My Signed Basketball Card Purchases/Collection
airjoedan
Posts: 776 ✭✭✭
I have been focusing on signed basketball cards instead of photos, balls, etc. in the past couple years now and from time to time, I pick up a nice little collection. I figure I can randomly update this thread to show off some things that I come across.
To start the thread, I recently discovered a person whose father worked at the Utah Jazz arena throughout the 1990's. While the guy had thousands of signed cards from his father's collection and didn't seem to watch much basketball himself, he was looking up each card I pointed out with interest on eBay and gauging prices from similar Buy-It-Now listings - thus, there weren't a lot of deals to be had. He had several Stockton autographs on photos that were nice but were priced high - and he valued a lot of the stars more than I'd like to pay. Commons - especially, were a bit high as the cheapest cards were $3-4 each no matter who the player it seemed.
I was able to pick (21) total cards - I just love era autographed basketball cards and I needed to have the Duncan cards as a big Spurs fan. I grew up in San Antonio for Duncan's first few years in the league and am always looking to add more of his autographs. I think I'll probably sell one of the Pippen cards and the Sabonis to recoup some of the cost ... anyways, here they are:
To start the thread, I recently discovered a person whose father worked at the Utah Jazz arena throughout the 1990's. While the guy had thousands of signed cards from his father's collection and didn't seem to watch much basketball himself, he was looking up each card I pointed out with interest on eBay and gauging prices from similar Buy-It-Now listings - thus, there weren't a lot of deals to be had. He had several Stockton autographs on photos that were nice but were priced high - and he valued a lot of the stars more than I'd like to pay. Commons - especially, were a bit high as the cheapest cards were $3-4 each no matter who the player it seemed.
I was able to pick (21) total cards - I just love era autographed basketball cards and I needed to have the Duncan cards as a big Spurs fan. I grew up in San Antonio for Duncan's first few years in the league and am always looking to add more of his autographs. I think I'll probably sell one of the Pippen cards and the Sabonis to recoup some of the cost ... anyways, here they are:
0
Comments
<< <i>These look to be the real deal . Sabonis and Adelman definitely are good. >>
If it is 1990's baseball or basketball, I always know my stuff when it comes to autographs - no worries, these are all good. I'm not as good with current players but this was my decade for knowledge.
I figured I'd start a thread to share a few of my niche purchases. I don't have any collector friends at home and anyone I tell at work doesn't give a crap about signed cards - so, I gotta share what I can to feel some fellow collector interest if you know what I mean.
Thanks!
<< <i>I heard pippen doesn't sign very much, is this true? >>
Pippen was very tough for years - but, as some fellow board members with rookies can attest, he has done quite a few signings over the past few years (including free ones). He's still tough - just not as tough or rare as he used to be.
I decided to immediately take the risk based on the authenticity of the few autographs in the scans and based on the guy's listing description and title as he was obviously not a current collector due to the bad search title with no key word specifics. The sad part of this story is that the guy also had a 500 or so baseball autograph card lot for sale with a similar buy-it-now price - however, I decided that was too much of a risk to take and someone else bought it before I changed my mind. Upon receiving one of the most beautiful autographed card lots I have ever bought, I have always been totally pissed at myself for not buying the baseball as well as I know it was also loaded with great autographs.
Anyways, once I received the lot, I immediately sold 150 or so cards (mixture of a lot of stars & the commons) and 20 or so other key stars to a few other people that I trade with. At least 10 or so card that I know of are now in PSA/DNA holders and have since been resold after they were holdered. I was looking to unload most of them quick as I wanted to make up the money that I spent. I kept only the cards in the scans below but after the total price I paid and sales of cards I sold, I was already in the positive - so, essentially, the remaining cards are free to me.
Like I said, too bad I sold some major stars like Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen, Hakeem Olajuwon, and tons of TOUGH autographs. I sold like 60 something 1991 Skybox cards in the lot - and I must say, I kinda regret that as well as they look BEAUTIFUL in blue sharpie. I still kick myself for not buying the baseball lot and for not submitting some cards myself and reselling once slabbed after seeing some of the sales. Anyways, at least I still have the above cards.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
I will obtain signed basketball cards, but they need to be older or better players to pique my interest. I really like the 60s-80s Sonics cards as a reminder of my youth in Seattle.
<< <i>I have a lot of 100-150 90s/00s signed basketball cards that a local shop had asked me to try to sell. I think they came in from a collection he bought. I got a few scans done and then have not done anything more yet. The lot is basically common guys. If you are interested, I can share some scans. He was not looking for a premium on them and I figured I'd eventually list them at auction starting at $1 ea on ebay and see what happened.
I will obtain signed basketball cards, but they need to be older or better players to pique my interest. I really like the 60s-80s Sonics cards as a reminder of my youth in Seattle. >>
I'd definitely be interested in seeing what you've got - I sent you a PM. Thanks!
=======================
For a few others I scanned, I found a guy on eBay awhile back that was selling all kinds of random stuff and only had one lot of sports stuff. The lot was of 1970's and 1980's basketball cards, including a huge unsigned Julius Erving collection. While most of the cards were unsigned, the lot included (5) Julius Erving autographs. There were (2) Dr. J nickname cards and (3) full signature cards. As the asking price for the whole lot was high, I asked if the guy would be willing to sell just the autographed Erving cards. He said that these were obtained in the mid-1980's when he was a kid at an All-Star game and were some of his pride and joy items when he was younger. The rest of his auctions were shipped from the U.K. (where he was living) and these were shipped from Texas where they were still being stored back at his parent's house. I made a deal for the 5 cards and have since sold 3 - the ones of which I sold also paid for the lot so I got to keep these for pretty much nothing. 1 of the cards I sold is now in a PSA/DNA holder and I might submit the full signature one in the near future as I'd like to display one.
I'll always remember how these cards arrived as the guy's parents (I'm assuming older folks) shipped them in a large box (like for a full-size basketball!) with the holders wrapped in paper towels and tons of the type of bubble wrap you get when you buy something on Amazon. The taping was with care like my grandmother would have taped them and to boot - the holders were some late 80's-early 90's holders that I have never seen before. They were single card screwdowns with an extra inch of clear plastic around the card and the screws were white plastic screws that pushed in and turned once. Anyways, they definitely arrived safe!
In the end, I had to have the Duncan signed rookie (as always) and I wanted the Shareef signed cards. The Shareef cards were cheap and I can't tell you why, but I always pick up signed cards of him when I have the opportunity. The "Smooth Grooves" insert was a card I remember pulling one of when I was a kid in 1996 and it booked for $15-$20 at the time (which was good enough for a screwdown holder for me at the time) - so, I think that is a cool card to have signed regardless of the smudge. All in all, I sent as many as 20 emails, picked 100 cards - and we could only settle on the 5 cards below. LUCKILY, one was a Duncan rookie!
A few weeks later, I received an email from the guy telling me that the cards were bought in a sale of some sort and they were the only ones he had. He stated that the guy who won the third lot did not pay due to the shipping price and that he was also shipping me those cards with my cards for free. SO, after a few extra weeks of waiting, I received 140+ crap unsigned cards and the following signed cards for under $20. I am a BIG fan of early Jermaine signatures - too bad his sig turned to "J-O" as he had a nice graph at one time.
I need autographs of Jerry Reynolds (Magic/Bucks) and John (Hot Plate) Williams (Bullets/Clippers).
If you have them, PM me!
Only an idiot would have a message board signature.
Thanks for the kind words...
The next one was another card lot listed in the regular card category instead of the autograph category on eBay. The lot included several premier unsigned Blazers rookies (Drexler 1986 Fleer, etc.) and included 6 signed cards that the seller said he had signed by himself at one point in the 1991 or so. The lot was listed in the unsigned category as the guy viewed the Drexler rookie as the main card - only problem is, the title was quite vague and hard to find (something like "Blazer lot with Drexler rookie - autos").
Anyways, I found the lot from a saved player name search...and won the following signed cards with a Drexler rookie and other rookies for about $20 delivered. The Petrovic is at least a $75-$100 card (I sold a slabbed ballpoint sig on the same card in the past for $100). Plus, the Duckworth rookie is also cool and probably a $10-$15 card.
Thanx for taking the time to share.