Conference school::sports_memorabilia

    Steve O',
    
    Read Note 120.40
    
    Regards,
    Denny
    

    
    Tis troo, tis troo.  Stadium Club Basketball will debut this fall.
    
    A dealer in SCD has pre-sell cases for $709.  His ad says 16 boxes
    per case, but I thought there were 12 boxes per case.
    
    Anyway, if it is indeed 16 boxes, the prices works out to about
    $45/box.
    
    I'm willing to do a group purchase.  If you are interested, send me
    mail, telling me how many boxes you want.  6 Boxes are already spoken
    for.  First come, first served.
    
    If it turns out that a case is only 12 boxes, the first 12 boxes
    claimed will be the first ones assigned.  It also means the price
    goes up.  I will re-confirm with everyone if it's only 12 boxes (I
    myself will probably bow out as that is almost $60/box).
    
    If you contact me, and I purchase the case, you commit to send me
    the money IMMEDIATELY after I've placed the order and know exactly
    how much each box will be.  I will be placing this on my wife's
    credit card, and she can squeeze a penny tighter than ... anyway,
    she will not want to incur any finance charge over this.
    
    Send mail to CERBUS::KARLSON			-rjk
    
    ps: If I don't get 16 boxes committed to, I won't do this.  I'm
        not going to take a bath on this, or try to find buyers for
        a bunch of unclaimed boxes.

    I wonder what the backs of these cards will look like.
    
    Topps has not made basketball since 82, so there aren't too many
    active players who have a Topps rookie card available.
    
    I hope they don't punt and put the same picture on the front 
    as on the back for 99% of the league.
    
    If they want to stick with putting a picture of a previous card on the
    back of each card, a couple ideas come to mind:
    
    - picture a previous great player from the same team same position
    - picture of a favorite player
    
    I don't know, I think anything would be better than putting a picture
    of the same front on the back. Maybe they can follow Hoops lead, and 
    pay Magic to gush about each player for a couple lines...
    
    Has anyone heard what Topps might be planning for this?
    
    -dennis   

    
    My money is on the same card appearing on the back as on the front.
    
    -rjk
    
    ps: except for those few rare instances like Bird, Magic, McHale,
        Parish ...

    
    Anyone know how many cards in the set?
    
    11 boxes claimed, 5 remaining.  (Actually 11.5 and 4.5, but only if
                                     someone claims .5 a box)
    
    Walt Ashe is willing to split a box with someone (he's reserved
    one, doesn't want a full second one), so if someone wants to split
    the box with Walt, it's okay with me -- let me know.

    
    13 boxes claimed, 3 remaining.
    
    -rjk

    
    All the boxes have been claimed.  If you're still interested, send
    me mail, and I'll put you on the waiting list, in case anyone backs
    out.
    
    -rjk

    Now that Shaquille has signed, hopefully, that will get him into
    Stadium Series I.
    
    Classic had better hurry up and get their cards out, their exclusive
    on O'Neal isn't going to last long.
    
    -dennis 

    
    Does anyone know for sure the details of O'Neal's deal with Classic?
    It would seem there must be some time frame they get him exclusive
    despite himi signing with Orlando.  Why pay a guy a million bucks
    for card rights, only to lose out when he signs a NBA contract
    a few months later?
    
    As Dennis points out Classic isn't even out yet, so if now because
    O'Neal signed everyone gets to print his card, then Classic paid
    a million for nothing.  Is this really how it works?  Anyone read the
    real story?
    
    jeff
    

    
    Didn't Classic have an exclusive with Larry Johnson last year?  And
    Dikembe Mutombo?  And didn't those two appear in UD's low number
    set?
    
    (Not sure, but I believe the above is true)
    
    -rjk

    I believe UD negotiated with Classic to get those players in their
    sets. 
    
    John

       Front Row also had Johnson and Mutumbo last year.
                               Denny

    anyone know what # O'Neil will wear for the Magic??
    
    -jb

    
    Any number he wants to ... ?  8^)

    anyone with SCD seen decent prices on pre-orders for Topps Stadium Club
    Basketball??  I missed out on the Roy case...
    
    -jb

    Saw a box in these in Albany.  Same type as the others... Series 1...
    Saint, is Roy ordering series 2?
    

    Walt, he hasn't mentioned series II yet. I guess we should be getting
    ours pretty soon then.  Anyone notice the price on Stadium Club cards
    getting really cheap lately ? Seems like you can pick up boxes of the
    Football and Hockey already in the 32-35$ range.
    
    John

    I went to the show in Albany, and there might have been 1 case at the
    show.  I heard rumors that UD hoops was coming soon too, but didn't
    see anything there.   TSC was series 1, had an orange box (instead
    of hockey - blue, football - green...).  Magic and Bird were in there.
    Didn't see how many other stars, or if Jordan was for that matter. I'm
    guessing Series II will have the rookies.  The have either the TSC
    card or the 92-93 Topps cards on the back as "rookies" except for
    Magic, Bird, McHale, Laimbeer, etc... (not Fleer or Star for some
    reason ha ha...)  The have a Member's Choice subset as well...
    

    This note is for 1992-93 Stadium Club Basketball.
    Bought a box last night and got 2 sets out of it,I guess series I has
    200 cards.So far I like what I see. 
    
    John  M.
    

    I think this is a nice set too. Espcially the players who have rookie 
    cards other than 1992-93 Topps or Stadium, although there are only
    about 10 or so of these. The rest of the backs are either Stadium or
    this years Topps, I'm not sure how they determined which to of these
    to use? I can understand Topps not wanting to put a Fleer or Star card
    on the backs of their cards, but please don't call the 1992-93
    Isiah Thomas Stadium card his rookie card when he's been in the league
    for over 10 years. I think "first Topps card" would be more fitting
    than "rookie card". Also, its silly to print Moses Malones 2nd card
    (an NBA card) instead of his real rookie card (an ABA card), both
    are Topps, and the ABA is long gone, I can't understand why they
    wouldn't use it.
    
    The boxes are sealed which is nice, I know football and hockey were
    not sealed last year. The collation is good, I also got two sets, 
    although not as easy to sort as Ultra which had a lot of sequencing in
    packs; also, Ultra is numbered by teams, Stadium is not. I kind of like
    the ordering in Stadium, Magic is 32, Bird is 33, Jordan is #1.
    
    I could do without the Sporting News ratings on the backs, these seem
    pretty useless.
    
    Series II should be even better with Shaq, they also left out a few
    stars in series one (LJ, Dumars, to name a couple.)
    
    I think these cards compare favorably to Ultra and Upper Deck, I would
    be hard pressed to pick a favorite of the three, I really like them
    all. Ultra and Upper Deck both have inserts, so they might outsell
    Stadium in the short term, but long term, the Stadium might hold
    their value better since people won't be breaking them down to get 
    inserts. Time will tell. 
    
    I think Upper Deck has a big series I win with the 1A Shaq card, Stadium 
    and Ultra might have been wise to include a similar offer. But, maybe that
    will bolster their series II, and hurt Upper Deck later. Upper Deck
    will probably have another Shaq in series II (at least one more), but
    I think only his series I 1A card will be considered his upper deck
    rookie.
    
    -dennis
    

    I guess the cards are out at various players.
    
    Opened a couple of packs.  Did get a Shaq in the 4th pack (sorry Jeff).
    
    How did they determine which rookies got the "92 Draft pick" stamp?
    It seems to me guys like Laettner and Maxey were picks, but they didn't
    have the stamp.
    
    Who gave Larry Johnson those shorts?
    

    
    It's ok Walt, I have some solace in the fact that you didn't pull
    a Shaq Beam Team in your first pack purchase.  Probably next time
    you by a few packs...
    

    Well, Jeff Boone did get these for me, so my record may still be in
    tact.  Out of the 11 packs he got for me, I did get 2 regular Shaq
    cards.
    

    Went to a show in Chelmsford last night.  Tables were charging $4/pack
    for these...
    

    I went to a small show this morning, about 12 dealers. 7 of the dealers
    had Stadium Club Basketball  asking  80$ +. Each of them had at least 5
    boxes if not more.  One dealer had sets at 50$. Told him I'd wait since
    the price will come down.  I was  waiting  for  the old "they're really
    scarce" line,  but he agreed boxes  will  come way down probably in the
    40-50$ range. I told him I thought  that  would  happen when Upper Deck
    Basketball came out.
    
    John
    

    I don't think Topps was too careful with the details on this
    set. As Walt said, some have the "Draft" stamp, and some don't,
    it almost seems like they did it for the players that they had
    heard of... 
    
    I think there are only two more players with real rookie cards
    on the back, Tree Rollins and James Edwards. Both players rookie
    cards are from the 80-81 3 panel set (ala Magic/Bird). In series
    one, Topps printed the full rookie card on the back, so the
    panel contains the player as well as two other players. For series
    II, they blotch out the other two players on the panel, really ugly!
    
    I noticed a couple players with different pictures on the back since
    they already been traded (Rumeal, Rambis).
    
    Also, where's Dumas!? I can't believe they left him out. Surely,
    he'll be in Upper Deck. Does any other set (hoops, skybox) have a Dumas 
    card yet? Maybe they'll do a final update like they did for football to get
    him and JJ and anyone else they missed...
    
    Overall, the cards are nice, great photography, and nice design.
    I just wish they had spent more time on quality control...
    
    -dennis

    Anyone else hear rumors about tons of the Beam Team sets being released
    to the dealers ?
    
    John

    
    Only when I saw Mike K.'s for sale note... ;-)