I feel that creating one will allow me to post anything and everything about sports cards, specifically basketball sports cards.

This will also declutter Hakuna Matata! to focus on sports and entertainment news and less of my personal what-nots.

I titled the new site as simply Basketball Sports Cards.

Why?

Because it’s concentrated on just basketball trading cards alone.

As an avid fan of the NBA, I have been collecting basketball trading cards since 1996.

I suggest you read my blog post titled My NBA Trading Cards Hobby on my old web site on how I happened to stumble into this hobby.

At this niche site, I will post my box breaks, my mail days and showcase my collections as well as write any news about the sports trading cards hobby.

I also hope to create more interaction with fellow collectors and hope to make a trade or two.

Just click on the image below to be directed to Basketball Sports Cards.

See you!

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By doing so, Kobe once again proved to detractors that he can carry a team to a crown and that last year was no fluke.

As Shaq’s side kick during the Lakers three-peat  from 2000-2002, Kobe is one of my favorite NBA players.

I actually have an autographed card of him but I sold it last 2006 for P6,000.

Now, that the Black Mamba is destined to go down in history as one of the greatest NBA players ever, I am having regrets on selling that card.

To satisfy my craving and since I have some extra Paypal funds from my blog earnings, I decided to buy an autographed Kobe Bryant trading card.

This one below is a card I got from a fellow member in the nbacardsph forum:

FRONT

BACK

The card depicts Kobe wearing his old jersey number, 8. He switched to #24 in the 2006-07 season if you didn’t know.

The autograph is on-card which is an upgrade from my previous one which was a sticker auto.

Odds of getting a card like it  is 1 in 240 packs. It is not serial numbered but I think its rare as I have not seen another card like it yet and  it is unpriced in the Beckett price guide.

As Kobe attempts to get another three-peat next season, the value of his  trading cards will surely rise in value. This one is a keeper for sure.

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Last Wednesday when I was browsing the listings of my favorite local eBay seller for my NBA trading cards hobby, I saw that he now has MMA trading cards in his auctions as well.

I immediately presented bids for a BJ Penn, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans and Rich Franklin autographed cards. After the auction ended, I only won the Rich Franklin. It seems many fans want a piece of these fighters too.

I especially like the Penn but it ended at $56 + $3.95 shipping which is too high for me. The Prodigy co-headlines UFC 112 this Sunday at UAE so I think that’s the main factor for the price. In comparison, I got the Franklin in less than Php500.

So, from the mail that arrived today, here’s my first-ever MMA trading card, a 2009 Upper Deck Prominent Cuts Cage Fighter Signatures #CFSRF Rich Franklin autographed card:

Rich Franklin is nicknamed Ace due to his resemblance to Jim Carrey (who played the character Ace Ventura). Before becoming an MMA fighter, Franklin taught mathematics at the Oak Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio and has a master’s degree in education at the University of Cincinnati.

Now, who says MMA fighters are all brawn and no brains?

He is a former UFC Middleweight champion winning it at UFC 56 against Evan Tanner and has defended it successfully two times before losing it to Anderson Silva at UFC 64 (who is still the champion and making his sixth title defense against Demian Maia at UFC 112).

He has a record of 26 wins (14 by KO, 9 by submission) and 5 losses. In his last fight, he lost against Vitor Belfort at UFC 103 when he was caught by a big left that knocked him out in the very first round.

If rumors are to be believed, he replaced Tito Ortiz as a coach in The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 which is currently on at Spike TV.

We will find that out soon.

UPDATE May 27, 2010: I think that will finally happen in The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 Episode 10 to be shown on June 2, 2010.

UPDATE June 3, 2010: Rich did replace Tito in the 10th episode of TUF 11. Dana White also announced that he will face opposing coach Chuck Liddell in the main event of the UFC 115 fight card on June 12, 2010.

UPDATE June 13, 2010: This card is now gone. I sold it for $16.15 including shipping at eBay to make a gross profit of $5.78.

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His former team, the Chicago Bulls has a fanatical following due to a guy named Michael Jordan. The city is also a big market being one of the largest cities in the USA. On the other hand, Detroit might also be a big market but not as big as Chicago is. However, its basketball team, the Pistons has an equally massive group of “Bad Boys” collectors.

In mid-2008, I traded my 2006-07 Topps Chrome Autographs Refractors Black #57 Dwyane Wade A for this card below, a 2004-05 Ultimate Collection #128 Ben Gordon AU RC.

That time, I thought I was getting the better part of the deal because the Wade has a Beckett value of $120 while the Gordon, $150. Around that time, Dwyane Wade was injured, Shaq was traded to the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat was going nowhere. Even though the Chicago Bulls missed the postseason, Ben Gordon is still playing spectacularly coming off the bench as a 6th man. Being one of Ben Gordon’s rarest and most important rookie card, I realized that it is more valuable than a regular autographed card.  It is also serially numbered to 250 and was packaged in four-pack boxes that contained four cards each that carried a SRP of $100. It also helped that when it first came out, it booked at $300!

A year later, the Wade card has retained its $120 value owing to Dwayne Wade coming of a strong season where he led the NBA in scoring for the 1st time in his career. The Gordon card meanwhile has depreciated to $80 as well as some of his other cards. I don’t know why. It must be because collectors are spending their money more on team mate Derrick Rose or maybe his play is not strong enough to warrant a second look from collectors.

This card is still with me. I have said before that collecting trading cards is like a stock market. Ben Gordon’s change of scenery might increase its value, or decrease or maybe no change at all. Well, it’s all part of trading cards prospecting.

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A collector from Australia is selling his collection of assorted Michael Jordan trading  cards with a Buy It Now price of  US$450,000 at eBay. Wow! That’s around PhP21.6M in Philippine peso. If the price is too much for you, you can make a Best Offer. The seller added this note though: “I am willing to accept offers but please do not provide me with unreasonable or ridiculous offers as they will be auto-declined by EBAY. Please do not ask also for a pricing on an individual card as this is auction is for the entire lot.”

Checking out the cards from the collection, I must say that there are really amazing gems on that lot. These are the ones that captured my fancy.

graded Fleer 86-87 RCs – this card is Michael Jordan’s rookie card and is considered the Holy Grail in the hobby

MJ autographed cards…

this is one of my dream cards – for my Auto Focus collection…

with another 23, MVP Lebron James…

1/1 card – meaning this is the only card in existence…

cards with a piece of jersey, patch, suit, floor or bat (he played baseball for a short stint)…

sick insert cards…

there’s even an oddball/promo card showing MJ in a Superman costume that would surely make a run for Shaq and Dwight’s money…

Take note that the cards I have displayed above are just some of the cards in the collection.There are still hundreds more that will make a collector drool. On a personal note though, I doubt that this collection will ever be sold at the asking price of US$450,000. I think it’s too much.

But who knows? In this hobby, I have seen and known people literally spending millions just to get the trading cards they really like.

If you are interested, here’s the link (already not available) for the auction. It’s a 10-day listing and ends on June 15, 2009.

Good luck!

==============================================================

UPDATE June 16, 2009: The listing ended yesterday with no winners. The seller reduced his price to US$299,000 and got 19 private offers. He declined them all. The listing also got around 3,900 views. He has now broken the lot and sold the cards individually at eBay.

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