2024 Basketball Card Rankings-Palooza!
The NBA season is in full swing, and we want to give shout-outs to some awesome rookie cards -- both present and past!
Each “Happy Hobby Sports Card Newsletter” pack has a handful of great sports card subjects, helping sports card collectors working with limited budgets – like me!
This Week’s Newsletter Highlights!
🏀 2024 BASKETBALL CARDS RANKINGS-PALOOZA!
🏈 ⚾ 🏀 SPORTS CARD TRIVIA!
🏈 ⚾ 🏀 IF PATRICK IMHOFF BECAME CEO OF FANATICS
🏀 CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY
As a member of the eBay Partner Network and an Amazon Associate I earn commissions from qualifying purchases. Here’s a link to my Amazon storefront where I link to all my favorite card-collecting supplies. Thank you for supporting our affiliations by making purchases through us! Also, all sports card images come courtesy of BuySportsCards.com.
🏀 2024 BASKETBALL CARDS RANKINGS-PALOOZA!
A tradition we want to start at the beginning of each sports season is a kickoff/tipoff/faceoff/first pitch to really get collectors excited about the new season! We did our football card- and hockey card-Paloozas a few weeks ago, and now it’s time for Roundball, with sharp corners!
🏀 Top 8 NBA Rookie Cards From 2023
Panini Prizm Basketball Rookie Cards used as their flagship rookie card.
Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs
Brandon Miller, Charlotte Hornets
Keyonte George, Utah Jazz
Scoot Henderson, Portland Trail Blazers
Amen Thompson, Houston Rockets
Jaime Jaquez, Jr., Miami Heat
Brandin Podziemski, Golden State Warriors
Bilal Coulibaly, Washington Wizards
🏀 Top 10 NBA Rookie Cards From the Past 10 Seasons
Panini Prizm Basketball Rookie Cards used as their flagship rookie card.
Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks - 2018
Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets - 2015
Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs - 2023
Jayson Tatum, Boston Celtics - 2017
Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves - 2020
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, L.A. Clippers - 2018
Ja Morant, Memphis Grizzlies - 2019
Donovan Mitchell, Utah Jazz – 2017
Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns - 2015
Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers - 2014
Just Missed:
Zion Williamson, New Orleans Pelicans - 2019
Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics – 2016
Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers - 2020
Paolo Banchero, Orlando Magic – 2022
Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks - 2018
LaMelo Ball, Charlotte Hornets - 2020
Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder - 2022
Tyrese Haliburton, Sacramento Kings – 2020
🏀 Top 5 NBA Basketball Flagship Card Designs Ever
Look, this is just flagship series, from Topps to Fleer to Upper Deck to Prizm – don’t start yelling at me because I didn’t pick a “Finest” set, or something from Immaculate. This is just base card designs from flagship sets!
1972 Topps Basketball: It might be my favorite design of all Topps cards. Ever. The angles, the colors, the fonts.
1986 Fleer Basketball: While the checklist basically makes it a Hall-of-Fame card set, the design itself is pretty beautiful, too. I’ve seen reprints or throwback cards of this, and they’re still awesome.
1991 Upper Deck: Their first entry into the NBA market, Upper Deck slam dunks it with a sweet hardcourt design!
1990 Fleer Basketball: It’s simple. It’s one of the last card designs with white borders. The three-point line at the bottom just screams NBA.
1992 Topps Basketball: Another white-bordered set, for some reason, this design looks fantastic for basketball, but it looks dumb for baseball and football.
Just Missed:
1978 Topps Basketball; 1988 Fleer Basketball
🏀 Top 10 NBA Rookie Cards From 2024 We’re Most Excited About
Reed Sheppard, Houston Rockets
Zaccharie Risacher, Atlanta Hawks
Zach Edey, Memphis Grizzlies
Donovan Clingan, Trail Blazers
Stephen Castle, San Antonio Spurs
Dalton Knecht, L.A. Lakers
Alexander Sarr, Washington Wizards
Rob Dillingham, Minnesota Timberwolves
Bub Carrington, Washington Wizards
Nikola Topic, Oklahoma City Thunder
🏀 Top 5 Most Collectable NBA Teams Ever
Los Angeles Lakers: Too many different sets of dynasties for anyone to even come close.
Boston Celtics: I know you want to be first. I know.
San Antonio Spurs: The three big men are the headliners, but they’ve had a ton of other great players come through this Central Texas city.
Philadelphia 76ers: From Wilt, to Dr. J, to Moses, to Barkley, to Iverson, to Embiid, to Maxey, the Sixers have every generation covered.
Chicago Bulls: Gotta have the GOAT’s team in here somewhere. It’s not because of Luc Longley.
Let us know in the comments if you think differently on any of the above rankings! We want to hear it!
⚾ BASEBALL CARD TRIVIA!
Send me the answer to this question – you could win this free card from me!
1971 Topps Al Kaline!
Jacob Bowman would go on to create Bowman baseball cards, but what was the first famous set of baseball cards (including the year) he manufactured?
Email your answer to gonoscards@gmail.com!
Last week’s question: What was the first set of baseball cards to use color photographs? – You have until midnight, Nov. 8, to answer this question for a chance to win a 1970 Topps Jim Palmer card!
🏈 ⚾ 🏀IF PATRICK IMHOFF BECAME CEO OF FANATICS: #16 of 23
Imhoff breaks down all the moves Fanatics should make, just two years away from when they unify the baseball, football and basketball card licenses in 2026. He shared his first move in our June 20 newsletter, and he’ll continue to share more of these going forward.
No. 16 – BREAKERS
I would need some research on this, so I am hesitant to list any rash decisions here. Our economy supports the ability to buy and resell at the price consumers are willing to pay. That said, there may be a better way to distribute cards in the future. A set allocation between the Topps website, local cards shops, and retailers classified as breakers. Breaking can be fun and it is part of the hobby, but the last thing I want is breakers getting access to more products and outpricing the average collectors.
You can subscribe to Patrick Imhoff’s Substack Newsletter here, and get his Thrifty Thursday picks!
🏀 CARDS THAT MAKE US HAPPY: 1988-89 FLEER MICHAEL JORDAN ALL-STAR #120
I recently posted a video where I shared the Michael Jordan cards I owned, a humble lot, without any of his cards from Fleer’s first three years of creating his cards. But the video was posted as a celebration of Jordan’s very first NBA game, which came 40 years ago, on Oct. 26, 1984, against the Baltimore Bullets.
By the time this 1988 Fleer All-Star card was produced, Jordan had already cemented himself as one of the best in the game, just behind league superstars Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, due to the absence of championship rings.
In 1988, though, five seasons into Jordan’s career, the NBA held their fifth Slam Dunk Contest (after reviving it from its ABA days). Jordan had won this contest the previous year, and he would end up facing the 1985 champ (Dominique Wilkins) in the ’88 Slam Dunk Contest.
The 1988 NBA Slam Dunk Contest was held – in Chicago, which pretty much set up Wilkins for failure. But Jordan’s third dunk, a flush from the free-throw line, sealed the win for His Airness. (There is quite a bit of controversy about Wilkins’ second-round score being too low because of the “home cooking.”
This majestic All-Star card of Jordan, flying high above the court in the Windy City, is one of the most recognizable of Jordan’s card catalog.
Coming Next Week!
🏈 ⚾ 13 CARD GRADING SECRETS ONLY VETS KNOW!
⚾ SPORTS CARD TRIVIA!
🏈 ⚾ 🏀 IF PATRICK IMHOFF BECAME CEO OF FANATICS!
🏈 ⚾ 🏀 REMEMBERING THE BEST ROOKIE CARDS FROM 1981 IN EACH SPORT!
🏀 NEW HAPPY HOBBY ZOO MEMBER
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Podcast Music: "I dunno" by grapes - 2008 - Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (3.0)
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Great read. Love the idea of getting us into the season that just began with all the NBA lists!
I’m with you on ‘72 basketball possibly being the best all time Topps design. I really like your other 4 selections as well, although ‘88 Fleer would probably edge out ‘90 Fleer on my list. And great point about the ‘92 Topps design just looking great with basketball, but not so much with others.
Have a lot of affinity for that sweet ‘88 Jordan AS. After a neighborhood kid claimed my ‘87 Jordan, a well loved copy of the ‘88 Jordan remained my prized basketball card for most of the remainder of my card collecting youth. Well done, as always. Thanks!
Well this was excellent i read it twice and now I’m going to have to find my favorite designs. This rookie class i think will provide at least 1 guy who becomes valuable in the hobby but just so much unknown following what looks to be a great class from 2023.