Welcome to Cataloged Clutter, where we spend time with basketball cards that are often overlooked! It’s not uncommon to have an insert set of draft picks. This Kevin Garnett comes from the 1995-96 Stadium Club Draft Picks insert set. For example, this same year, Skybox had a 13-card Lottery Picks set, Hoops had an All-Rookie insert set… But for this Stadium Club insert set, we need to talk about the numbering. Topps picked 15 players for this set, but they are not the first 15 players in the draft. The #1 pick, Joe Smith, is not included in the set. Sadly, Damon Stoudamire isn’t included. But #19 Randolph Childress and #22 George Zidek are included. So 15 players selected, but not the first 15… Then, the only thing that could be considered a card number is, on the back, their location in the draft. This Kevin Garnett, for example, says “5th Overall,” his place in the draft. So technically, these are not card numbers…basically, we have fifteen unnumbered cards that happen to say a player’s position in the draft. You can imagine a collector back then continuously thinking, “Am I missing some of these cards?” Because of this, it is interesting to see how different resources handle this fact. You obviously want to number them for checklists and price guides somehow!
Trading Card Database makes a statement saying that cards #1, #7 and the others that don’t appear “do not exist.” That seems as accurate a statement as you can make. Beckett, and the Standard Catalog of Basketball Cards calls this set “skip-numbered.” Accurate enough… Others point out that the players who were skipped are “missing cards.” But that implies human error usually, where this is skipping on purpose, so referring to it as “skip numbered” is a little better. That’s enough about the numbering or lack thereof…it’s just important to be aware that these fifteen cards do not cover the first fifteen selections.
These were found in Series I packs and, since this year Topps sold their Members Only sets in different series that included insert cards, you’ll find the Members Only version of this card in the Series I factory set.
This is not the first “high school-to-pro” rookie card we’ve looked at that has this problem. In the statistics section, Topps changed the word “Collegiate” to “High School” but all the stats are “NA.” It seems like a poor use of space since the statistics aren’t included, but I understand the difficulty of changing the template for one card. There is a nice piece of information here where this card does mention 20-year gap for high school to NBA (Darryl Dawkins and Bill Willoughby in 1975 Draft).
Finally, good luck getting a PSA 10. The full bleed design, and so much black on the front, makes every detail very exposed and even the smallest of flaws can’t be ignored. Very nice Kevin Garnett card, especially for fans of non-playing draft photos. Suit cards… Remember that ’90-91 Hoops Gary Payton with the Supersonics telephone?
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