Another one bites the dust

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was celebrating the completion of my 1973-74 Topps basketball set, well, it's time to celebrate another completed set, this time it's of the 1976-77 Topps basketball variety.

Heading into the COMC Black Friday sale, I was three cards away from completing the set, two of which I was able to get during the sale (an badly needed upgrade was gotten as well), and the final card was... well, you'll find out about that a little further down. For now, I just want to get to the cards:

In case you've forgotten, Rich is here to remind you just how cool the old ABA red, white, and blue balls (no jokes please) were... and still are.

Having had six (I'm not counting the '69-70 season) very successful seasons in the ABA, it's a bit of a mystery to me as to why Rich only ended up playing for one year in the NBA following the merger of the two leagues in 1976. Since that particular info hasn't been, and still isn't, available online, I'm thinking that the only way to find out about his "one and done" in the NBA... will simply be to write to him and ask.

This is a great in-game shot featuring Phil getting off his patented "zenhook" over the great Wes Unseld.

You might be surprised (sarcasm) to learn that, to date, Phil Jackson is still the only NBA player to have been born in Deer Lodge, MT. This card had been eluding me for quite some time  now, so it was very nice to finally be able to cross it off the checklist.

This was a badly needed upgrade, as my other one looks like someone had spilled coffee on it at some point in time. As you can see in the scan, this card came with a wax stain, said stain has since been removed.

Unfortunately, Gail no longer holds the Lakers consecutive free throws made record, that honor belongs to Kobe Bryant (boooo!), with 62.

After being left just one card away from completing the set, I decided that I wasn't going to wait any longer for a cheap copy to be added to the site, so I turned to eBay. After a few short weeks, I was able to plunk down a virtual five spot and officially wrap this one up!

Hondo is shown guarding Dave Bing, one season later they would be playing together after Dave joined the Celtics. That next year would also be the last for the two of them, as both of the future hall of famers would retire after the 1977-78 season.

The card does have a wax stain on the back, but that doesn't really bother me, as I'm just happy to have finally completed the set. I would still like to upgrade two cards (Sam Lacey and Charlie Scott) at some point, but for now, I'm content just basking in the glow of this most recent accomplishment.


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McAdone

It's hard to believe that it's almost the middle of January, and I'm just now starting in on all of the cards that had been accumulating in my COMC account throughout last year.

With 200+ cards to choose from, I think I'll start off with the card that I consider to be the most important (to my collection) of the bunch:

You are looking at a 1973-74 Topps Bob McAdoo rookie, and now with this card in hand, my 1973-74 Topps basketball set is COMPLETE! It's kind of exciting for a few different reasons, the biggest of which, is that for the moment, it's the oldest set that I have actually completed.

As a quick aside, even though it's somewhat plain in design, I absolutely love the look of the old Buffalo's Braves home jersey's.

This has been the only card that I've needed to complete the set for over a year now. I have bid on, and subsequently lost out on this card so many times on eBay it's not even funny. While Bob is a former MVP, and an owner of multiple championship rings, as well as a HOF'er, his rookie still doesn't go for much -- one could even say that it's been undervalued -- knowing this, and knowing how frequently they come up on eBay, I never bid too much, figuring that if I didn't get it... there would always be more.

At least that's how it had been up until a couple of months ago. It seemed like almost overnight that they stopped coming as frequently, and when they did, the condition of them was going down, but the prices were starting to go up a little more. After losing out on a few more, I decided to start looking elsewhere, which is where COMC comes in.

Normally there aren't a lot of copies to choose from on the site, but in between the Autumn Sale and the Black Friday sale, a couple were added to the site. Since I really wanted this set to be done, I didn't waste any time and made an offer on the nicest looking example -- which was accepted -- so, for a little over $6, I was finally able to put this set to bed. One set down, and way too many to go!


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.