My NBA Trading Cards Hobby

A sports trading card is a small piece of cardboard (or wood, metal or glass) which usually contains image of a particular sports player. Along with the image might be an autograph, piece of jersey, ball, bat or other item depending on the kind of sports. It might also contain statistics and some information about the player or team featured. Trading cards also hold some value depending on its rarity, condition and the player featured. Their values are listed at price guides like that of Beckett. They may be worthless to some, but hold value to us collectors.

Below are sample pictures of trading cards. They are some of the autographed and jersey cards of the player I collect, Shaquille O’Neal. They are part of my collection.

My first foray into this hobby happened in 1996 when I was a first year college student. During that time, I’m not really a big fan of the NBA yet for the simple reason that I don’t have the opportunity to watch NBA games since we don’t have cable television at our home in the province. But I’m already familiar with the big-time players like Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman and Magic Johnson to name a few. 

The PBA is what I always follow because we can watch it on free TV at PTV 4 channel being broadcasted by Vintage Sports (if my memory serves me right). I still remember how I rooted for the Alaska Milkmen and bickered with my high school classmates who were die-hard Sunkist Orange Juicers and San Miguel Beermen fans. I supported Alaska even if they are always clobbered by those two teams until I finally won betting games (pustahan) against my classmates when Alaska won the Grand Slam. The team’s point guard, the diminutive Johhny Abarrientos also took home the MVP award. Heck, we even thought he will become the first Filipino to ever play in the NBA when the Charlotte Hornets offered him to participate in their training camp; supposedly as a back-up for Muggsy Bogues who happened to be the smallest player ever to suit for the NBA. But well, he opted to stay in the PBA which is a good move I think since he might just be a benchwarmer in the NBA and not be able to showcase his full talent.

Anyway, when I studied in Davao City, I met classmates who are more fanatic watching the NBA than the PBA. I can’t blame them since it really is more exciting watching the former than the latter what with all the amazing slams and dishes and swats. They even formed leagues while playing NBA Live ‘96 at SNES consoles. They recorded their wins and losses and kept statistics of their team and favorite players. There was money involve of course. It’s sort of like a betting game also.

They were the ones who introduced me to the hobby of collecting trading cards of NBA players. At first, I just tagged along with them in going to hobby shops in buying boxes and packs of cards and trading cards with fellow collectors. Ultimately, I was encouraged to join them when I saw the anticipation on their faces and the immediate ecstasy they feel whenever they pulled a card of their favorite players from the packs or whenever they got a very rare card. I also want to feel that!

Shaquille O’Neal was one of the most popular players during that time (he still is today) and was coming off an NBA Finals appearance with the Orlando Magic opposite the Houston Rockets. I really like his charisma, dunks and strong play so I decided that he will be the one player I’ll focus my collection on. Twelve years later, I have already amassed more than 1,000 different Shaquille O’Neal cards worth an estimated $7, 500 (just calculate that in peso)! I have 6 autographed cards, 51 game-used (with piece of jersey) cards and even have 6 cards that are gold-plated. I got most of my cards now from eBay or from online forums. My favorite online forums are the local-based nbacardsph and the foreign-based hobbykings and sportscardforum.

I intend to collect as many Shaquille O’Neal cards as I can. Since he is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, some of his cards will surely increase in value as time goes on. Trading cards collecting is like a stock market you know. Cards might increase or decrease in value depending on many factors. This is also a very expensive hobby so I can’t afford the very rare cards. But nevertheless, my collection is still worth something. I will hand-down my collection to my future kids as an heirloom later. I will also post some of my collection from time to time so drop by often here.

Please check out my collection of trading cards posted at this site.

Please visit my new web site for more trading card posts.

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