General Forum

As I sit here watching this Cavaliers-76ers game, with all these new Cavs, I wish there was a large basketball card set with two series.  There were so many players traded this year.  I don't want to wait until next year for cards of them in new uniforms.  Some guys won't even get a card on their current team, and they'll be off to another city next season.  I know its nothing new, but it wouldn't have happened in the "junk era".

A lot of players don't get cards at all - new team or otherwise - with most sets only averaging 5 or 6 veterans per team (plus every fringe rookie who signed a contract in time).

I re-sort my sets into team order before placing them in binders and was apalled to recently notice that 2016-17 Prestige - a 200-card set with 150 veterans and 50 rookies - contained no Washington players amongst the 150 veterans. No John Wall. No Bradley Beal. Nobody!

You know, I have always liked watching LeBron, but boy am I sick of seeing the Cavs on tv,  You would think they are the only team in the NBA.  It feels like their entire schedule is nationally televised.  

As a fan of the Suns, I didn't like pulling cards of Eric Bledsoe this year considering how he decided to quit on the team near the beginning of the season.  I am thinking that it was long enough ago though that some of the newer releases will have him in a Bucks uniform.  

On the baseball side, I was happy Topps had a Diamondbacks card of JD Martinez even though he was a free agent and is with Boston now.  His second half of the season with us was amazing and helped us get to the playoffs.  I am glad I have a card that is a memory of that.

I also don't like the fact that every NBA release is an obsession with rookies.  I honestly would rather have another card of a veteran instead of every late 2nd round pick.  

The emphasis on rookies is a hobby-wide phenomenon and not just a basketball or Panini one. And it's even worse when rookies are the principal focus of every autograph or memorabilia insert. You get one or two so-called "hits" per box and pull someone like Diamond Stone (24 career minutes played) or Thanasis Antetekounmpo (6 career minutes payed). Where's the party favours emoji when you need it?

I've been complaining about this so much that Panini doesn't even allow my comments on their blog anymore, even when I say good things. It's obvious they don't care about the NBA, and it's getting worse. 

This extreme level of crappyness has caused me to move away from set collecting...which I've done since I was 4 years old...and focus mainly on my project of getting at least one card of every person to get one. Even that isn't always easy because Panini ignores almost half the NBA every single season. This year there are 525 players in the NBA at any given time...Panini can't be bothered to give cards to any more than 290 of them. 

Disgraceful. And it may be even worse than just the ineptitude that's blatantly obvious. I'm not ready to lay out those allegations yet and it's probably not going to win me any friends but if what I'm beginning to suspect is true it's far more important than my social standing. I need to do some more research, though.

NO WASHINGTON VETS?

ACK The Bullets nay Wizards are the only hoops team I truly collect. Well and some vintage pre 1980 stuff. I haven't really set an upper end to which year I stop my general collecting. There are some 1990s sets where I collect and desire the team logo cards for each team.

I have to say, that is very weird not to have even a John Wall card in the base set.  

And Billy, I'm not sure what you mean by this:

"Disgraceful. And it may be even worse than just the ineptitude that's blatantly obvious. I'm not ready to lay out those allegations yet and it's probably not going to win me any friends but if what I'm beginning to suspect is true it's far more important than my social standing. I need to do some more research, though."

Racism.

The problem is that the leagues are fine with the exclusive licensing never taking the collectors in to mind, it is just about money for them and Panini just puts up the most. In the 90s and early 2000s we had so many sets to select from, in every sport, and it was wonderful but now we are limited to Panini's rehash of the same product over and over. 

I am really disappointed in the Panini offerings, but especially in the NBA.  I think they issue more sets than players and the player coverage is terrible.  Those early Hoops sets and early 90s Topps sets were great.  I did like the Panini Complete set.  It wasn’t comprehensive, but it was the closest any set came.  Why Panini discontinued it but left all the stuff hey did, I’ll never understand.  I really wish this exclusive license crap would stop.  I’d love each company to limit their sets to a couple and then be a part of all sports.  Let the collector decide what they want to buy.