These past few days, I’ve returned to basketball card collecting. Last year, I dove into collecting Disney Lorcana cards because—well, let me take you down memory lane.
Back in high school, I used to play Magic: The Gathering. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the richest teen back then. I could only afford weenie decks, and from Fallen Empires to Mirage, I tried to win with my faerie-minotaur deck, usually with dismal results.
Fast forward 20 or so years later, around 2014 to 2018, I realized how much I missed out on the investment side of it. Seeing how expensive Black Lotus had become really drove that point home. Then, during the pandemic, I sold my Giannis Antetokounmpo NBA Panini Hoops rookie auto card. I bought it by chance, and I was shocked to see how a random pull from a 700-peso pack surged to 25,000 pesos in value.
After that, I tried to replicate the find. I was one of those goofballs who jumped back into basketball card collecting. However, since cards were so expensive, I could only afford retail boxes and base cards from eBay and COMC. After the pandemic, I decided to quit the hobby again and shifted my focus to Lorcana.
Currently, I have five Enchanted cards, highlighted by an Elsa card worth at least $800 on TCGplayer. I also have a collection of unopened boxes, with two First Chapter booster packs as my prized pieces. I tried learning how to play Lorcana, but I just don’t have the time or energy to invest in it. I’m 43 now, and after six sets, I stopped collecting, especially since sets four to six didn’t seem as sought-after.
When I first started collecting in 1995, I had the option to go after Kevin Garnett, Jerry Stackhouse, and Damon Stoudemire cards. Others were into Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, Jason Kidd, and Grant Hill. By the time I got into Magic: The Gathering, the 1996 NBA draft class had blown up with Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, and Ray Allen leading the way.
I never really understood the hype around Kobe Bryant cards back then—he averaged under eight points during his rookie season. But after Kobe’s tragic passing and the money I got from the Giannis card, I decided to invest again.
The results?
Not as hot.
But then 2025 happened. It’s been both a good and bad year for basketball card collecting. It’s hard to invest in rookies. Zacharie Risacher and Alex Sarr aren’t exactly Anthony Bennett or Hasheem Thabeet, but they also debuted during a major shift, with Topps about to take the NBA license from Panini. Almost as if Panini wants to go out with a bang and prevent Topps from releasing mediocre sets, they’ve been loading up their retail products.
It started with the 2023-24 Panini Hoops Premium Stock and 2023-24 Panini Phoenix. Both retail sets had an impressive number of parallels and numbered cards. Then came the 2024-25 Panini Hoops hobby blaster box, which was almost the same price as its retail counterpart. I bought two boxes on a whim and pulled a numbered Sarr, along with a decent haul of rookies.
The rookies this season aren’t great, but then again, I pulled a Giannis rookie auto from a fat pack during a draft class topped by Anthony Bennett, with Victor Oladipo, Nerlens Noel, Ben McLemore, and Michael Carter-Williams as the main chases.
Aside from Panini Prizm and watching YouTube card collectors, I felt the urge to buy whatever boxes I could find on Shopee, Amazon, Facebook Marketplace, and COMC, intending to trade or sell the hits. I don’t plan on keeping the rookies, though I’m keeping an eye on Stephon Castle, Matas Buzelis, and Zach Edey.
That said, I’m still collecting. I recently bought all the affordable Victor Wembanyama base cards on COMC. I’m also eyeing more 2023-24 Panini Premium Stock and Panini Phoenix boxes, both for the hits and because Phoenix has a solid lineup of NBA legends.
Yes, collectors gamble on rookies, but I’ll always collect the ‘90s stars. During the pandemic, I stacked up on cards of Michael Jordan, Anfernee Hardaway, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Hakeem Olajuwon, Scottie Pippen, Reggie Miller, Dennis Rodman, Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, Gary Payton, and Kobe Bryant, with every intention of keeping them.
In the current NBA landscape, I’m also collecting LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, and Nikola Vucevic. I know Vooch is an odd pick, but aside from the fact that his cards don’t burn a hole in my wallet, he’s been my Fantasy League MVP.
Also on a personal note, I'm happy my son is also a collector. While he keeps all his die-cast cars and plushies on the floor—much to my chagrin—it's something that keeps us connected. At one point, he gave me a bunch of cards from his school bus-mate. While I'm not a fan of the players, and I had to tell him he needs to buy sleeves and toploaders to keep the cards in mint condition, it’s still awesome that we share this connection.
I’m thinking of restarting my YouTube channel to get more out of this hobby. I’ve been a bit lazy lately, but I feel like I need to sell some of my Funko Pops, which are just gathering dust. It’s crazy how my room is filled with toys now, considering that when I was a kid, all I had were WWF action figures.
Maybe that’s the charm of card collecting. No matter how many times I step away, I always find myself coming back, hoping for that one big pull that changes everything. That thrill of opening a pack and discovering a card worth a fortune—it’s a feeling I’ll always chase. And who knows? Maybe the next pack I open will be the one that does it.