Trading Cards

When I was a kid, I saved all my money for NBA trading cards. And at $5 a pack, you had to perform a lot of chores to feed your card addiction. I was eight years old and this was the nineties. No minimum award wage for me. Funny thing is, all of my friends were in the same boat. If you worked your butt off, you could afford the Upper Deck or the Skybox. If you scraped together some loose change, you could get yourself a packet of Topps. But Topps were shit, and everybody knew it. Nobody wanted to trade cards with the 'Topps' kid. So most of us went with the middle ground. This was Fleer and NBA Hoops.

What was so great about NBA trading cards was the variety of characters you'd find in your pack. Forget MJ, Barkley, Malone, or Mutumbo (Dikembe!). I'm talking about the guys who weren't so great, but had awesome names, crazy haircuts, or standout features like a pair of goggles. Names like Pooh Richardson, Horace Grant, Hersey Hawkins, and Acie Earl. And what about God Shammgod! My god! Maybe the most amazing name to ever hit the timber. It's so much fun looking back and remembering these names and faces, because at the time, these guys were my heroes. I know a lot of dudes out there who have held onto their trading card albums and refuse to part with. I'm one of them. So I wanted to start posting a few cards of what I consider to be the 'marquee' players during the greatest period of NBA history - the nineties.

To the trading card junkies, please don't ever sell your albums or throw them away. You can't put a price on this stuff. But if you ever do wanna trade, you now know where to find me. Here's one of my favourite marquees and NBA Hoops regular (there are three things certain in life; death, taxes, and this guy in your fresh packet of Hoops) - the Dallas Mavericks' own Popeye Jones!