Defunct Franchises

My original title for this post was going to be "20 for '20" because I counted all of the basketball cards in my COMC order and well.. there were 20. But then I realized something even more interesting about these cards:

A high percentage of the cards I ordered depict teams that no longer exist. Take this Tom Chambers card here. This is one of five Seattle Supersonics cards I picked up accidentally-on purpose. I didn't realize that one fourth of the basketball cards I bought were Sonics stars until I had them in-hand.

 

Here's a festive batch of shiny hoopers that put me in a Christmas mood. The Lillard Rainmakers insert (which kind of looks like tinsel) cost $1.20, while the Love Optic parallel (#d/85) was one of the cheapest Fast Break Red Prizms available at just $0.93. The color-matching Hakeem cost $0.71, and the Gary Payton Defensive Gems insert was the cheapest of the six at $0.65.

Payton and Chambers were in my original COMC order which I requested in July. I did not plan on buying any more singles until these arrived. However, a seller named The27guy disrupted those plans by posting a bunch of Immaculate singles at low prices - then adding a sale I couldn't resist.

Sonic BOOM! This X-Man patch is numbered to 10 and set me back $7.30, the second-most expensive basketball card I bought. Hall of Famer David Thompson's Shadowbox Signature (#d/99) cost $4.30.

One more Sonics relic, and a zombie Sonics card to go with it. Both of these Standard singles are numbered to 75. Ray Allen was $4.90, while Serge Ibaka was too cheap to pass up at $1.15.

More Immaculate bargains. Gerald Henderson wasn't a star - if he were, this 3-color patch #d to 10 would have cost a lot more than $3.10. The Christian Laettner relic is my least favorite design here, but I can overlook the odd swatch window placement for $1.62.

 

Point gods. I passed on this Stockton relic so many times I was certain someone else would snatch it up. But my patience paid off and I brought it home for $3.44 (the cheapest copies on the site now are over $6.00) The Nets aren't exactly a defunct franchise - they're alive and well in a different city. I probably should have tried to get to a game while they were here but I didn't know any NBA fans :/

I did get slightly excited when J-Kidd led the Nets to back-to-back Finals appearances - until realizing they had no chance of winning either series. This Franchise Foundations card ($0.85) reminds me of 2003, when a banner hung over Continental Arena declaring the home of the Nets and Devils to be the "Arena of Champions." I'm not the world's biggest CP3 fan but this Limited single was a nice pickup for four dimes.

Here's another Essential single. Talk about a point god.. they don't get much better than the big O. I added Oscar and Kareem to my Bucks collection for $1.45. 

 

There was one more Bucks card in this COMC shipment.. one I purchased in October of 2019 but couldn't bring it home until last week:

This was kind of an impulse buy. I searched Robertson autos one night, saw that the cheapest were sticker autos over $30, and didn't give it another thought -- until a seller posted a 50% off sale and I snagged this for $18.25. Yeah, it's a sticker auto, but it's an auto of an all-time great numbered to 25. It's also my best autographed basketball card by far.

Let's wrap up the basketball portion with some local oddballs. These are from a UConn Huskies set issued in 1991-92:

I lived in Connecticut for 24 years and I've never heard of Petro Pantry - or UConn Field House, which was the Huskies' home prior to Gampel Pavilion. I have heard of Walt Dropo though. The longtime major league 1st baseman was one of the greatest all-around athletes in state history. I actually saw him at a card shop once, though I didn't meet him. We were traveling upstate on the hunt for baseball card stores and I popped in when he happened to be signing autographs. I think I was about 10 years old at the time.

 

Some more Connecticut cards, including a pair of West Haven Yankees. I showed off these Whalers before, but here they are again. They are a defunct team, after all :*(

So are the Nordiques and North Stars. I'd like to pick up some sticker-sized Ultra Pro pages some day but Panini/Topps stickers aren't the same size from year to year. Minny was $0.70, Quebec was $0.74. The Whalers logo has been sold out for over a year. I'll have to pay a premium for that one if it ever pops up again. 

I didn't pick up any Atlanta Thrashers in this order but I did get a sharp looking Flames team card for just $0.67.

I'll show off most of my hockey and baseball card purchases next week. Until then, here's one more from a long-gone franchise:

Hall of Famer Harry Howell was one of the few stars the Seals had in the early 1970s. This 1970-71 Topps base card is the cleanest vintage hockey card I've seen in a while - and it only cost 86 cents!

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The PWE Swap Meet has been a huge success so far! Yesterday alone I received two stuffed bubble mailers and four envelopes. In the first week I've received cards from reader Ken, Bo, Elliptical Man, Night Owl, Nachos Grande, Nine Pockets, The Angels In Order, and three TCDB traders. My football box is overflowing already!

I'll have those return PWEs mailed out this weekend, and I'll reveal a portion of the prize box here:

Frank "Home Run" Baker of the Philadelphia Athletics

The PWE Swap is open until December 28th. Send me those unwanted football cards!


 

Thanks for reading!




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