A Trio of Cheap Dreams

I picked up a trio of Hakeem Olajuwon cards for my collection in December. Nothing too crazy, but some pretty good-looking cards. I overpaid for this 2000-01 Upper Deck Slam acetate card. I'm not very familiar with cards from this era, so I assumed that an acetate card from the time period would be something special. Turns out it's a base card that could've been had on Sportlots for less. Oops. It still wasn't that expensive, so I lost less than a dollar on the deal. Do your research, folks!

These next two cards made up for the mistake, as I got them together for a pretty small price with the benefit of combined shipping. Swat Team is a retail-exclusive insert from 2015-16 Panini Hoops Basketball. I love sets that focus on shot-blocking, as the checklists contain many of the players that I find most entertaining, like Olajuwon, Shaq, David Robinson, Dikembe Mutombo, DeAndre Jordan, and Anthony Davis.

Here's a nice camouflage Crusade card from 2014-15 Panini Crusade. I assume this is the base version, since all the listed parallels have listed print runs and carry serial numbering. It's a nice-enough card although the green color doesn't quite match up with the Rockets' red, white, and gold scheme.

I don't keep up with the deluge of Olajuwon cards coming out of Panini and Upper Deck, but I do try to pick up a few of his cards every so often. He was the first player I collected heavily and remains my favorite basketball player of all time. These three cards were a nice affordable way to keep my Olajuwon PC growing.