The National Sports Collectors Convention (https://nsccshow.com) is an annual summer gathering of collectors/dealers who have a passion for trading cards, autographs, and any other kind of memorabilia that you can think of. First formed in 1980, it is now the premier collectibles industry event that attracts a majority of the licensing agencies from around the professional sports world. The 42nd “National” will be held during the final week of July at the Atlantic City Convention Center, and next summer it will head back to the Midwest in Chicago. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel is unable to attend this year’s event in person so instead he will be interviewing as many of the dealers who will be there as possible. We continue our coverage with Chris Magstadt about his collectibles store (The Sports Cave) and his magnificent college basketball merchandise.
1. 2019-20 Panini National Treasures Collegiate Ja Morant #1/99 Rookie Patch Autograph: he was named 1st-team All-OVC as a freshman at Murray State and won the OVC tourney title, as a sophomore he became the 1st D-1 men’s player in 20 years with 40 PTS/10 AST/5 STL in a single game and led the nation in AST, then he became the 8th player to ever officially record a triple-double in the NCAA tourney, he was later named NBA ROY but it was his performance in the 2022 playoffs that made him famous to NBA fans who had not followed him in college, “Rookie Patch Autograph” (RPA) is the mecca of cards because it will hold the most value down the road, every kind of investment these days is on the decline (such as crypto) so you want something with a low # (such as 1 of 99)…that has part of a uniform on it…with an on-card (rather than a sticker) autograph…and a high grade (as perfect as possible), this item is priced around $2500-2700
2. 2019-20 Panini Rookie Coby White Flawless ACC Patch One of One: he helped lead the Tar Heels to the 2019 NCAA tourney before losing in the Sweet 16, he also broke the UNC freshman record by making 82 threes, he was drafted 7th overall by Chicago and became the 1st player from UNC drafted in the 1st round by the Bulls since a guy named Michael Jordan in 1984, he also became the 1st rookie in NBA history with consecutive 30-PT games off the bench and was named to the NBA All-Rookie 2nd-Team, college basketball is Chris’ favorite sport and UNC/James Worthy are among his favorites so he is a big Coby fan as well, college cards often take a back seat to cards featuring rookies in their pro uniforms but Chris likes college better and thinks that it is a nice niche market, “1 of 1” items are trickier to price out but in today’s market this card is probably around $650-700…and if it was an RPA then you could probably add an extra zero on the end of it!
3. 2019-20 Panini Flawless Zion Williamson #9/10 Rookie Patch Autograph: he became the 2nd player in Duke history with 25 PTS/15 REB/5 BLK in a single game, and set a school freshman record with nine 25-PT games, after he broke a shoe in a game vs. North Carolina and suffered a Grade 1 knee sprain Nike saw the value of its stock drop $1.1 billion the following day, he was named ACC ROY/POY/Athlete of the Year, he was also named ACC tourney MVP and joined Kevin Durant/Anthony Davis as the only freshmen with 500 PTS/50 STL/50 BLK in a season, he was drafted 1st overall by New Orleans but tore his meniscus in October of 2019 and did not make his NBA debut until January of 2020, he became the 1st teenager in NBA history to score 20+ PTS in 10 consecutive games and the 1st rookie since Michael Jordan to have 16 games of 20+ PTS within his 1st 20 career games, he was named to the NBA All-Rookie 1st-Team, Chris owes Zion a lot because he started the college craze…and Chris even bought a Camaro with the money that he has made off of Zion’s cards(!), there are different versions of this card such as ruby/silver with different production amounts but this gold version has only 10 available, this item is priced around $6500-7000
4. 2011-12 Upper Deck Home Court Signatures Michael Jordan North Carolina Autograph: he gained fame for his NBA heroics but he was quite a good college player as well, he was named 1982 ACC ROY and made the game-winning jump shot in the 1982 NCAA title game, a 2-time consensus All-American 1st-Team/1984 national POY, he was later named to the ACC 50th Anniversary men’s basketball team, Jordan memorabilia has taken off to a whole other level during the past few years so his college items (rather than pro) are more affordable, this is a very thick card (which makes it hard to grade) but this 1 is a true “gem-mint” with a price around $7000
5. 2014-15 Upper Deck SP Authentic Flair Showcase Bill Russell Jambalaya Die Cut: in 1954 at San Francisco he became part of the 1st major college basketball squad to start 3 African-Americans players (along with KC Jones/Hal Perry), his play was so dominant that in response the NCAA rewrote its rulebook and widened the lane before his junior year, he won back-to-back NCAA titles in 1955/1956 as part of 55-game winning streak and was named 1955 tourney MOP, this is a very sought-after set that started with Fleer and was subsequently adopted by Upper Deck, it matches 1 of the most desirable player inserts with his college uniform, PSA is the benchmark for authenticating/grading in the card industry and this 1 is graded at 9 (they do not do half-grades) so the price is around $700-750
6. 2019-2020 Panini Flawless RJ Barrett & Zion Williamson #4/25 Dual Autograph: the 2018-19 Duke team won an ACC tourney title and finished with a 32-6 record and the #1 spot in the final RPI rankings, they reached the Elite 8 before a 1-PT loss to Michigan State, you might think that the more stars on 1 card the better…but it is surprisingly NOT as valuable as just having a card with a single player on it, the risk is not worth the reward unless it is a “1 of 1”, this 1 is not graded but is still worth around $1500-1800, if it were to be graded as gem-mint then the price would double to around $3200-3500, cards have become a big part of “alternative investing” and the National will tell us where the markets is heading/going
Chris’ Facebook page is his most-traveled website and he puts a lot of information up there including a weekly live talk about new items at his shop: @TheSportsCaveLLC
You can also find his contact info on his Facebook page.