Some votes, an interview and lots of love all around

I feel very special today, like a little French princess (but don't say it too loud, considering how we treat royal family around these parts). And this, for two reasons.


First, because I'm featured on Nacho Grande's great Better know a blogger series. Us bloggers obviously like to talk about cards, but also like to talk about ourselves, and that theme has been a real success. I had fun answering the questions, so thanks Chris !


Second, because I found out this morning that I was nominated for best new blog at the BIP awards, hosted by Sooz at a cardboard problem. I'm not expecting to win (at all), but I will get a speech ready just in case and try to act surprised when they give my name. I have no idea who nominated me, but thanks a lot, it makes me feel very fuzzy inside (does this make me an attention whore ? Or just a normal conceited human being ?). And for those of you who will vote for me, do know I love you with all my heart (yeah, I think I'm needy).


This must mean I'm starting to really be part of the community.
And I'm glad I am.


One of the perks of having a blog about a specific hobby, is that you make new friends. I've met a lot of great people I've since traded with, but of course the vast majority is from North America. When I starting talking about cards last summer, it brought back memories to some people in France who used to collect basketball cards in the 90s. One of those people is my friend Bintz, with whom I've been able to talk about cards (in French !), and who's slowly been getting back in the hobby. He collects mostly Bulls cards, but also Shawn Kemp ones. He's got exactly the same mentality as I do : we don't care about Bv, we just like having fun and collecting cards that we find nice, not seeing it as an investment at all, but really for what it is : a hobby that has ties to our childhood and adolescent years.Since Bintz is much more patient than I am, he asked one of his relatives that lives in the US to receive for him boxes of cards and lots he'd buy off ebay, and have him ship them all at once. Which he did last December, after 4 months of accumulation. Two weeks and $90 shipping and handling later, he got this huge box with 8 boxes of cards plus a ton of singles for his collection. And because he's a nice guy, he sent some my way.

This card was a huge surprise. First, because it was hidden in the package, to make it a little more special. Second, because my friend does not collect baseball. Which means he got that card especially for me, because we were talking cards one day and I must have told him I thought it was a really cool card, but a little out of my price range as far as inserts go. It's all nice and shiny and jut screams of 90s cardboard.

Those stickers were inserted in Frosties and Choco pop's cereals in 1995. I had no idea they existed. And I still do not understand how they decided to include them, considering how unpopular baseball has always been in France.
I'll have to write a post one day about how we hardly have any choices in cereal here. It's very sad. I guess we love our croissants too much.

He also sent me a healthy stack of 96-97 Upper Deck series 2 (I had a box of series I for Christmas). Those are really great, one of the best UD sets ever.

And then, among the 150 cards he sent (a bunch of Knicks I needed, some cool 90s inserts and some 93 Donruss that one of the ebay sellers had added as a bonus), he sent those two cruel ones :

This is one probably from the 93-94 Finals. Where the Knicks lead 3-2 and just couldn't close the deal, because in part of John Starks. He missed the buzzer beater in game 6 (that picture might be from that action) and went 2 for 18 in game 7 (0 for 10 in the last quarter), including a very embarrassing airball in the waning seconds.

Jordan always seemed to embarrass the Knicks whenever he had a chance. Great card in any case. Stadium Club did make it even by putting on cardboard Stark's famous dunk over Jordan.