Last Dance of Kobe & Shaq (A Long Mailday Story)

[8collector34]

In the late 90s I started collecting cards as a kid with my family. Kobe was my guy and Shaq was my brother's. He lost interest in collecting, but still admires what I get from time to time. My goal is to build on our PC and put together a binder of 200 Kobe & Shaq cards, strictly from the same sets, that capture the essence of the hobby between 1996-2004. The era of "The greatest one-two punch combo" as Shaq describes. It is my pleasure to report to all of you that I finally reached the finish line. The cards you will see below will put me to just 3 cards short of 200, so this may be the last thread I open on the topic as far as maildays go. Maybe one day I can show off the entire collection. It has been an incredible journey that I have been on since the 90s, and I was lucky to share it with many-many people. Of course a collection is never complete and there is always room for improvement, but I feel like I am at the end of the checklist. So, forgive my sentimentalism.

First off a couple of MJs, since I already mentioned the Last Dance. I have started to focus on my side PC, which is to collect all the Kobe & Shaq base cards from 1996-2004. Besides the Laker pair, I want to include a third base card from every set to make it visually appealing in a binder. Here is #3 for the E-X2001:


Also, I decided to pick up some cards that I just like to look at. The holoview's card design screams 80s and 90s, and the other one is MJs first Upper Deck card. And, why wouldn't I pick up a Stadium Club classic.



---------------------------Now, the main attraction:-------------------------



The PSA case will need to be cracked for this one before I can place it in the binder. The feel good story about the Topps Kobe is that it was advertised on eBay as a refractor. When it arrived to my COMC mailbox, they too booked it in as a Refractor. To me it was strange that it did not lit up like it should have. I checked the backside on the scan, and it did not say "refractor". I messaged the seller, but did not expect much. I was so wrong. They immediately refunded the full purchase price and told me to keep the card for the hassle. I cannot thank him enough, but I will pay the kindness forward. Now I don't even want the Refractor anymore. This card earned a special place in the binder.




I have a Box Office printing proof Kobe, a real one, not a B.S. Panini parallel, lol. When I saw a Shaq that was also straight out of the printing machine, I knew I had to have it, even thou it cannot fit in the binder. The refractor Mitch was just because it is a 1:360 set. For $5, that's not a bad deal for a HOFer.






That was the end of the 90s... on to the 2000s.

Since every card in this decade has an auto or a relic in it, it was hard to find an insert set that did not. The legendary Beam Team first released in 1992 with the rookie Shaq. 10 years later it still had a strong design and checklist. Of course not every relic card had a bad design. SP Game Floor was exceptional. This one featuring Kenyon Martin reminds me of the 2002 Finals.



The Characteristics card says the symbol means KYO - Large, Gigantic. The JSY piece is from the 2003 All-Star game. Now I have a gold, purple, white and red jersey in my small collection. Pretty impressive considering I only collect from a small pool of cards. It is amazing just how many different cards are out there. We have come a long way from the one set per year decades.


This is a bonus for scrolling this far. This is an authentic fake Scoreboard buyback. It has the fake stamp, with the small SB logo, and a badly photocopied certificate of authenticity. If it did not come with these, I could even believe the Shaq auto might be real, as it is contemporary, and has all the minor details that even the Panini fakes don't have. I am a little torn that I paid 10 bucks to a scammer for it, but I consider these Scoreboard fakes cardboard history, and I was initiated in the hobby trough 1996-97 Collector's Choice. There was no way I am not going to include this in my PC when I stumbled upon it randomly searching trough eBay. The card is a tragedy, but it is still history, and the aim of my PC is to record history.


The main PC additions for my 200 Kobe and Shaq pairs ends here. If you still have the courage, keep scrolling. Here come my side PC additions for the base sets that I described in the beginning.

The Chrystal parallel is main PC. Even thou it is /199, it was to find. So were the base cards at reasonable prices. I guess there isn't much profit in 2002-03 Fleer.


It is hard to believe that the relic craze was so bad in the 2000s that even base cards had them. There are no regular version of the Finest Shaq.


I have no idea what Keon Clark is doing here. He did admit that he played most of his games drunk. Maybe it is just the designer who decided to move Shaq a little bit closer with photoshop, IDK.


Topps heritage is my jam. The Topps Ten was also such a one of a kind set. Only the league leaders were included in it, for each statistical category. Like the top ten players in PPG/48mins. Shaq has quite a lot of cards in this set, as one can imagine.








Now, if I want to match my Kobe and Shaq pairs with a 3rd card from the set, and it is a multi-sport set, why would I go with a basketball player? But I did not know who should it be. This set has so many legends. I went with Mantle because his 52 Topps is a hobby icon.






The Kobe is from the factory set. It has gold foil instead of silver. What a subtle distinction. Also, cheap refractors for the price of base cards are irresistible. Especially of such a great and forgotten PG, like Billups.






Some for the Holoviews set side PC.


This is an inexpensive set that does not include Shaq. He has a cameo with Reggie however. Also, I guess a courtside seat was not close enough for Kemp. He wanted to be closer to the action on that Kobe layup. Funny picture, I wish Abra could see this.


...and there are no Shaq to match visually with the Jam Masters, but it is cool by itself. Since 2000-01 Upper Deck Game Jersey Auto-s are the same design as the base cards, it only made sense to add another great point guard as a third wheel to my Kobe and Shaq base card collection.


Some tall boys next to a small boy. In my country baseball cards are an oddity, and I have never seen or heard of anyone who has a 1911 T206 card. IDK much about baseball, but I have read up on Bill Hinchman. He played on the Pittsburg Pirates with the famous Honus Wagner, who made this set mythical, and lead the team with a .307 betting average. I am not really sure what that means thou, but sounds impressive. The cherry on the top is the stain from the tobacco, that the card was packed with. I guess it had been raining or something when more than a century ago a fellow stepped inside a tobacco shop to buy a pack of cigarettes, and now it is history. Who would have thought 100 years later it will be a prized possession of someone's collection thousands of miles away.



IDK why you keep reading, but it made me happy, like Betty Hutton over here. Thanks for your time.


The end.

[bkcardcollector]

heyyoooo!!

I cant see some of the pics but nice to see. be nice to see them with there compadres as well. like the jam session. maybe they are in the pics i cant see. thanks for posting and n1s

[jfan2024]

Really nice OP but we want to see ALL the pictures! Great stuff though what does show up

[8collector34]

Thanks guys! I fixed the images. Enjoy!

[401cards]

Love that Stadium Club. I wish Panini would have a mid-end set dedicated to full-bleed action photos like the that (I thought prestige was a low-end version of that, but it got discontinued).

[8collector34]

Originally Posted by 401cards

Love that Stadium Club. I wish Panini would have a mid-end set dedicated to full-bleed action photos like the that (I thought prestige was a low-end version of that, but it got discontinued).

I would definitely hop on that train. Some Donruss and Hoops pictures are nice, but the entire set is far from what Stadium Club or Ultra used to be.