I'll start with the sweeeeeeeet photos of a card that I thought did not exist in this set - and then tell the great story of how some very nice people in this hobby came together to get me this card
Well.......here she is!!!!
07-08 Ultimate Leadership Kevin Garnett GU auto /25
And this completes the KG miniset!
The only auto I am missing now is the Magic Johnson - anyone who finds one will be handsomely rewarded!!
Now to the good story...
I had some help a few months ago from kiwi Al ("ljandkg" - more commonly known as the KG #21 card supercollector and leading 'Anti-Hearts it' campaigner LOL) when he helped to track down the Jabbar auto from this set for me. I asked him about the KG auto (see photos above ) and being a KG expert told me that he had never seen the KG Leadership auto EVER. I had also never seen it, so figured that it was the one auto from the 20 in the set that was never made.
So you can imagine my surprise when about 4 weeks ago I received a PM from Al containing a link to a KG collection with the elusive KG auto!!
It appeared that the collector was from Hungary, so I racked my brain as to how I could contact the owner of this card, as the web page was in Hungarian. I remembered earlier this year I had bought 4 cards on eBay from a guy in Hungary, so I messaged him through eBay and sent him the link and asked him if he could help me. As it turned out the link was to a NBA card collecting forum in Hungary, and this eBay guy (Gabe) was also a member of the same forum! So given the owner of this card was a KG collector and clearly would need a little extra to part with it I proposed an offer I knew he couldn't refuse and also offered Gabe $50 if he can get the deal done for me.
Well, 3 days later Gabe emailed me to say the guy had accepted my offer, 8 days after that he met the guy in person in Budapest to do the deal, and 9 days later here is the card in my possession!!!
So huge thanks to Al for finding me the card, and massive kudos to Gabe my new Hungarian friend who could easily have taken the money and ran but did me a huge favour.....and for that I am massively thankful.
There has been a lot of talk recently about scammers in this hobby and people being taken advantage of - hopefully people also remember that there are also many people in this hobby who do great things to help out their fellow collectors, and this is a fine example.
Thanks for those who read this thread through beyond the photos - see you soon with some more A-Trains!!
awesome to hear a good luck ebay storey after all the crappy ones floating around here. Great to see another mini set completed and good luck hunting down magic would be sweet to see this finished
Great card and great story, and great miniset of cards. That sounds a bit like Tony The Tiger.
You could also be saying something Hannibal Smith said, "I love it when a plan comes together". That was a great effort by many people. It was NBA card collecting meets the high stakes game of world diplomacy and international intrigue, and it was a success.
wow that is awesome work , there sure is some nice people around im just surprised that werent from this site , so many nice people around willing to help .
Sensational pickup mate!!! That what the hobby is all about, people helping each other all over the world!! It's just sad that there is so many scammers around these days, and a place like Ebay that can be vital to the hobby basically helps these scumbags get away with it! Love hearing the good stories!
thats an awesome story man ... beautiful cards too ... funny how It works out sometimes. can either be a real struggle and nothing will happen, or everything can work out In your favor. Totally worth It for the KG's !