UK basketball cards show there’s ‘a place for every budget’ in collecting world
Jimmy’s Kentucky Roadshow — Lexington’s newest sports card shop — doesn’t open until next week, but store owner Jimmy Mahan has been operating an online market for cards for a while now, and it serves as a perfect window into the many spectra of the booming hobby.
Mahan wants his new shop, located at 369 Romany Road and opening Nov. 4, to offer something for everybody — with an inventory of everything from dollar packs to cards worth thousands. There will be items for young kids, curious adults and serious collectors alike.
The online store — KentuckyRoadshowShop.com — is updated daily with new baseball, football, basketball and soccer cards featuring players from a wide variety of teams. One of Mahan’s personal collecting passions — to be shared by many of his future customers, no doubt — are the cards of former Kentucky basketball players.
“I didn’t have a huge budget. I loved Kentucky. I lived here. So I’m buying Travis Ford and Rodney Dent cards,” the 44-year-old Mahan says of his early collecting days. “Small stuff, and it wasn’t expensive, but that’s what led to a great passion for this.”
The new shop owner would now be categorized as a serious collector, someone who regularly opens the highest-dollar boxes. He’s also known as a guy who is quick to give away nice cards to friends — or even strangers — once he finds out their favorite teams or players. Mahan is already putting together a box of cards to give to area kids who come into his shop.
“There is a place for every budget and every type of collector, and that’s one thing that I love about this hobby,” he said. “I’ve gone from one end of the spectrum to the other, but if you have a favorite player — or a favorite team — you can find a unique item of that player in any budget. And I can tell you that some of my favorite cards are not the most valuable.”
A specific example is a Devin Booker card that Mahan posted to his online shop this week. His inventory includes several Booker cards — including a perfectly graded rookie card priced at $975 — and the physical store will house many high-dollar items featuring the former UK shooting guard, but one of Mahan’s personal favorites was listed at $35.
The card has two photos of Booker on the front — one in a Kentucky uniform, one in a Phoenix Suns uniform — with a “cracked ice” pattern that gives it a holographic look. It doesn’t have an autograph or a swatch of a game-worn jersey, two staples of the modern collecting world. It just looks cool.
“It’s beautiful. It’s not autographed, and there’s not a patch, but it’s beautiful,” he said. “You can find cards like that of great players, because they make it where everybody has a place at the table. It’s a really inclusive industry. It’s kind of like art, where you can find a print of something that you dig from fifteen dollars to a million dollars.”
That Booker card was sold within a few minutes of it being posted Monday night. Perhaps another one will make its way to Mahan’s shop in the future.
Cards in the online store range from 10 bucks to thousands of dollars. Here are five more UK basketball-related items of varying price and style that Wildcats fans might find interesting.
Nick Richards rookie autograph ($20)
That’s right. Richards hasn’t even been drafted by an NBA team yet, but there’s already an official trading card with his likeness and autograph.
The 2020-21 Panini Contenders Draft Picks Basketball set came out just last week, and it features cards of recent Kentucky players Ashton Hagans, Tyrese Maxey, EJ Montgomery, Immanuel Quickley and Richards in their Wildcats’ uniforms.
The set also includes such players as Georgia’s Anthony Edwards, North Carolina’s Cole Anthony, Dayton’s Obi Toppin and many others expected to be taken early in next month’s draft. The Richards card — part of the “Prospect Ticket” subset — shows the former UK big man in his Kentucky blue on a card mocked up to look like a ticket with Richards’ actual autograph at the bottom.
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Tayshaun Prince UK autograph ($42)
This is a Kentucky player especially close to Mahan’s heart. The shop owner was actually Prince’s academic adviser during his one season in that role at UK. It happened to be Prince’s senior year. “I had an easy job,” Mahan says with a laugh. “He was a four-year sociology guy. He didn’t need me a lick.”
Prince’s autographed, game-worn jersey from the 2008 Olympics also hangs in Mahan’s shop. The Prince card — from the 2002 Sage Autographs series — depicts him in his Kentucky uniform, with his signature in the bottom left corner and has been graded at 9.5 out of 10 — a near-perfect card. Mahan is always on the lookout for cards featuring former UK players in their Wildcats uniforms, and he recalls coming across this one at a national card show a few years ago.
Tyler Herro rookie card ($60)
There are several different Herro rookie cards out there — including one for as low as $10 in Mahan’s online shop — but this one, from the 2019-20 Panini Prizm Basketball set, is considered to be among the best. The Prizm basketball set exploded as a must-have product in the collecting world after its release last December — largely due to the frenzy surrounding Zion Williamson’s NBA debut — and this Herro card shows the former UK shooting guard in his Miami Heat uniform on a black backdrop with red and silver trimming. Herro’s stock in the card world went way up due to his showing in the recent playoffs, with his Heat advancing to the NBA Finals. He still has a long way to go to catch up with Zion-mania, however. The Williamson base rookie card from the same set is priced at 275 bucks in Mahan’s online shop. (There’s also a Herro rookie card featuring a player-worn blue jersey patch and his autograph in blue ink in the shop. Price: $330).
Bam Adebayo rookie auto patch ($110)
This is a perfect example of how cards today can look a lot different from the ones in the “junk wax” era of the 1980s and ’90s. Back in those days, cards were relatively simple. There were some variations and some interesting designs, but — for the most part — they were mass produced and many cards that were projected to have long-term value at the time are relatively worthless now.
Who knows what the card industry will look like a decade or two from now, but — for the time being — the items that often hold the most value are ones that are hardest to find.
This Adebayo rookie card — from the 2017-18 Panini Cornerstones Basketball set — is numbered to 199, meaning only 199 versions of this specific item exist. The card features Adebayo’s autograph directly on the card and four different swatches from one of his black Miami Heat jerseys. For all that the card contains, it’s still a clean-looking design dedicated to one of Kentucky’s fastest-rising stars in the NBA.
Jamal Murray rookie auto patch ($7,750)
That isn’t a typo. Of all the cards in the Kentucky Roadshow online store, this is the most expensive.
This Murray rookie card — from the 2016-17 Panini National Treasures Basketball set — has the former UK guard’s face at the top, a giant swatch of one of his Denver Nuggets jerseys in the middle, and an autograph in blue ink at the bottom. It also has a 9/10 stamp on it, meaning only 10 of this specific design are out there. Amazingly, Mahan pulled this card straight out of a pack. At that time — during Murray’s rookie season — he estimates it was worth about $600-700. He likens its rising value over time to rising stocks — a common analogy in the collecting world, especially now with so many high-dollar specialty items on the market.
“All the sudden Jamal Murray goes bananas in the bubble, and that card shoots through the roof,” Mahan said this week, referencing Murray’s breakout showing in the recent NBA playoffs and apparent path to superstardom in the league.
Here’s a great example of what’s valued in the collecting world, and why it might not make a whole lot of sense to those unfamiliar with the hobby: right next to the Murray card in the online shop is a card featuring Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, with autographs and game-worn jersey swatches of both players. That item — with the faces of two of the greatest that will ever play the sport — is listed at $6,500, more than a thousand bucks less than the Murray card.
The explanation shows the nuances of the industry.
The MJ-Kobe card is from an Upper Deck set back in 2002-03, meaning it features Jordan in a Washington Wizards jersey. “And that is a less valuable Jordan autograph,” Mahan says. “If you’re going to spend that kind of money, you want something of him with the Bulls.”
Mahan also acknowledges the card has a “little ding” on one of the corners. Such imperfections can greatly affect an item’s value. There are also 25 copies of the card.
The Murray card, meanwhile, is a rookie — making it more coveted — from the National Treasures set, which Mahan describes as the “Lexus product — the premium of the premium” of the Panini brand. And only 10 copies of this particular card were made.
So, the Jordan-Bryant item is obviously a treasure, a card featuring autographs of two basketball giants. But the Murray card is more rare, and the former UK star’s long-term potential is enticing to collectors. Mahan’s card might be priced high, but any collector serious enough to be in the market for such an item could be willing to pay that price.
“It’s less available than the Jordan/Kobe. There are only 10,” Mahan says. “And if you’re a big Murray fan — which there are a lot — and you want one of those 10 and you have the income, you have to find me or nine other guys.”
