Before you had unlicensed baseball cards from Panini and Leaf that we see today, among others, you had unlicensed cards featuring NBA players and prospects such as 1999 Collector’s Edge Rookie Rage. A pack was included in a lot of basketball packs I picked up off eBay back in December. And I forgot to grab a photo of the pack before opening, and since I had the help of my 4 year old opening this one, the pack is in a few pieces now.

The big pulls here are the Gameball cards which have a piece of game used ball for players like Kobe, Paul Pierce, Vince Carter, and others, as well as Pro Signatures which have on-card autographs from those same guys as well as many draft picks from the 1999-00 rookie class- guys like Shawn Marion, Richard Hamilton, and like the pack states, Kobe’s friends including Corey Maggette and Baron Davis!

The base cards are bronze, with Gold and Galvanized parallels a possibility. The Galvanized are out of 50. The bronze obviously did not scan well, but these three were taken in the 1999 NBA draft. You clearly see the names and logos were removed from the jerseys in the photos.

Bergerson was taken 52nd by Atlanta and traded to Portland. He’s now an assistant coach at Eastern Washington.

Leon Smith was a late first round pick by San Antonio out of high school, traded to Dallas. He had brief NBA stints with Atlanta and Seattle. Smith’s NBA career never took off. He played in various professional leagues up through 2007.

Padgett had a successful career as a role player primarily for the Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets. He’s now an assistant coach at New Mexico.

The last three cards from his pack, and here Kobe did bring his friends. Pierce and Kobe are clearly in their NBA jerseys here with the team names and logos taken out. If there’s a base card to pull from this product, it’s clearly Kobe. And while we didn’t open any Gameballs or autographs, we did get our expected Gold parallel, and it’s a player I have a decent collection of, being a Pacers fan. Ron Artest is sporting his St. John’s uniform here. Ron spent time with the Bulls before being traded to the Pacers in one of the biggest trades in my time as a Pacers fan.

What are your favorite cards or products with no team names or logos?