Collecting the "Unknown"

Upon reading all the threads around here about who collects who and so on, it got me thinking...
Who secretly (or not) collects an "obscure" player?

My main PC is ZO but along the way, somehow i have ended up with a few Luke Walton GU's, Auto's & #'ds ... is he worth keeping? LOL

I would like to know if anyone else collects an "un-named" player?

@Reignman40 may be the guy to give you a story for a "lesser player" PC

Yeah cheers for that tag @nichj99

Yeah bud, I am a collector of an obscure player. There are others that do so as well around, but you usually find there is some connection there. Usually it will relate to a team that the collector follows or even if you enter a break and nab a few nice cards of a player, then you might PC, or even side PC that player.

My story (which has been told many a time) is a little different to the above scenarios, but will give you an insight into how it came about.

My first ever PC, during the 90's, was Shawn Kemp. I then before the days of internet trading and buying took off, had all the cards that I could afford of him so I started a side PC (which is now as big as my Kemp one) of Gary Payton, as they were Sonics teammates. After a while I chose the then slam dunk Brent Barry as another side PC.

I came back to collecting full on around the 2012-13 season and after meeting a few people (mainly nichj99 who was starting his Faried PC around the same time) I decided I wanted to collect a rookie from that year also, mainly as my PC players were long since retired (not knowing Panini filled their products with them anyways). As Gary Payton and Brent Barry attended the same college, Oregon State University, I decided to look and see if anyone was drafted from there of late. A late first round pick at #23 came up from OSU, Jared Cunningham.

From there, I started collecting him and about almost 2 years on I think, I have added some 100 plus cards to my PC of him. I like to think I have the biggest (and best) Cunningham collection going around. He has now journeyed around the NBA and the D League, spending time with 5 NBA teams, not getting much love at many of the spots. It has certainly been a lot of fun collecting him but I would like to list some positives and negatives in this strategy.

Positives
* Lesser know players you will usually find the nicer cards at lower prices due to their uncollectability so to speak.
* During their rookie campaigns, most will still get a lot of product out there. This works for some players not all.
* If you find a guy that no one else collects, you often find people will help you or let you know when that big card gets pulled.

Negatives
* Having a player from a big name team but a not big name player can mean that some sellers of cards from breaks will often try to recoup their break money buy selling the cards often higher than what they are worth. You really need to be patient.
* After their rookie campaign, should they struggle to find spots on a roster, the number of cards produced also gets smaller. In the case of Cunningham, in his second season, he had a total of 4 cards produced including a 1/1. In this his 3rd season, he had 2. Makes it easier to collect those cards as I can proudly say I own 75% of all his 2nd year and 100% of his 3rd year cards, but if you want to keep collecting the player into new sets, it makes it hard.

I do like your idea of Luke Walton. He is another of those guys with a story so always fun to collect. Another avenue you could try is a team and do autos and GU's of that team. I am currently looking at that with my beloved Seattle Sonics and getting some nice stuff from Panini right now.

Hope that helps!

It's always awesome to hear why people start collecting certain players.

I actually started collecting Zo because back in the early 90's my brothers and I started taking an interest in basketball and because i was taller than them all i was blocking them all over the place. I went out shopping and saw the Hornets Logo and fell in love with them. Who was their shotblocker??? ...... and the rest is history
I used to have such a large player collection but it just got too much as i got older and so i sold them all off except zo.
Like you later on i got back into it again.. i think it was about the time of the 03'04 Artifacts.. saw them and loved the designs and the fact every pack had a "hit".

I have been thinking about S. Napier from the Heat, since i am a big Heat fan ( since Zo went there ) and he wears my number #13 and i liked watching him play in the final 4 last year as he helped UConn win the NCAA national championship game.

Reignman40 said:

Yeah cheers for that tag @nichj99
Negatives
* Having a player from a big name team but a not big name player can mean that some sellers of cards from breaks will often try to recoup their break money buy selling the cards often higher than what they are worth. You really need to be patient.
* After their rookie campaign, should they struggle to find spots on a roster, the number of cards produced also gets smaller. In the case of Cunningham, in his second season, he had a total of 4 cards produced including a 1/1. In this his 3rd season, he had 2. Makes it easier to collect those cards as I can proudly say I own 75% of all his 2nd year and 100% of his 3rd year cards, but if you want to keep collecting the player into new sets, it makes it hard.

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Follow on from the negatives, if you do PC someone unknown, a lot of there stuff doesn't get listed online as people don't bother. For example most Lebron parallels, number or not, will be listed at some point, where as I've been wait for going on 4 years for the Aminu 10-11 donruss ruby die-cut numbered /25 to be listed online.

But the flip side is, when the low numbered cards are listed, ie /5, they only go for a few dollars

I have an an unknown in my pc. Going way back to 1995-96 .... the 27th overall pick by the Phoenix Suns .... one season wonder .... Mario Bennett! Okay, yes he played a few ten game contracts later, but he only has one season of cards.

Collecting the unknown is something that interests me as I am the type of collector that has to have every card of my chosen PC player. My main PC player is PG due to the fact he is my favourite player but I also collect Maurice Harkless who has become somewhat of an unknown player this year due to his lack of game time. I started collecting him as this was when I got back into collecting after my primary school collecting days of the mid 90's and it was all I could afford. He was a rookie on my favourite team.

I still collect Harkless cards here and there however I did sell off my better cards to fund my PG collection.

I'm of the opinion that I am not going to get any financial benefit from collecting cards. It is all for fun!

Reggie Evans is a Top 10 PF, so I have no idea what you guys are talking about!

ReggieEvansPC said:

Reggie Evans is a Top 10 PF, so I have no idea what you guys are talking about!

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But hobby-wise, he's an unknown.

I'm cautiously and slowly collecting a lesser-known player at the moment, Shabazz Muhammad. I ended up with a signature card of his and checked him out and liked his game. He looks like a full-on scorer, though he was ruled out for the end of the season with an injury. So I thought over the playoffs and off-season that i would pick up some of his rookie cards. Plus I needed a current player to collect aside from Steven Adams, with Spree, J Kidd and R Miller all retired.
Good luck with your Shabazz Napier collecting.

I collect Kyle O'Quinn, and in particular the Immaculate RPA's. One side effect I'm already starting to run into is the "previous sales" - picked up the first 5 really cheap then was willing to pay a few dollars more here and there just trying to get them then the buy it now or best offer price creeps up and the sellers have been saying "look at previous sales" and I'm like "they're all me!!" Lol
And he was getting no minutes!!

Suppose it could be worse!