Before the digital world began making sports card price guides unnecessary, the 2001 Standard Catalog of Basketball Cards, part of the Sports Collectors Digest’s Standard Catalog series, gave basketball card collectors hope for a comprehensive reference book. In fact, this book is still highly recommended for collectors who focus on pre-2000 basketball cards.
Ambition: Many of the basketball card references sold in stores at the time listed sets from the major companies, and that was all. Not this book! More than 125,000 cards and over 900 sets in here! Finally, this catalog was a book with international and collegiate sections. Collectors could learn about off-the-beaten-path sets like the Avia Clyde Drexler, 1979-80 Bucks Police/Spic ‘n Span, 1993-94 Cavaliers Nickels Bread…and that is just in the A,B and C sections! The front cover captured the effort that was involved in this series with this 4th edition offering “25,000 more prices, 200 bonus photos and 100 new sets.” Seriously, think about that… From the third edition the previous year, they added 100 sets! This was some serious work, which is why this 4th edition in particular captures the hope of developing a definitive resource for basketball cards.
The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, published annually by Bob Lemke, was the industry standard (over 425,000 cards and 8,500 sets). Although the basketball catalog didn’t take hold as strongly, these initial attempts are valuable contributions to basketball card collecting.
Design: One has to call out the odd purple header at the top of the book, but it probably wasn’t entirely their fault… They were probably trying to link to the dominant color on the cards on the cover. Vince Carter was huge at the time, so he is represented twice, with the 1998-99 SP Authentic rookie on the front and an Upper Deck Game Jerseys rookie on the back. Also in 2001, there was hope that Lamar Odom would become huge. Purple there on his Ultra rookie as well. Then the Steve Francis jersey on the Stadium Club Co-Signers card. There’s your purple! Speaking of the Vince Carter rookie on the front… If you know this card, you know they are serial numbered to 3500 on the front. This photo has no number. Did you know there actually is at least one of these cards without a serial number?! See this page.
Authors: Steve Bloedow, a big name in the industry, coordinated the work, while Krause Publications staffers contributed. These included Jason Stonelake, Joe Clemens and Bert Lehman.
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