Hoops Hobby

Having multiple binder projects keeps the hobby fresh. Always lots of options for cards to track down. Many are rare, but just as many at this point in my collection building are easily found.

One of those easily found was a rookie year Jamaal Tinsley from 2001-02 Upper Deck. I always put off picking this one up because it wasn’t labeled a ‘rookie card’, since it’s from Upper Deck Series 2. The Series 1 Star Rookie, picturing Tinsley in his Iowa State jersey, was always the ‘true’ rookie. But this card is sweet, a classic Tinsley finger roll with defenders helplessly looking on. I have to assume this photo is from his triple-double game against the Wizards in November 2001. And this particular triple-double included 23 assists from Tinsley.

I added this one to the Pacers rookie year binder as part of a small trade on TCDB. Still searching for the UDX parallels, but I’m happy to finally have the Series 2 base card.

Austin Croshere is already well represented in my Pacers autograph collection, with a 2000-01 SP Authentic autograph taking that slot in that binder project. Until recently though, I hadn’t picked up his rookie year 1997-98 Autographics card to go in the Pacers rookie year card binder. An inexpensive pickup from a classic autograph set. Still looking out for the Century Marks parallel.

Shifting now to a Pacers team set parallel, I grabbed a Derrick McKey Player’s Club Platinum card from 1995-96 Collector’s Choice. These large team sets give me an excuse to grab less popular former Pacers. It’s a 16 card Pacers checklist, plus a Debut Trade card of Ricky Pierce, and this is the 10th in my collection out of the 17. At 1:35 packs, these aren’t the easiest to track down but bring a lot of nostalgia.

The last recent pickup is the one I’m easily most excited about. I’ve owned Reggie’s 1995-96 SP Championship Champions of the Court insert since the 90s, it being in my Pacers binder from back then where I had dedicated pages per player. This Die-Cut parallel is right up my collecting alley. These die cut inserts are inserted 1:75 packs, making these relatively tough.

I like the back of the card just as much. The boxy design somehow just works, with the profile image in the center, the action shot on the left, and the multiple boxes of varying size text.

My one complaint with this set is all of the cards having the red background. Change it to blue for the Pacers and we’ve got a top 5 Reggie insert, for me.

Picking up this one is prompting me to look back at 1994-95 SP Championship as well. Reggie inserts from the 90s aren’t as prevalent as you’d think considering his hall of fame status and being the best player on his team for the entire decade.

Each of these cards came in separately and were all exciting additions for different parts of my collection.

What type of card projects are you working on?