive amounts of parallels Panini has produced, and the lack of promotional issues in recent years, even players who are only included in one set usually have 4 or more cards.

    The player chosen as the first One Hit Wonder, or OHW, truly has only one card issued, and they didn't even bother to spell his name correctly on the front of the card! I did not know this card, or even set, existed until I was looking around on Ebay several days ago while trying to determine what to use my Ebay Bucks on. When I saw this team issue from 1990-91, I knew I had to have it, and when I realized there was a player who was not in my collection, my anticipation only grew. It arrived in the mail yesterday and finally spurred me on to create One Hit Wonders, something I have wanted to do for quite some time - before I even had a blog, in fact.

    I have to admit, I was not familiar with Scott Meents before. I didn't start watching the NBA until 1995-96, and while I have a deep appreciation for the history of the sport, many players who played before my time, if they aren't the stars that get mentioned on TV often, I only know them through cards. So, when there are players who had a very short career, and didn't get cards, or at least cards I knew about, they slip through the cracks and I don't know much, if at all, about them. He was one of them.
    I had to look him up to see which name was the correct spelling.

    As it turns out, they got the name wrong on the front of the card, but got it correct on the back.

    He played only 39 games in his career, over two seasons with the Sonics. He only played 13 games with them in 1990-91, and this photo was taken during the fourth game, played on November 20th, 1990. He played only one minute, and put up no stats other than a personal foul. The Sonics beat the Nets 105-88, however. All of these stats come from http://www.basketball-reference.com/, an excellent website that is invaluable to stat junkies like myself. I didn't realize you could get that in-depth, even determining the exact date the photo was taken before writing this post.

    Kayo, the company that produced this card, is a fairly obscure card company in itself. They never produced any mainstream card sets for the NBA, but they did do multiple promo team sets, and all that I've seen were produced in 1991, although both for the 1990-91 and 1991-92 seasons. (coincidentally, the other Kayo set represented in my collection is their Nets set). They mainly produced boxing cards, which I have none of in my collection. Production quality is high. It appears they were only in business during 1991.

    You can see the rest of this 14 card team issue Here on the Trading Card Database.

    As always, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more One Hit Wonders, from both the NBA and NASCAR, in the future!

    Thursday, January 8, 2015

    Box Review: 2015 Press Pass Cup Chase (The Last Press Pass set)

    Writing this today is not wholly a pleasant experience. I debated if I should even write a hobby blog post after the shocking loss of my 24 year old cousin yesterday, but, as always, cards are the best thing I know of to get your mind off your troubles.

    As I talked about 2 posts ago, Press Pass has closed up shop, and the future is fairly bleak for NASCAR card collectors, like myself. I was not planning to get a box of 2015 Cup Chase, as I felt it was too expensive. (They retail for $150) I hadn't gone past the $100 barrier for a box in 5 years now. But with this being the last ever Press Pass product, I decided to go for it. It turned out to be one of the better boxes I've done, and I did better than average, taking home 3 autographs and 4 relics, one more than you can expect per box, each. Two of them were autographed relics, bringing my NASCAR total of autographed relics up to 5.
    Man, that Joey Logano card has to be one of the best I've ever pulled. It was in the penultimate pack, the Hamlin auto was in the last pack. The Tony Stewart card is serially numbered 1 of 50. In an odd coincidence, I pulled two cards serially numbered 01/XX from the 2013 Press Pass box I did, the last time I did a flagship set box.
    The odd coincidence- the Chase Elliott Green parallel in the bottom middle row here is serially numbered 1 of 10! I'm not a huge fan of Chase Elliott, but that is one heck of a card. And oddly enough, I had won another of the green parallels in a contest on NUTS, making it the first time in my collection that I have more than one card from a set numbered to ten or below. The Kyle Larson car is the Blue parallel, while the Allmendinger, Dillon and Kenseth cards are all the gold parallel. No luck pulling the Melting (1/1). The Jamie McMurray autograph came out of the very first pack, right after the Chase Elliott green. Of the three autographs I got, all of them were new to my collection. At some point I will type up a list of the unique people with autographs in my collection.

    Here are all the base cards, and the one Dale Earnhardt Tribute insert card, that I got out of the box.
    I had previously been given or had won several of the cards, so I ended up getting several duplicates. You can see them on my Tradelist, with scans, Here (2015 Press Pass Cup Chase Tradelist)

    And there you have it. The very last box of Press Pass cards I will ever open new. I'm sure it won't be the last ever, as there are lots of sets that I am still not complete on, but they will all be older issues.

    Whenever I am approaching a Milestone card (each thousand) I try to make it a current season card, just to track my progress. I hit 25,000 in 2014 with a 2014 card, but it looks like that may not be the case for 26,000, which will likely be sometime in 2015, if I am lucky.

    As always, thanks for reading.

    Wednesday, January 7, 2015

    Goals for 2015

    I meant to post about my goals on January 1st, but then I managed to wake up with a cold that day...now January 7th, I'm still fighting off the cold, although it's mostly just a nuisance and not actually sickness at this point.
    I wrote up a short bio about my collecting goals for 2015 as a reply to A Cardboard Problem, another card collecting blog. With some minor modification, and some embellishment, I am copy & pasting it here.

     My card related goals are three-fold:
    #1 Finish posting my tradelist to the
    Trading Card Database. I got most of my NASCAR tradelist posted in November and December and I already worked multiple trades bringing me over 300 new cards to my collection. I still have some NASCAR, slightly under half my non-sports and almost all of my NBA tradelist still waiting to be posted. I've only posted 889 cards so far, and my NBA tradelist is, I believe, over 10,000. It surely was at one point but I may have traded away too many to reach that mark.

    #2 Get my fronts to backs ratio closer on the Database. When I first joined, I had already scanned the fronts of my entire NASCAR and most of my non-sports collection, and started posting them. After a short time there I decided to do the backs too, but by then I had already posted over 1000 front only scans. I've worked it down to less than 350 now, but I want to get it even, or as close as it can be. While I've been working on other stuff other members have posted some backs to my fronts so I may not be able to bring it totally even.

    #3. I want to acquire more than 11 Elton Brand cards in 2015. That was my total for all of 2014, and it's pretty terrible. So far, I've already added two- purely by luck, from a mixed box- (On the 1st, no less!) and I just bought another on Ebay which I am waiting for the mail to deliver, so it's a much better start than 2014 had, where I didn't get my first until April. The one I nabbed online is numbered to 10 as well, which, while not my lowest numbered card of him (I have a 1/1 from 2003-04 Bowman Signature) it's still a great card.

    Not a 2015 goal, but a lifetime collecting goal, is to have every NBA player, NASCAR person, and NBA and NASCAR set represented in my collection. By my calculations, there are 478 NBA people (Not just players, but coaches as well- anyone who has an NBA card), 81 NASCAR people, 92 NBA sets and just 12 NASCAR sets missing from my collection. Of course, I still find out about people and even occasionally sets I didn't know about so the numbers are not set in stone. Even though there are only 12 sets for NASCAR, one of them on the count is the 1972 STP set, so it won't be an easy goal to complete, as each card sells from $90-200 dollars, which is more than I've ever spent on a single card. Technically as a promo set it's not essential, it only makes the list because it was the first solely NASCAR set ever released. I generally only include regular release sets on my essentials list.

    I do want to knock out at least one person per sport per month, but I have a tendency of getting sidetracked and not following through. I already added one new NBA player in 2015, and am waiting on one more to arrive in the mail...he's not on the list, though, because he only got one promo card and I just found out it existed when I purchased the set online.

    Of the 478 people missing from my NBA collection, 43 of them got their only card issued in 1948 Bowman which will be a challenge, and 78 of them are missing who debuted in 2005-06- the majority of them from the D-League cards included in Topps Chrome. In most cases, the D-League players included have multiple cards (due to the Refractor, X-Fractor and printing plates parallels) but never received cards in any other sets. I should look and see if I can score a box of the set online somewhere, I've always wanted to do a box of that one, mainly for the D-League players. It might be too expensive though, I have not checked.
    In case you as a reader may be wondering how I know how many people are missing from my collection, I spent several days in 2014 going through the listings of people on the Database and clicking each name I wasn't sure on as in my collection or not. For the NBA I had to determine if they had NBA cards or college only- about half the names not in my collection got college cards only- and for NASCAR I had to determine if they were actually NASCAR or drag racing, or dirt racing, all of whom are mixed into a single racing category on the Database. As I did this, I typed the names of the people who got NBA or NASCAR cards into an Excel file, where I also noted what year they got their first cards, and if they only got one card or have multiples to choose from.

    The majority of the NBA people missing from my collection come from the break I took between 2006-07 and 2012-13, there were a lot of players drafted in that time who did not stick in the League. 152 of them, in fact, got their first or in some cases only card between 2006-07 (I stopped mid-season) and 2011-12. There may be people missing who did not have pages created for them yet- I am not sure all the Miss Sprint Cups have pages, for example, yet- but here is the list for both my sports, sorted by last name. Bold means they appear on only one card. As you can see, copy and pasting Excel into the blog format doesn't work all that well.

    NASCAR
    Chris Anderson 1998
    Jeff Andrews 1995
    Joe Dan Bailey 1994
    Tommy Baldwin 1997
    Jim  Baldwin 1994
    Mike Belden 1995
    Mackena Bell 2013
    T.J. Bell 2007
    Andy Belmont 1993 Maxx Premer Series
    Don Beverly 1994 Traks Hermie Sadler
    Shelby Blackstock 2012
    Chad Blount 2003
    Jason Bowles 2012
    Harrison Burton 2012
    Ross Chastain 2012
    J.J. Clodfelter 1998
    Mark Connolly 1992
    Amber Cope 2012
    Angela  Cope 2012
    Dusty Davis 2011
    Kertus Davis 2007
    Gene Dehart 1994
    Dave Dion 1991
    Patrick Donahue 1998
    Craig Donley 1994
    Mark Donohue 2008
    Maryeve Dufault 2012 (2002)
    Paige Duke 2010
    Austin Dyne 2013
    Kelley Earnhardt 1994
    Erica Enders 2013
    Garrett Evans 2001
    Ethel Flock Mobley 1989
    Chip Ganassi 2007
    Gray Gaulding 2012
    J.D. Gibbs 2012
    Craig Goess 2011
    Max Gresham 2012
    Jerry Hailey 1998
    Drew Herring 2014
    Timmy Hill 2011
    Bruce Hill 1993
    Eric  Holmes 2007
    Shelby Howard 2011
    Kim Irvan 1996  Action Packed Credentials
    Sammy Johns 1999
    Justin Johnson 2011
    Mike Johnson 1991
    John King 2012
    Jeff Knight 1998
    Michael Kranefuss 1993
    Donna Labonte 1996 Action Packed Credentials
    Brad Leighton 2000
    Jack Lewis 1998
    Ralph Ligouri 1989
    Craig Lund 1998
    Skip Manning 1993
    Hal Martin 2013
    Eric McClure 2011
    Mike/Michael McSwain 2000
    Rip Michaels 2007
    Junior Miller 2007
    Mike Moore 1998
    Leilani Munter 2010
    Bryan Ortiz 2013
    Monica Palumbo 2010
    Robert Richardson 2011
    Michael Ritch 2000
    Clay Rogers 2011
    Shorty Rollins 1993
    Jim Roper 1991 Track Pack Yesterday's Heroes
    Tim Schendel 2007
    Steve Spahr 1998
    Ronnie Thomas 1993
    Mike Trower 1995
    Billy Wade 1993
    Kim Wallace 1996  Action Packed Credentials
    Buffy Waltrip 1996
    Woodie Wilson 1993
    Kim Wood  1996
    Sean Woodside 2000
    Amanda Wright 2010  


    NBA


    Don Adams 1972-73
    Jeff Adrien 2009-10
    Maurice Ager 2005-06
    Deji Akindele 2005-06
    Josh Akognon 2013-14
    Solomon Alabi 2010-11
    Cole Aldrich 2010-11
    Myron Allen 2005-06
    Morris Almond 2006-07
    Louis Amundson 2007-08
    David Andersen 2009-10
    Dan Anderson 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Paul Armstrong 1948 Bowman
    Orsten Artis 2009-10
    Dick Atha 1957-58 Topps
    Randy Ayers 2005-06
    Kelenna Azubuike 2006-07
    Luke  Babbitt 2010-11
    John  Bach 1985-86 Star Coaches
    Sean Banks 2005-06
    Stanko Barac 2007-08
    Jim Barnes 1970-71 Topps
    Mike Barr 1973-74 Topps
    Earl Barron 2005-06
    John  Baum 1972-73 Topps
    Art Becker 1972-73 Topps
    John Beckman 2009-10
    Al Bianchi 1957-58 Topps
    Charlie Black 1948 Bowman
    Cory Blackwell 1984-85 Star
    Tony Bland 2005-06
    Tony Bobbitt 2004-05
    Bojan Bogdanivic 2014-15
    Seamus  Boxley 2005-06
    Steve Bracey 1973-74 Topps
    Craig Brackins 2010-11
    Dudley Bradley 1980-81
    Price Brookfield 1948 Bowman
    Hubie Brown 1985-86
    Andre Brown 2006-07 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection
    Bobby Brown 2008-09
    Walter Brown 2009-10
    Lorenzo  Brown 2013-14
    Alec Brown 2014-15
    Wallace Bryant 1983-84
    Walter Budko 1948 Bowman
    Dwight Buycks 2013-14
    Tommy Byrnes 1948 Bowman
    Barney Cable 1961 Essex Meats
    Willie Cager 2009-10
    John Calipari 1996-97 Hoops
    Ernie Calverley 1948 Bowman
    Don Carlson 1948 Bowman
    Pete Carril 2006-07 Upper Deck Chronology
    Jaycee Carroll 2008-09
    Butch Carter 1983-84
    Howard Carter 1983-84 Star
    Maurice Carter 2003-04
    Tweety Carter 2010-11
    Al Cervi 2006-07
    John Chaney 2006-07 Upper Deck Chronology
    Eric Chenowith 2003-04
    Will  Cherry 2014-15
    Bob  Christian 1972-73
    Dionte Christmas 2009-10
    Semoj Christon 2014-15
    Kris Clack 1999-00
    Carlos Clark 1983-84
    Nat  Clifton 1957-58
    Jerry Colangelo 2009-10
    Jack Coleman 1957-58 Topps
    Sherron Collins 2010-11
    Leroy Combs 1983-84 Star
    Jody Conradt 2009-10
    Will  Conroy 2005-06
    Joe Crawford 2008-09
    Geoff Crompton 1983-84 Star
    Mark  Cuban 2004-05
    T.J. Cummings 2005-06
    Ramel Curry 2005-06
    JamesOn Curry 2007-08
    Howard Dallmar 1948 Bowman
    Nate Daniels 2005-06
    Rick  Darnell 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Jermareo Davidson 2007-08
    Brandon Davies 2013-14
    Ben Davis 1997-98
    Paul Davis 2006-07
    Darren Daye 1983-84
    Austin Daye 2009-10
    Matthew Dellavedova 2013-14
    Larry Demic 1980-81 Topps
    George Dempsey 1957-58 Topp
    Yakhouba Diawara 2006-07
    Guillermo Diaz 2006-07
    Ed Diddle 2009-10
    Seth Dolibola 2005-06
    Bob Doll 1948 Bowman
    Daryl Dorsey 2005-06
    Chris Douglas-Roberts 2008-09
    Marcus Douthit 2005-06
    Terry Driscoll 1973-74 Topps
    Robb Dryden 2005-06
    Ronald Dupree 2003-04
    Devin Durrant 1984-85 Star
    Ken Durrett 1972-73 Topps
    Jack Dwan 1948 Bowman
    Jerry Eaves 1983-84 Star
    Keith Edmonson 1983-84
    Franklin Edwards 1983-84
    Eddie Ehlers 1948 Bowman
    Paul Endacott 2009-19
    Chris Engler 1983-84 Star
    Desmon Farmer 2005-06
    Nick Fazekas 2007-08
    Bob Feerick 1948 Bowman
    Al Ferrari 1961 Essex Meats
    Kyrylo Fesenko 2007-08
    Harry Flournoy 2009-10
    Sharrod Ford 2005-06
    Courtney Fortson 2012-13
    Shan Foster 2008-09
    Bud Foster 2009-10
    Larry Friend 1957-58 Topps
    Joe  Fulks 1948
    Hiram Fuller 2005-06
    Anthony Fuqua 2005-06
    Tony Gaffney 2010-11
    Sundiata Gaines 2009-10
    Keith Gallon 2010-11
    Mike Gansey 2006-07
    Thomas Gardner 2008-09
    Jack Garfinkel 1948 Bowman
    Calvin Garrett 1983-84
    Diante Garrett 2012-13
    John Garris 1983-84 Star
    Pop Gates 2009-10
    Mickael Gelabale 2005-06
    Otis George 2005-06
    Michael Gibson 1983-84 Star
    James  Gist 2008-09
    Andreas Glyniadakis 2005-06
    Lancaster Gordon 1984-85 Star
    Joe Graboski 1957-58 Topps
    Stephen Graham 2005-06
    Stewart Granger 1983-84 Star
    Aaron Gray 2007-08
    Devin  Green 2005-06
    Taurean Green 2007-08
    Erick Green 2014-15
    Donte Greene 2007-08
    Lynn Greer 2006-07
    Taylor Griffin 2009-10
    Anthony Grundy 2005-06
    Hamed Haddadi 2008-09
    Jeff Hagen 2005-06
    Chuck Halbert 1948 Bowman
    Bruce Hale 1948 Bowman
    Mike Hall 2006-07 Upper Deck Ultimate Collection
    Jeff Halliburton 1973-74 Topps
    Adam Haluska 2007-08
    Ralph Hamilton 1948 Bowman
    Venson Hamilton 1999-00
    Tang Hamilton 2001-02 Fleer Maximum
    Zendon Hamilton 2003-04 Upper Deck Legends
    Justin Hamilton 2012-13
    Dave Hanner 2004-05
    DeVon Hardin 2008-09
    Manny Harris 2010-11
    Don Haskins 2006-07
    Vern Hatton 1961 Essex Meats
    Tommy Hawkins 2005-06
    Steve Hayes 1983-84 Star
    Marques  Haynes 2009-10
    Chick Hearn 2003-04
    Jud Heathcote 2006-07
    Richard Hendrix 2008-09
    Walter Hermann 2006-07
    Sid Hertzberg 1948 Bowman
    Corey Hightower 2000-01
    Cleo Hill 1961 Essex Meats
    Simmie Hill 1973-74 Topps
    Marcus Hill 2005-06
    Herbert Hill 2007-08
    Fred Hilton 1972-73
    Robert Hite 2006-07
    Darington Hobson 2010-11
    Justin Holiday 2013-14
    Ryan Hollins 2006-07
    Shaheen Holloway 2000-01
    Nat Holman 1933
    Joe Holup 1957-58 Topps
    Tom  Hoover 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Bob Hopkins 1957-58 Topps
    Rex Hughes 1991-92 Fleer
    Rick Hughes 1999-00
    Robbie Hummel 2012-13
    Rod Hundley 1957-58
    Othello Hunter 2008-09
    Chris Hunter 2009-10
    Carlos Hurt 2005-06
    Mile Ilic 2006-07
    Damien Inglis 2014-15
    Brian Jackson 2005-06
    Damion James 2010-11
    Nathan Jawai 2008-09
    Dontell Jefferson 2009-10
    Horace Jenkins 2004-05
    Eugene Jeter 2010-11
    Arnie Johnson 1948 Bowman
    Rich Johnson 1970-71 Topps
    Clay Johnson 1982-83 Lakers BASF
    Clarence Johnson 1983-84 Star
    Clemon Johnson 1983-84
    Reggie Johnson 1983-84 Star
    Butter Johnson 2005-06
    J.J. Johnson 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Alexander Johnson 2006-07
    Nick Jones 1972-73 Topps
    Earl Jones 1984-85 Star
    Ozell Jones 1984-85
    Dwayne Jones 2005-06
    Kevin Jones 2012-13
    Jared Jordan 2007-08
    Phil Jordon 1957-58
    Kris Joseph 2012-13
    Jeff Judkins 1980-81
    Coby Karl 2007-08
    Greg Kelser 1980-81
    Mike King 2005-06
    Bob Kinney 1948 Bowman
    Tarence Kinsey 2006-07
    Toby Knight 1979-80
    Lee Knorek 1948 Bowman
    Joe Kopicki 1983-84
    Petteri Koponen 2006-07
    Ray Kuka 1948
    John Kundla 2006-07
    Ognjen Kuzmic 2013-14
    Fred LaCour 1961 Essex Meats
    Wendell Ladner 1972-73
    John Lambert 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Marcus Landry 2009-10
    Keith Langford 2005-06
    Joe Lapchick 1933
    Stephane Lasme 2007-08
    David Lattin 2009-10
    Gani Lawal 2010-11
    Frank  Layden 1984 Star Awarss Banquet
    George Leach 2005-06
    Travis Leslie 2012-13
    Ronnie Lester 1983-84
    Maarty  Leunen 2008-09
    Fuzzy Levane 1948
    Fred Lewis 1948 Bowman
    Jim Ligon 1972-73 Topps
    Willie Long 1972-73
    Erazem Lorbek 2005-06
    Hank Louisetti 1993
    Stan  Love 1972-73
    Justin Love 2000-01
    John Mahnken 1948 Bowman
    Devyn Marble 2014-15
    Damir Markota 2006-07
    Tom Marshall 1957-58 Topps
    Cartier Martin 2012-13
    Eddie Mast 1973-74 Topps
    Ariel Maughan 1948 Bowman
    James Mayes 2008-09
    James Michael McAdoo 2014-15
    Dan McClintock 2000-01
    Jack McClinton 2009-10
    Scooter McCray 1983-84
    Jim McDaniels 1972-73
    Hank McDowell 1983-84
    Dominic McGuire 2007-08
    Kevin McKenna 1983-84 Star
    Bones McKinney 1948 Bowman
    Jack McMahon 1957-58 Topps
    Sammy Mejia 2007-08
    Pops Mensah-Bonsu 2006-07
    Scott Merritt 2005-06
    Stan  Miasek 1948 Bowman
    Larry Micheaux 1983-84
    Aaron Miles 2005-06
    Darnell Miller 2005-06
       
    Albert Miralles 2004-05
    Nikola Mirotic 2014-15
    Lee Mogus 1948 Bowman
    Jamario Moon 2007-08
    Jonathan Moore 2005-06
    Malik Moore 2005-06
    Paccelis Morlende 2003-04
    Randolph Morris 2006-07
         
    Jay Murphy 1984-85 Star
    Toure Murry 2013-14
    Mike Muscala 2013-14
    Juan Carlos Navarro 2007-08
    Hamady N'Diaye 2010-11
    Donnie Nelson 2004-05
    Ivano Newbill 1994-95 Flair
    Pete Newell 2009-10
    Brad Newley 2007-08
    Jared Newson 2007-08
    Austin Nichols 2005-06
    Demetris Nichols 2007-08
    Kurt Nimphius 1983-84
    John Norlander 1948 Bowman
    Audie Norris 1983-84
    George Nostrand 1948 Bowman
    Larry O'Bryan 1993
    Dick O'Keefe 1948 Bowman
    Jawann Oldham 1983-84 Star
    Kevin O'Neill 2005-06
    Randall Orr 2005-06
    Daniel Orton 2010-11
    Romero Osby 2013-14
    Kevin Owens 2005-06
    David Padgett 2008-09
    Juan   Palacios 2008-09
    Bud Palmer 1948 Bowman
    Med Park 1957-58 Topps
    Lamar Patterson 2014-15
    Oleksiy Pecherov 2007-08
    Stephane Pelle 2003-04
    Jeff Pendergraph 2009-10
    Kosta Perovic 2006-07
    J.R. Pinnock 2006-07
    Dave Piontek 1957-58 Topps
    Tom Piotrowski 1983-84 Star
    Kevin Pittsnogle 2006-07
    Trent Plaisted 2008-09
    Tibor Pleiss 2010-11
    Jim Pollard 1948
    Dwight Powell 2014-15
    Mike Price 1973-74 Topps
    Gabe Pruitt 2006-07
    Don Putman 1948 Bowman
    Shavlik Randolph 2005-06
    Andy Rautens 2010-11
    Richie Regan 1957-58 Topps
    Kareem Reid 2005-06
    Darius Rice 2004-05
    Clint Richardson 1983-84
    Norm Richardson 2001-02
    Mel Riebe 1948 Bowman
    Roderick Riley 2005-06
    Rich Rinaldi 1973-74
    Arnie Risen 1948
    Lee Roy Robbins 1948 Bowman
    Anthony Roberson 2005-06
    Joe Roberts 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Wil  Robinson 1974-75 Topps
    Brandon Robinson 2005-06
    Stanley Robinson 2010-11
    Sergio Rodriguez 2005-06
    Magnum Rolle 2010-11
    Lennie Rosenbluth 1957-58 Topps
    E.J. Rowland 2005-06
    Brian Rowsom 1990-91
    Damjan Rudez 2014-15
    Adolph Rupp 1993
    Ed  Sadowski 1948 Bowman
    Kenny Sailors 1948 Bowman
    Tyrone Sally 2005-06
    Chiekh Samb 2007-08
    Samardo Samuels 2010-11
    Abe Saperstein 2009-10
    Herman Schaefer 1948 Bowman
    Fred Schaus 1952 Royal Deserts
    Tom Scheffler 1984-85 star
    Luke  Schenscher 2005-06
    Dick Schnittker 1957-58
    John Schweitz 1984-85 Star
    Gene Senesky 1948 Bowman
    Renaldas Seubutis 2007-08 Upper Deck Sweet Shot
    Paul Seymour 1957-58 Topps
    Chuck Share 1957-58
    Walter Sharpe 2007-08
    Nevil Shed 2009-10
    Ricky Shields 2005-06
    Joe Shipp 2005-06
    Chris Shumate 2005-06
    Connie Simmons 1948 Bowman
    Bobby Sims 1961 Essex Meats
    Sean Singletary 2008-09
    Charlie Sitton 1984-85 Star
    Uros Slokar 2005-06
    Tom Sluby 1984-85 Star
    Jack Smiley 1948 Bowman
    Craig Smith 2005-06
    Jamar  Smith 2005-06
    Bingo Smith 2006-07
    Ish/Ishmael Smith 2010-11
    Russ Smith 2014-15
    Vassilis Spanoulis 2006-07
    Arthur Spector 1948 Bowman
    Art Spoelstra 1957-58 Topps
    Larry Spriggs 1983-84
    Ryan Stack 1998-99
    Amos Alonzo Stagg 2009-10
    Brook Steppe 1983-84 Star
    Maurice Stokes 1957-58
    Awvee Storey 2004-05
    Goran Suton 2009-10
    Pape Sy 2010-11
    Marcus Taylor 2002-03 Upper Deck Generations
    Donell Taylor 2005-06
    Mike Taylor 2008-09
    Chuck Taylor 2009-10
    Jermaine Taylor 2009-10
    Garrett Temple 2009-10
    Anthony Terrell 2005-06
    Chuck Terry 1973-74 Topps
    Reyshawn Terry 2007-08
    Hasheem Thabeet 2009-10
    Thomas Thacker 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Bill Thieben 1957-58 Topps
    David Thirdkill 1983-84 Star
    Jimmy Thomas 1983-84
    Carl  Thomas 1998-99
    Billy Thomas 2004-05
    Harvey Thomas 2005-06
    Paul Thompson 1983-84 Star
    Bernard Thompson 1984-85 Star
    Hal Tidrick 1948 Bowman
    Darren Tillis 1983-84 Star
    George Tinsley 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Ray Tolbert 1983-84  Star
    Anthony Tolliver 2008-09
    Sedric Toney 2005-06 Topps 1952 Style Fan Favorite Autographs
    Clay Tucker 2005-06
    Ime Udoka 2003-04
    Roko Ukic 2005-06
    Ben Uzoh 2010-11
    Robert Vaden 2009-10 SP Game Used Rookie Exclusives Signatures
    Jim Valvano 2006-07 Upper Deck Chronology Cuts (1 of 1, only person to have only card be a 1/1)
    Gene Vance 1948 Bowman
    David Vanterpool 2000-01 SP Game Floor
    Jarvis Varnado 2010-11
    Pete Verhoeven 1983-84
    Marcus Vinicius 2006-07
         
    Danny Vranes 1983-84
    Granville Waiters 1983-84
    Bill Walker 2008-09
    Brandon Wallace 2007-08
    Jaquay Walls 2000-01 Fleer Premium
    Willie Warren 2010-11
    Bryan Warrick 1983-84
    Tom Washington 1972-73
    Darius Washington 2006-07
    Deron Washington 2008-09
    Darryl Watkins 2007-08
    C.J.  Watson 2007-08
    Mario West 2007-08
    John Wetzel 1973-74
    Rory White 1984-85
    Willie White 1984-85 Star
    James White 2006-07
    Win Wilfong 1957-58 Topps
    Anthony Wilkins 2005-06
    Sam  Williams 1983-84
    Ezra Williams 2005-06
    Jawad Williams 2005-06
    Bill Willoughby 1983-84
    Willie Worsley 2009-10
    David Young 2004-05 SP Game Used Rookie Exclusive Autographs
    Sam Young 2009-10
    Patric  Young 2014-15
    Sun Yue 2007-08
    Max Zaslofsky 1948 Bowman
    Luke  Zeller 2012-13
    Brian Zoubek 2010-11