Jammin' To The NBA Again

It's the afternoon I know, but it's never too late to have a cup of coffee.

I have been so busy as of recent that I have spread out my three to four cups a day throughout my day to fit them in so I can survive.

Life only gets busier after May, so I better cram in what time for posts I have now and what cups of coffee I can fit in as well.

*takes a sip*

*takes another sip*

It has been years (since late 90's very early 2000's) since I have been into watching the NBA, but the last couple of years I have been watching a few more games and this year I found myself watching my beloved Knicks anytime they were on TV.

Including last night when they took down the Indiana Pacers 121-117 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

The Knicks playoff run this year has been a fun watch so far. Every game has come down to the final minutes which makes for the best games...and a few heart stopping moments.

It's probably a good thing I am not holding a coffee mug at those times, or I may have a few stained shirts. Not that I don't already find a way to stain every white shirt I own, just ask my wife. I can have nothing in my hand, and it will still be stained.

*takes a steady holding sip*

My latest mail day from blog reader Oren included a lot of basketball cards, but nothing from the new era of collecting. Which is fine with me, even though I have enjoyed watching the Knicks recently, 90's cards will always prevail.

To kick off this mail day were a couple of 1994-95 Fleer Sharp Shooters that were randomly inserted into packs. I don't remember a lot about the Spreewell Warriors years other than the choking incident, but he played well for the Knicks helping them go all the way to the NBA Finals losing to the Spurs.

1998-99 Topps Coast To Coast of Michael Finley. I felt that he never got enough respect for his play.

These inserts fell 1:36 packs.

Beautiful die-cut inserts with a space appeal, Stardate 2001 fell 1:12 packs from eX2001.

At 1:24 packs, Whiz Kids is actually an insert I haven't seen before. But, I love it!

1995-96 fleer came out with these unique foil etched Franchise Futures that fell 1:37 packs.

I was a big fan of Stephon back in the 90's, he was a pretty solid player for many years. A buddy of mine at the time was actually a collector of him at the time so we did a big trade off. I traded him some Stephs and he traded me a 2000 Ultra Brady rookie. We both were pleased with the trade. I am not sure if he has his collection anymore, but I still have that Brady.

Side note, Steph became a Knick later in his career. Seems like a lot of players did that.

These inserts were easy pulls at 1:4 packs.

Any insert that is pleasing on the eyes regardless of player, is an easy addition to my collection. New School fell 1:36 packs of 1997-98 Topps.

1997-98 Ultra All-Rookies fell 1:4 packs. This was one of the better designed All-Rookies during the run.

 

The next card dives into newer basketball but has that 90's Metal feel.

And that does it for the basketball portion of the trade.

He also sent along a cool

90's relic card (not game used) of Curtis Martin. I believe these fell 1:97 packs.

And the final card of our trade is Oren's attempt to still get me into hockey cards and maybe even watching hockey again. I am a long-distance NY Rangers fan but I haven't watched a game since the 90's but still cheer them on to win. However, when he keeps sending cards that are fire like this, he may get me soon. This card is even more astonishing in person.

Thanks again to Oren for our latest trade.

*takes a sip before finishing up today's post*

I will be again in front of the TV tomorrow night to watch the Knicks/Pacers Game 2. Hopefully the Knicks can play like they did towards the end of the first game. Going up 2-0 would be huge like they did against the 76ers.

Let me know if you have gotten into watching any sports that you haven't in a while or any comments on the cards from today's post.

Hope you have a great rest of your day and remember, coffee is good for anytime in the day.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Before I close, I also wanted to remind you of the Coffee Card Hall Of Fame voting and that it needs you guys to nominate cards in. 

Details on the Coffee Card Hall Of Fame can be found HERE. I may add this to every post from here on out for a reminder as I will forget about this too! Haha!

A Mystery

*sun is already shining, heat/mugginess is building, and here I am sitting down with my first cup of joe to type this*

 

I love a good mystery.

Well, except for my coffee. Don't mess with my coffee. I have one way of liking it so don't mess with it and add some flavored mumbo jumbo or replace it with tea. 

Don't you dare.

Otherwise a good mystery is fun. Whether it's a mystery book, mystery movie, mystery mail day or mystery packs that you can buy. A good mystery keeps us on the edge of our seats.

Just like recently, when I tried my very first mystery pack.

Why is it my first? Well that's not a mystery I will leave you hanging on.

I always worry about buying them not knowing what kind of junk could be within. I assume in order to get the money the sellers are seeking, that the "chase" cards are impossible to find and a lot of it is what we could find in nickel and dime boxes. Which I am running out of places to store that kind of stuff. Yes, I have gotten to the point of collecting where space is becoming an issue. Mainly because my boxes to store stuff in are running low.

Another point to make about these mystery packs is most of these packs cost $10 when I could have turned that into a card or even two for my PC instead of possible junk.

But, this mystery pack was different than the rest I found. It was focused on my favorite era of collecting, late 90's and early 2000's. What made this pack even better, it was cheap. It had my attention.

So for $2.25 plus shipping, you get 30 cards. There are "25 cards" plus 5 cards that are Inserts/Parallels/RC cards. Intriguing.

All of the cards are NBA cards from the late 1990's through early 2000's. The seller put the Inserts/RC's/Parallels/#'d cards in plastic sleeves and each pack was wrapped like the above example.

Here's an example of some of the sets that were to be included into these mystery packs,

• 1997-1998 Topps Chrome
• 1997-1998 Bowman's Best
• 1998-1999 Fleer Mystique
• 1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants
• 1998-1999 Topps Finest
• 1998-1999 Skybox Thunder
• 1998-1999 Fleer Ultra
• 1998-1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond
• 1998-1999 Upper Deck Ionix
• 1999-2000 Skybox EX
• 1999-2000 Topps Gold Label

And the list of players that are in it as well,

• Kevin Garnett
• Vince Carter
• Grant Hill
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Anfernee Hardaway
• Tim Duncan
• David Robinson
• Jason Kidd
• Steve Nash
• Paul Pierce
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Richard Hamilton
• Chris Webber
• Kobe Bryant
• Michael Jordan
• Scottie Pippen
• Reggie Miller
• Karl Malone

Combine all of that with the price, the BIG NOSTALGIA FACTOR, how could I say no? So I grabbed two of these packs and paid under $10 for them both. After getting the packs and seeing how I did, I wished I had gotten more as they sold out almost immediately.

*smiles during my next sip*

Time to show you why they sold out so fast after opening them,

PACK 1:

We kick off the pack with a Topps Finest Felipe Lopez rookie card in old school Grizz uni. I would love a pair of those shorts to wear.

(no that's not an extra Lopez, that's the same one) I found John Stockton and a Karl Malone. Man I wished that Jazz team could had won a title. But, those darn Bulls...

Tim Hardaway, Payton, Garrity Finest rookie

Marbury (I wonder if my buddy still collects anymore who was a big time fan), another Payton and a Barkley

Shaq, Garnett, Penny Hardaway (forgot he played for the Suns)

And now onto what's supposed to be the good stuff. I thought I had already seen all of that up to this point.

Grant Hill Wing Men

Charles Barkley NBA All Stars

Elton Brand Topps Gold Label rookie. Imagine how hot this card must have been back then? For me it's about the Gold Label

Kobe! Great photo to. I never busted any of this Fleer Genuine

Cummings Topps Chrome rookie

And a Larry Hughes Black Diamond rookie. If I remember right, the rookies in this product were Sp's.

That was just pack number one folks. I was feeling like I had drank the best cup of coffee I had ever had after opening that one. Well, the cup I have right now isn't too shabby either nor is Pack 2.

*takes another sip*

PACK 2

I remember Mcleod and how hot his cards were supposed to be.....

Here we go some more. Fleer Mystique was another great looking product, PC guy Allan Houston Topps Chrome, Shawn Kemp, Spreeeeeeeeeeewelllll or as MSG called it out

Jamal Mashburn, Ewing, my first dupe with the Stockton, Kittles

A few Gary Paytons, Barkley another Hakeem Olajuwon

Marbury peeled Finest parallel, The Admiral, Hakeem again, Ray Allen

The sleeved cards including Webber, Tom Gugliotta nice die cut insert

Tim Duncan insert. I think it's either rookie year or year after. I can't remember now. I opened this awhile back.

And I believe I can fllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyy wooooooooooooo. An MJ spotting. Very cool especially being a side PC card and the way his cards have been moving. Fleer Ultra was also the bomb back then

 

It was the back of the card that caught my attention. I am not sure if you can read it, but the Did You Know? was "four hours before every game, Michael eats a 23-ounce New York Steak, either a baked potato or mashed potatoes, a salad and ginger ale."

That's crazy. Can you imagine running around for three hours with that in your system? That's just another reason why he is the GOAT.

*cup one down, next one coming up*

I contacted the seller afterwards and thanked them for a trip back in time and told them how much I enjoyed their mystery pack. They mentioned to me that they may make a second series seeing how this one went, if they could find the rest of their cards.

A week later, guess what they found and made and even contacted me about.

And guess what I did

And guess how I did...

A mystery isn't it....

Too bad that's for another cup of coffee, or two, another day.