Hoops Hobby

You’re opening a pack of NBA basketball cards. You have an insert- who’s card is it? We’ve all had strings of luck (or lack thereof) pulling the same player, maybe across multiple products. For me in the 2000s it was McGrady (could be much, much worse). Maybe for you it’s Trae Young (sorry Trae). Maybe it was Shareef Abdur-Rahim in the 90s. I can’t recall where, maybe on a Facebook group, but someone mentioned pulling a bunch of Scottie Pippen Blazers cards. The common thread here, though, is that when the same players are showing up across products, across insert sets, over and over again, these guys are, like it or not, considered hobby stars.

Are there other ‘categories’ of inserts that show up frequently? Sure.

Category 1– Rookie Year/Young ’emerging’ player sets

It’s no coincidence I used the word emerging. First and second year players appear in insert sets over and over again. It’s been happening since the 90s – the All-Rookie sets, the Young Lions, the Great Expectations, the 1st Year Phenoms, Wave of the Future, it goes on and on. These three were easily accessible to use as more modern examples. These sets are more recently very large and while the ultimately do include future stars, they also often include players that are on the fringe of rotations.

Category 2 – Specific skill or position insert sets

Sharpshooters, All-Defense, League Leaders, Tower of Power, Total O/Total D, Rejectors, Season’s Best, to name a handful from the 90s. These insert sets feature players who dominate in a stat category, on a particular side of the ball, or in a specific skillset. Sometimes this leads to players appearing in insert sets sporadically, while that player is at the height of his statistical/skill power.

Category 3 – One per team(ish) insert sets

Hardwood Leaders, Clear Cut (if you’re not familiar, beautiful acetate set from 1994-95 Stadium Club), Franchise Favorites, and more recently NBA City as an example, these insert sets typically do not have more than one player per team, and often contain between 20-30 cards.

Along with Myles Turner in 2017-18 Hoops Action Shots as an example, we also have Yogi Ferrell, Jordan Clarkson, Willy Hernangomez, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Dario Saric, among others. In 1994-95 Clear Cuts we have Gerald Wilkins, Lindsey Hunter, Dennis Scott, and Don Maclean. Guys who don’t show up in many insert sets. As a collector with upwards of 100 Myles Turner cards, I’m glad to have this Action Shots as an option, but it’s not a ‘Star’ set.

Category 4 – Case Hits

Case Hits are typically reserved for the stars. Sometimes those first/second year players also fall into the high odds, case hit type sets. This is the only ‘Case Hit’ insert I own, to my knowledge. It’s a 2nd year Myles Turner card from 2016-17 Panini Aficionado, and I appreciate him being here.

Curry, Dirk, LeBron, Kawhi… Myles Turner. I’ll take it, but generally, Case Hits are reserved for the Stars and top prospects. Look at the ‘All Kings’ from 2025-26 Topps as an example- it’s the top stars and top rookie year prospects.

Category 5 – The Rest, I’m calling it the ‘Hobby Stars’ category.

The last category is a catch-all, but it’s really how you can tell if any given player is a hobby ‘star’. Does the player appear in multiple inserts per release? Does this player appear in larger insert sets, but also appear in some sets 10-15 cards in size as well? If the answer is yes here, then you’ve found yourself a hobby star.

This gives me an opportunity to introduce my latest binder project, and likely the most budget friendly as well- it’s in its infancy.

So far I have my Pacers autograph binders, a project with cards that range from TTM returns that were the price of a base card and stamps, to cards that cost more than I typically like to pay. I have my Pacers rookie year binders that hold cards I’ve been accumulating since the 90s and early 2000s, and I have Pacers parallel team sets that range from the mid-90s to silver parallels in the Panini era.

The latest is collecting hobby ‘star’ Haliburton inserts! I’ve looked for an affordable way to collect ultra-modern cards, and I think this will be an enjoyable way to enjoy some of the more recent insert sets. I won’t pick up everything- with the volume in modern day products I can be picky. It’ll be a balance between quantity to fill up binder pages, but aesthetics will also play a role.

I started by grabbing the very first Pacers Haliburton insert listed in TCDB, 2021-22 Contenders Optic Uniformity. The ‘base’ insert has the shine of a refractor. For anyone interested, I searched for Tyrese Haliburton, filtered to Team = Indiana Pacers and Set Types = Inserts. It includes parallel versions of inserts, and memorabilia and autograph cards as well when they aren’t a part of the base sets. So it’s not exactly a checklist but it is a list.

The next two come from a trade I made on TCDB.com (Trading Card Database). I sent a few Jazz cards to a collector and received a couple Haliburton inserts, a Sabonis Optic Holo/Silver for the Pacers team set binder, and a couple LeMelo Ball parallels for my son’s Hornets collection. I look forward to these types of trades- it just takes a little bit off effort to initiate and find a trade partner.

The Franchise Futures fits more into the one-per-team category, and this is one I wouldn’t go out and purchase but I’ll gladly trade for. Illusions inserts from recent years have a unique look to them with an embossed surface.

Still strange to see these cards with no fans in the stands. This Optic Holo is from 2020-21. Sabonis is one of my favorite Pacers historically, regardless of his place as an outgoing piece for Haliburton. Love his offensive game as a post player.

I’ll go ahead and share the LaMelo cards while I’m talking about this trade. The Magicians insert is from 2022-23 Donruss. This isn’t really a color match but for some reason the design and flow of colors just fits with LaMelo here. I’m a fan of this card and it’ll go nicely in my son’s LaMelo pages (he has his own binder). The Optic is a purple parallel from 2021-22, and I’ll call this one a team color match. This card looks great. By the way, I think LaMelo Ball is a borderline hobby star, maybe to a slightly lesser extent than Tyrese.

Back to Haliburton. I opened a Black Friday 2025-26 Topps and loved the look of the inserts, and in particular the Scan & Slam. I pulled a DeRozan myself, and sent that one to a Kings collector, but I knew I wanted the Haliburton. The set has a very 90s feel. Other inserts exclusive to the Black Friday boxes (Limited Stock Legends, for example) have a similar feel. I also like the ‘Big Box Ballers’ as well (spoiler) from the Costco packs.

I’ll have more Haliburton inserts coming and will start sharing some binder pics once I get closer to having some full pages.

Do you collect any hobby ‘stars’? Do you agree with my criteria for identifying them?

What about binder projects? I’d love to hear about your binders and even feature them in a post here on the blog.