Basketball card collecting or investing sometimes starts at the bottom. The dollar box. The prospects. We scout, we dig, we negotiate, and we dream – we hope we will find the next Giannis, Joker, or Maxey. HoopsandCards.com talks about the 4G’s – players or cards can fall into one of these four categories: Guesses, Goods, Greats, and GOATS! With one week down in the 2023-24 NBA season, we unveil our very first edition of “GUESSWORK” – a list of prospects or young players who would make a great sports card guess or cheap investment at this moment in time. And today is clearly Duren’s Day. JALEN ..read more

Like most of us, I woke up to the news of Philly’s not-so-shocking blockbuster deal, moving James Harden and his beard to the Los Angeles Clippers. Here are the basics – the Clippers get James Harden, PJ Tucker, and Filip Petrusev (who?) while the 76ers get Nic Batum, Marcus Morris, Kenyon Martin Jr, Robert Covington, a 2028 unprotected 1st rounder, a 2029 pick swap, and another 1st we will learn more about later. While NBA and sports websites weigh in on how this trade affects both teams and their playoff hopes, the “Hobby” or Sports Card fanatics weigh this deal’s impact on cardboard values ..read more

Prospecting. Projecting. Forecasting. Like penny stocks for the investor, there are NBA “futures” – players who aren’t well known right now, but they have flashed hints of greatness and have the potential to become impact players. These are the sleeper picks, the fliers, and the fantasy basketball “late round steals,” and their Basketball card markets act very much the same. If you’re collecting and investing on a smaller budget, these are some of the “less famous” Rated Rookies and young players you might find in the dollar box this weekend. Or the fifty-cent box. Hey, you have to start somew ..read more

Legacy players. Hall of Famers. Ring Chasers. Perennial All-Stars. Kawhi Leonard. Chris Paul. James Harden. Joel Embiid. Damian Lillard. Amazing players like these "already-greats" will try to add to their resumes and legacies this season. Some of them will see their card values soar if there's a chance that a championship banner is in sight. Welcome to Milwaukee, Mr. Lillard. For Basketball Card peeps like me and you, we know who the most treasured GOATS of the Hobby already are. Jordan, Lebron, Magic, Bird, Kobe, um.. uh.. - it's easy to start running out of names and getting into argumen ..read more

With so many players, brands, and styles of sports cards, it helps when you have a common language when building your collection. Here at HoopsandCards.com, we’ve invented the “4G” categories to at least attempt to diversify, strategize, and describe which players we might target for a card collector or investor. It’s simple, memorable, attainable, reasonable, and time-sensitive – like SMART goals, Marcus! Here are the G’s: Guesses, Goods, Greats, and GOATS. Guesses – players we have no idea what kind of career they’ll have, but we are willing to prospect them, spend a few bucks on a cheap RPA ..read more

It didn’t take long for the Celtics to chase down a potential playoff “Dame-killer” in landing Jrue Holiday. Boston paid a hefty price, but make no mistake about this deal – Jrue Holiday is well worth it. As much as I love Milwaukee and the move to get Damian Lillard that shocked the entire Basketball world, I think this pickup puts Boston’s starting lineup right there with Milwaukee, and perhaps even better! What does Jrue Holiday do for this team? For their Basketball cards? For the NBA in general? More than you know. On the court, Jrue adds one more defensive stopper who can also run the Bo ..read more

Finally, some answers to the huge summer questions in the NBA. The past seven days in the NBA have shifted the NBA playoff landscape ever so slightly, even with the big names trading places. What's the fallout, the consequences, the "ramifications" of Dame and Jrue's adventure? I think Milwaukee and Boston are the favorites to win the East, just as they were one week ago. I think Giannis' status as a GOAT and Jayson's potential to add a chip remain the same. For card values, I wouldn't forecast a jump in prices or demand for any of the players that switched teams until perhaps mid-May, whe ..read more

Yesterday, at our local card show, a lot of dealers had moved basketball cards to the corner. It's almost September, and that means the NFL takes center stage, and every single table had hits from the usual suspects - Burrow, Lawrence, Hurts, Fields, Herbert, Brady, Pickett, Mahomes and Purdy. They were everywhere. I went from table to table, showcase to showcase, looking for anything uniquely Basketball that might jump out at me. Like many sports card collectors, the past few years have forced us to focus on cards that have a "standout" quality like an on-card autograph, a short-print, a "ge ..read more

For the love of Basketball cards! Today's episode takes on the incredible NBA playoff action and what it could mean for Basketball Card players, collectors, and investors. Gary, our host, looks at some of the challenges and tendencies of buying cards during big moments in April or May. Some players (think Jokic or Embiid) could be adding a chip to their fast-growing legends. Others (think Fox, Maxey, or Brunson) are emerging as super-scorers for teams on the rise. We talk about the timing of buying and selling these players over the next 2-4 weeks. This episode also explains how the NBA Pla ..read more

For the love of Basketball cards! Today's episode takes on the incredible NBA playoff action and what it could mean for Basketball Card players, collectors, and investors. Gary, our host, looks at some of the challenges and tendencies of buying cards during big moments in April or May. Some players (think Jokic or Embiid) could be adding a chip to their fast-growing legends. Others (think Fox, Maxey, or Brunson) are emerging as super-scorers for teams on the rise. We talk about the timing of buying and selling these players over the next 2-4 weeks. This episode also explains how the NBA Pla ..read more