2007-2008 Topps Basketball

I had to go to the DMV today to renew my license, so I thought I'd swing by the card shop and pick up a couple of packs to recover from such a harrowing experience. Actually I was in and out in less than a half hour, I guess the Governor has done at least one thing right during his term. I got there and found out Topps Series 3 has been pushed back, lord knows when Bowman Heritage is coming out, and there's nothing new in there I haven't seen before. I thought about getting a pack of the Upper Deck SP with the old design rookies, but I wasn't in the mood for a pack that costs over 5 bucks. I'm pissed off at football over the whole Michael Vick Chrome thing, so that was out. Topps Basketball was new and it was cheap, my favorite combination.


42 Cliff Lee
48 Shaun Livingston
99 Deron Williams
41 Dirk Nowitzki38 Andrea Bargnani
GN15 Marvin Williams Generation Now
133 Wilson Chandler
124 Al Thornton '58 Variation
132 Jared Dudley '58 Variation

When I opened it, I knew this pack had to be posted just for the obvious "No, Isiah! Bad touch!" joke on the David Lee card. It's not a terrible pack, there's a few rookies, Dirk Nowitzki, last year's #1 pick Bargnani, and an insert card of Marvin Williams. I especially like the 57-58 'variation cards'. I'm a sucker for retro cards and these look pretty retro. Torii Hunter makes the same face as Al Thornton and he's card of the decade. It's just another card in this set.

This is a really strange set, with lots of pros and cons. Bad: Topps recycled the baseball design for this set which is disappointing. Topps Basketball usually got its own design, and frankly while I like the black border, I'm getting a little tired of it. Good: The 57-58 retro cards are easy to find as I got two in this pack. They are kind of cheesy but I like them. Bad: Generation Now inserts are also recycled from the baseball set. Not Bad: according the the checklist I downloaded it's just one per player and not a countdown of the players' traveling violations or failed drug tests or whatever. The design is still hideous, but at least it's more interesting with the factoid on the front. Good: Bill Russell cards are apparently in the mix somewhere, although I didn't get one. Bad: Topps gypped us again by cutting the cards to 9 per pack. Not Bad: the set is only 185 cards so it's not that difficult to get without really trying. 135 if you don't care about the variations. Or conversely, only 50 if you don't care about the base cards. I haven't really collected basketball cards seriously since Dominique was traded, but this isn't that bad as something to tide me over until Updates & Highlights.