One piece of memorabilia I've been wanting for a long time is a trading card featuring an embedded piece of shoe in it. There have been a number of products produced with chunks of game-worn shoe relics, but I haven't ever been able to find the right one at the right price.
I finally tracked one down late last month. I actually didn't win the auction for this one, but the seller sent me a Second-Chance Offer because the high bidder had won another card from him and couldn't afford to pay for both. It's a Sole of the Game insert featuring Hakeem Olajuwon from 2014-15 Panini Immaculate Collection Basketball. This is the base version of his card, and it's numbered # 07 / 30. The card was shipped from Australia, and I thought it might be lost for good in the mail. The tracking number showed it leaving a processing center in California on April 29th, and there were no updated in the status until it arrived in Boise yesterday. About a week ago I submitted a search request on USPS.com to see if they could find it, but I never heard anything from them. I don't know how it spent nearly three weeks getting from there to here, but I am glad it made it safely. The card is extremely thick, probably because it has a piece of Olajuwon's sole in it.
The Rockets managed to tie their Conference Finals series with Golden State at 1-1 the other day, and I'm hoping they can advance to the NBA Finals. I think whichever team comes out of the West will have a pretty good shot at winning the title over the Celtics or the Cavaliers.
That is pretty neat. I imagine that one card would take up the entire pack.
ReplyDeleteIt probably would!
DeleteThat is an awesome card! I was a big Hakeem fan growing up and the Immaculate Collection is my favorite high-end brands. Glad to see this unique card finally found its way to you.
ReplyDeleteHe was my favorite player to collect when I was a teenager. I don't collect basketball much these days, but I do try to grab his cards when I can.
DeleteGreat card. I've never seen those before. Glad you were able to check off that one. Have to love Olajuwon too. He was such an awesome player and fun to watch. Great job.
ReplyDeleteHe was a great player, one of the best centers of all time. I was pretty happy to get this card.
DeleteVery nice! Always wanted a shoe card. I tried to track down a NY Giants on recently but was too pricy
ReplyDeleteIt seems like shoe cards are rare enough still that the prices stay high.
DeleteWhat a great card! If they only used the soles for this set, one has to wonder what they did with the rest of the shoes?
ReplyDeleteThis product had two shoe-based inserts. One was called Sole of the Game, and the other was called Sneak Peek. It looks like the Sneak Peak cards use the uppers from the shoes.
DeleteBeautiful card. Sure beat the same old white practice jersey swatch.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a really cool relic. Olajuwon's shoes were a little boring compared to other star players (he wanted to keep his signature shoe affordable for kids), but this is still a white whale card for me.
DeleteWhoa, beautiful card. I've had a couple shoe relics over the years, but nothing even close to that nice.
ReplyDeleteI have a few NASCAR relics with shoe pieces in them, but nothing like this. This is definitely a unique card in my collection.
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