Vintage trading part II : return with a vengeance and a big round orange head

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned how I'd like to collect one card from each member of the top 50 players of all time voted by the NBA in 1996. Enter Mark Hoyle. Everybody knows him around these parts as the vintage king, and boy did he deliver yet again. He sent me an amazing package with a great collection of hall of famers, knocking down most of my needs and adding a few extras for good measure.

Those are absolute beauties. I don't know what happened in 1976 (I was born in 77), but all of a sudden Topps decided to make real big cards (about 50% bigger than usual) and a checklist two times smaller (144 instead of 300). card number 1 of that short lived experiment (it lasted only a year) was the one you see right there, of Dr J. The one Mark sent is in pristine condition, and I'm quite simply in love with it. Mark collects Celtics cards, so thanks for sending this one out nonetheless.

Extra space means extra stats and blurbs (I wonder why they didn't include assists, even though it was a known stat). College stats ! Basketball rules !!

Great addition to my Knicks team collection, and another great addition to any collection, with that Pistol Pete card. Maravich is one of the reasons why I started playing basketball seriously. 25 years ago, I saw that movie made for TV about him, depicting his amazing high school and College basketball days, with all his ball handling tricks. There were no hoops near my place, so I'd spend hours and hours just dribbling a ball (just like in the movie), spinning it on my finger and just practicing ball handling skills. I played point guard, so this really helped in the future. So I'm really thrilled, 25 years later, to finally be able to add a vintage card from his playing days (and a second one, actually, as Mark sent 2 of his).

A couple of future hall of fame coaches (Wilkens is also in there as a player), and a hall of famer / mayor of Detroit. Not a bad trio.

Yup, absolutely, those are all hall of famers. One of them is even nicknamed the Kangaroo Kid (and they all wore shorts that were way too tight)

Dr J ! and a Boston (and UCLA, of course) fan favorite, as he spent the last couple of years of his stellar but still injury marred career as a Celtic.

Another Gervin, and here comes Nate 'Tiny' Archibald, huge scoring and assists machine.

Well, thanks to Mark's generosity (we never talk about book value in the blogosphere because it's hardly relevant, but there's still some serious money in that bunch), I now only need 10 players to complete my mini collection. I've been putting some Red Sox and Celtics aside for you, a returne package will be sent promptly !