Hoops Hobby

At any point in time, there’s always one part of my collection that gets more attention than others. Sometimes it’s Pacers team sets, at other times it’s Tim Duncan inserts and parallels, and right now, it’s Pacers autographs.

I’ve realized that there’s no greater thrill in collecting than getting a self-addressed stamped envelope, trying to figure out where it’s from before opening, and then seeing if the cards are signed, how the signature looks, if there’s a note, it’s the best. Even better than opening the mail is getting to send out letters and open responses with my sons.

With this post I’m recapping our four recent returns. The cards fall into mostly different categories. Two are the only licensed Pacers cards for the player. Another is a licensed card from the 70s where the player is with a different team. Last is my first recent attempt at a custom card.

Terry Mills played for the Pacers for 14 games as the last stop in his NBA career during the 2000-01 season. He became a reliable three-point shooting big man over the course of his career, starting over 300 games, most of those with the Pistons.

Mills’ card from 2000-01 Fleer Triple Crown is the only card where he is featured as a Pacer. This made it an easy choice to send through the mail. He returned the card with a nice signature in about 2 1/2 months.

Pleased to add this Mark West from 1997-98 Hoops to the binder as well. Add this example as another reason why I like multi-series sets. West’s only card is in series two, and two-series checklists allow for more of the teams to be represented. So Mark West received a Pacers card after playing in only 15 games for the 1997-98 Pacers.

West’s career spanned 17 seasons, his best being with the Suns which included a run to the Finals in 1994. He’s remained with the Suns organization for many years in various roles since 2000, currently a Charities Ambassador.

He signed and returned this Pacers card despite it being sent to his address with the Suns. Very kind of Mr. West.

Mr. Price was drafted by the Knicks and played in 62 games before moving to the ABA where he played in 4 games for the 1971-72 Pacers. His only card is a 1972-73 Topps, from his time with the 76ers, where he averaged over 5 ppg over 57 games during the 1972-73 season. Any time we get to add a signed 70s card to the binder, it’s a good day.

I mentioned earlier in the post, we also received a signed custom card. Back when I first started sending autograph requests through the mail, I fairly commonly sent out index cards with a player photo and team logo, printed at home. I have a few Pacers autographs in this format that I had signed in person (Marquis Daniels, Orien Greene are the two Pacers that come to mind).

I used Wax Museum PC’s template and method to put this card together, which you can check out in the video below. I’m pleased with the result.

Corky Calhoun played for the Pacers at the end of his NBA career from 1978-80, following solid seasons with other franchises, spending time with the Suns, Lakers, as well as winning a title with the Blazers in 1977.

He appears in the 1976-77 Topps tallboy set as a Laker. For the custom card, I started with the 1976-77 Topps image, replaced the Lakers text on the left with Pacers text, added a yellow background on the left and right, and left white space on the bottom for an autograph to make a standard sized card.

The result is a custom card that will stay in the Pacers collection forever. For the back, I added his stats from the 1978-79 season as well as a short writeup, and of course, a classic Pacers logo.

Looking forward to working on more custom cards in the future, and to devoting more time to the Pacers autograph project. It’s rewarding on multiple levels.

Have you received any autograph requests back lately?