IT WAS around early 1990s that I started in the card collecting hobby. School age kids would alternately flock to the few stalls in Cebu City selling basketball cards, chasing those 3in x 2in cardboard photos of 90s stars. The affluent kids, overflowing with pocket money, would buy foil packs and could have in their possession juvenile currency which they will then use to negotiate for additional “investments”.
More seasoned acquaintances would hover around them and make their offers if they see something of interest. I usually stayed at the sidelines and do my own haggling with these card sharks after the kids had left. They’re now good friends and I would often join them on weekend meet-ups until we relocated 14,065 kilometers away.
The popular brands then were Fleer, Topps, Skybox, and Upper Deck. Marvel comics acquired Fleer and merged it with Skybox, which, as per some collectors, produced mediocre designs.
Panini monopolized the market when the National Basketball Association (NBA) granted them official licensing of player cards in 2009. We see cards packed with bits of game-used balls, uniforms, shoes, towels, and ticket stubs. The high-end Flawless, Immaculate, and National Treasures series feature signed jersey swatches of today’s popular players with prices going ridiculously high. A seven-card box of these series would stiffly retail somewhere between P150K to P300K.
Last February, a Luka Doncic limited edition card was sold at an auction for $799,500. Two weeks later, an extremely rare, one-of-kind Doncic signed rookie card with the NBA logoman recorded the highest price ever for a basketball card. It was initially bought by a collector for over $400,000 and then found another collector with pockets deeper than the deep, blue sea and bought it for $4.6 million.
And just last Saturday, a Kobe rookie card in “pristine condition” sold for $1.795 million also at an auction, making it the most expensive Kobe card ever and one of the most valuable basketball card of all time.
I only go for the low- to mid-end cards because of the absolutely crazy prices of the high-end ones. Besides, if I do, my wife would starve me to death or perhaps, disown me./PN
