Collecting This 'n' That

Early 90's basketball that is. Most sports card collectors that have bought collections or random bulk boxes without a doubt have some early Skybox, Hoops, Ultra, etc. basketball cards. Are you a collector of these or do they languish in boxes in the closet, garage, or basement. I hope no one stores their cards in the attic. This post is certainly not meant to offend basketball card collectors - cause that's not what we do here. And I mean no disrespect to the cards themselves. Look at the first Skybox set from 90-91. Beautiful cards, but as someone recently wrote, "about as common as a blade of grass". I recently ended up with a day to myself, and the weather was crap, so I grabbed a four-row box of what I knew was basketball cards and dug in. I was hoping to finish a couple of long-lingering sets from the era, and maybe find a few gems.   It turns out that this was a decent box. The empty space shows how many cards were "keepers".  The bottom three finish ...

While researching some 1920's Spanish soccer sets I ended up on  todocoleccion  and wow! There are so many obscure sets not catalogued in North America. If you have some time, take a look to see what's out there.  Similar to my foray in France I didn't find samples of the sets I was seeking out at a price point I was willing to pay. I didn't want to come home empty handed though. Tiny cards at 1 1/4" x 1 11/16". 1928-29 series of soccer cards. Pictured  José María Peña A lot more research is needed on this set(s).  ________________________________________________________ Now for something different, A nice XII cromo set, that I reckon tells the story to match the images though I haven't tried to translate it yet. These are 2 5/8" x 3 3/4" - Fractions in Roman numerals are confusing so we'll leave it like this. The seller didn't have a year listed but similar sets were issued late 20's into early 30's. More research.  Rather amazin...

Trading cards have always documented history, be it the World Series, World Cup, or World Wars. It's fascinating what one can find out there, from all corners of the world.  A recent discussion on Vintage Non-sports  here  and  here about a French company, Globo, using Bowman and Topps images and re-issuing their own sets in the 1950's such as 1950 Bowman Wild Man R701-18. Unauthorized, perhaps. We may never know.  Nonetheless, Globo was issuing their own sports cards back into the 30's, such as the rare 1937 Globo Chewing Gum Sports Champions Set, here . With my curiosity about Globo piqued, and after much clicking about I ended up on French sellers listing. The seller didn't have any of the non-sports sets I was looking for but I did pick up these. This 1936 or 1937 set chronicles the  1936  Tour de France.  Pretty cool stuff.  ____________________________________________ The seller also had a movie card lot from a French series ...