Tonight's package is courtesy of Cardboard History's Billy Kingsley, a well known name among bloggers, traders, and TCDBers. He's especially active on the latter and that's where he let me know he had some basketball dupes to send my way in return from some stuff he selected from a giveaway I did a while back.
As luck would have it I needed the vast majority of what he sent, giving me a nice boost especially to one player's collection. Here's the damage:
Because I don't actively collect basketball, my collection of Fab-Fiver Jalen Rose isn't huge, but since he's a fairly recognizable Michigan guy, a number of folks like Billy have sent his stuff my way. The 43rd different card in his PC is this base from '96-'97 Skybox Z-Force, a perfectly typical '90s Fleer product (which I mean in a good way). You can really see some of the elements that came up again in other products like Circa/Thunder and Metal.
The real star of the show was the other guy in the envelope, though. I think if you asked most average basketball fans to name a Michigan Basketball player these days, Chris Webber would be the first or second guy about 99% of the time. Billy sent me enough of his cards to do five scans, starting with this one that's 100% 1993-94. Card #1 is a very cool acetate insert called, uh, Acetates, from '93 Classic Four Sport, where he was one of the marquee players to pull. Aside from a Hoops Admiral's Choice insert, everything else is a RC, from notable brands such as Fleer, Hoops, Skybox, Stadium Club, Topps, and Upper Deck, plus UD's Special Edition.
Next we jump forward to '94-'95 through '97-'98. There's a few brand repeats from the last scan plus some newcomers like Ultra, Skybox Z-Force (the year after Jalen's card from above), and my favorite, E-X2001, another terrific acetate design. A Collector's Choice-like card from '96 Upper Deck Slam Dunk Series offers a great photo of that kind of play while card #6 in the bunch, a '96-'97 UD subset, shows Webber with the Bullets up front and his original team, the Warriors, on the back.
The first two scans each had at least one card I really liked but I think this one has the most combined in one group thanks to my love of many of the brands shown. '99-'00 Fleer kicks things off with a great photo, 2000-'01 Bowman's Best brings a design that continues to appeal to me, the same year's Fleer Showcase is another winner from that name, and '01-'02 Flair is another good example of a Fleer design I like. While I'm at it, 2000-01 Upper Deck Hardcourt is kind of a cool answer to Ovation, though I think the hardwood floor's look and texture on the card is less noticeable compared to the diamond version.
This group is no slouch when it comes to some nice designs compared to the one above. The first five are very strong, a 2001-02 quintet that includes Fleer Premium and Showcase, SP Authentic, Stadium Club, and Ultra. The others are also pretty solid, though I've never been a fan of that Upper Deck Victory design. The Fleer Sweet Sigs from '04-'05 makes up for it, though, even if the product was superfluous!
Our final group includes a trio of verticals plus a nice pair flipped 90 degrees. I don't look at a lot of basketball cards so I don't know how often this view is used, but overhead shots in the paint can result in some really colorful photos like the one seen on Chris' '04-'05 Ultra base. Then Topps manages a return to the action with a flagship base from '05-'06 and one from the Turkey Red product issued the following year. I also think that set was unnecessary but I do like the playground court artwork on the card. Heading over to the x-axis we have 2003-04 Fleer Patchworks, with its kinda-cool but hard-to-scan pattern on the first third of the card, and '04-'05 SPx, which wasn't UD's best work but still manages to look pretty cool.
I already mentioned that Rose's collection got bumped up by one card to 43 but given how many Webbers you just looked at--41--you're probably interested in finding out where his collection stands. I'm happy to report that it's a milestone-worthy 113, making him the first player in my basketball collection to reach that mark thanks to Billy. #2 is Glen Rice at 58, so that's a lead I think he'll hold for a while.
Billy, thanks again for thinking of me when it came to a bunch of Michigan Basketball dupes. I'll see if I can't return the favor in the near future, and in the meantime I'm sure I'll be seeing you a lot over on TCDB!
