Interesting cards about from @sanjosefuji including my NBA and MLB teams.
The Chronicles of Fuji brought the strangeness recently! A bubble mailer I received from Fuji back in June included a bunch of unique cards, primarily from my top two favorite pro sports teams. Instead of featuring the usual crop of current team dudes, these cards went way back into the all-time team rosters for some fun (and strange) cards.
Ha Seung-Jin came from an era where his status as a huge basketball man was enough to get him drafted, but he always looked completely out of sorts while on the court. I've looked him up occasionally over the years to see if he ended up having a big career overseas, but there isn't a whole lot of data other than that he was a participant for a lengthy time.
Ah yes, Greg Oden. He certainly qualifies as strange. This is a good looking wood paneled style card, numbered to 50.
Martell Webster is one of several Northwest basketball players who ended up starting a career in hip hop, either as a side gig or a post-playing career thing.
From the other team, Fuji sent stuff from several different years, including a couple of 2004 Topps Total card. This is a classic shot of a first year pro player just waiting for his turn to do something.
Even with the power of the internet at my disposal, I couldn't figure out what this card was at all. It's almost paper thing and lots of info on the back, but the front looks like it was spit out of an '80s dot matrix printer.
It's a super early Yadi card! This is really cool. This is actually a "gold edition" version of his regular Just Minors card. I don't know a whole lot about Just, but they certainly made some weird cards over the years.
The most exciting card of the bunch by far was this Jose DeLeon, my first 1991 Topps Desert Shield card! I've been reading about this gold foil stamped set for nearly thirty years now, but never owned (or even touched) a single copy of something from this set until now. I've gone so far as to have a card or two in my shopping cart at certain websites before, but never quite could pull the trigger.
That Oden is cool!
ReplyDeleteI actually pulled that Oden out of my personal collection a few months ago, while looking for Jordans and Kobes. I must have added it back in the late 2000's when he was a big name. Oh well... win some, lose some.
ReplyDeleteWe call it "junk wax" but there is a reason why it was so popular. Among all those fancy modern cards a '91 Topps is still the favorite.
ReplyDeleteFew players have ever looked as awkward on a basketball court as Ha Seung-Jin did! Oh, and that Desert Shield truly is top notch. I still haven't ever seen one of those in person either, but do hope to someday.
ReplyDelete