After leading the LA Lakers to a hard-fought seven-game series with the Boston Celtics, Kobe Bryant got his 5th championship ring and second consecutive NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award.
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’m a big mixed-martial arts fan. A BIG one really. In fact, most of my blog posts here are about MMA events from UFC, WEC and Strikeforce.
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 don’t know if Ben Gordon’s signing with the Detroit Pistons is good or bad for NBA trading card collectors.
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.
Today is the 40th day since “Master Rapper” Francis Magalona’s death from acute myelogenous leukemia last March 6, 2009. As a personal tribute, I’m sharing to you guys the items that he gave me, a lyric sheet of his album “Freeman” and a sticker of a product he endorsed. He even autographed them and wrote me a personal note!
I was in third year high school when the album “Freeman” was released in 1995. It was Francis Magalona’s fifth album together with his band Hardware Syndrome and backup singers Evil Stepsisters. I bought a cassette tape and immediately fell in love with the songs. The fusion of rap and rock was seamless in the album. I was also fascinated with the various “samples” and “fillers” used ranging from former president Fidel V. Ramos’ speech to Francis M’s kids talking with each other to Ted Failon introducing Francis M.
I was in my fourth year of studying Computer Engineering at UIC, Davao City when I saw this film, Coyote Ugly.
The film is about an aspiring songwriter who lands a part time job as a bartender in a bar named Coyote Ugly (of course). This is no ordinary bar though as the bartenders are hot babes serving drinks while dancing to a rowdy crowd of men. I think the movie was the inspiration for the now defunct Danny’s Bar along Ponciano St.
One of the hotties from the film is a girl aptly nicknamed “The Russian Tease”, Izabella Miko.
These cards are one of the most unique cards in the NBA trading cards hobby because they are not made of the usual cardboard. They’re actually not made of glass either but of hard plastic. They are also very thick just like the Exquisites so storing them is a little harder. They are also very cool to look at because they are transparent and not easily damaged because they’re not made of cardboard.
And the most important thing of all…
… the autographs are on-card! 
These cards were first released in 2002-03 UD Glass, followed suit by 2003-04 UD Glass and have been produced by UD Trilogy from 2004-05 to 2006-07 until the last batch was released in 2008-09 UD Radiance.
