Going to a dozen basketball card stores in Melbourne.

Brett Szabo

Knee Deep In The Hoopla
Messages
367
Location
Melbourne, Victoria
Real Name
angus
Pretend it is 1994, the Crash Test Dummies and a Mariah Carey who could sing are on the radio, Michael Jordan is playing baseball, and basketball fans are watching The Air Up There and wondering why they are.

With a scratch train ticket, back pack, newspaper, some food, and a small cardboard box to store any cards I find, I am ready to go to some of Melbourne's basketball card stores. Off to the city, there is someone on the train wearing a North Melbourne Giants shirt, must be a troublemaker. North Melbourne will never be the same with Cecil Exum joing the SuperCats. At least they are not a Melbourne Tigers fan, although it seems that few want to cheer for a team with Ray Gordon, and he isn't even the most annoying player they have.

Off the train and then a quick walk into the centre of the city and north up Bourke Street a little bit. Not sure if that Sports Bazaar place is still open, they used to have some packs for sale. No time for that, now I have to find the store in the arcade. A little shop but always quality, some good NBA cards and even some wrestling ones.

Along to Bourke Street Mall and up an escalator to the card store. It is a great store, although nothing compared to their other store in Glenferrie. Lots of new packs, might as well get a couple.

That is something I don't see every day, Sam Newman getting chased around by an elderly woman. He must be taping a segment for that new Channel 9 show, The Footy Show. I could go to the new Melbourne Central, there was a sports store that had some Fleer packs and a life-sized Larry Bird grow chart thing. Not enough time to do that, but enough time to have a look at the store above McDonald's that has all the books about sports.

While the train was full going into the CBD, now it is nearly empty leaving. I certainly hope they don't add another million or two people to Melbourne and clog everything up. These people and their loud Walkman tape players, sounds like Michael Bolton. Too bad he cancelled his Australian concerts, but he was much better when he was heavy metal. I am sure he will go back to that.

Malvern, I will be coming back to this area in a few weeks as a Collector Fair will be on at the Town Hall but time to have a look at the card store now. There should be some good cards available at the Collector Fair, and it won't be as scary as going to the Western Oval for that trading card show. At least I did get a good Rick Fox card at the Footscray event, and some Payton and Kemp rookie cards, and got to see the Franco Cozzo store that has so many sales and great music on their TV commercials.

Two stops down the track takes a while, especially as the train drivers go slowly before Glenhuntley as they pay their respects to the victims of the 1903 accident at that spot. Off the train and on to a tram, heading south. This is an exciting shop, big with all the display cases, and some of those new Refractors cards that people are talking about. Jackpot, Dino Radja Refractors card. If only Dino had joined the team right when he was drafted, but better late than never. Europeans in the NBA, who thought that would ever happen, I guess the great play of Zarko got the NBA scouts thinking.

Back on the tram and now back on the train, might as well read the newspaper a bit. There are some good TV shows on the weekend. Lois And Clark The New Adventures Of Superman, I don't want to miss that. Channel 10 basketball, it would be a lot better without Woods and Carfino. Wide World Of Sports, I need to sit through five hours of that in case they show five minutes of wrestling.

End of the line, except for the diesel train on the next platform but there are no card stores where that goes. Frankston, where NBA Jam games are plentiful. First store, the St Kilda player who wears a helmet but not when he is at his store. He is polite and has some common cards to look through. He also has the NBA Jam machine, although I will use my coins for Hoops commons. Around a corner and past a barber shop and there is a basketball card store. A good assortment of packs available.

Maybe I could have a look at Toys R Us, they had the NBA Jam on the console system last time for customers to play. I don't know why I didn't win with Schrempf and Kemp. That will take too long, so the last place in Frankston to visit will be the What's New cards only store. Yet again, an NBA Jam machine. Some commons to buy, these new Fleer cards are interesting, very bright.

Glad there is no card store at Kananook, that place is not nice. Although, I did dominate the stats in a game at the basketball stadium there. Back to the newspaper, and planning the television viewing. What a strange idea, three and a bit channels, maybe they might get cable television in the future. The FIBA Men's World Championship will be shown on TV, that is good news. Saved By The Bell, how long have these people been in high school, maybe they will make a show about them going to college, probably not. Sports Tonight, that would be a good show it they had more than ten seconds of NBA and if the hosts were not all robotic clones. Gumby and Roger Ramjet are on the ABC, so they do have more to watch than just the college basketball at midnight.


Next stop is Mentone, a couple of places have cards here. Will time it so I get the next train. Across the street to the sports and surfing store, nothing of interest here but the packs of cards for sale at the front of the store. Might as well get a Skybox pack, they had some good cards last time I got a pack here. Now to get across the busy street, better go to the pedestrian crossing. This seems like a big shop, right near the train line, I guess it should be here for many years to come. They have a TV with a taped game, but it is NHL, you don't see that very often. Some Rookie Sensations inserts to buy, that is good. Still a few minutes until the train will arrive, I timed it well. One stop away on the train line is Cheltenham, which is close to the Southland shopping mall. Probably no need to go to the card store at Cheltenham, but if the bus to Southland isn't waiting when I get off the train I may as well have a look. No bus, but nothing of great interest in the card store. Will quickly walk down the road to the mall.

I go into the main entrance at Southland, and there is Rex Hunt. Maybe I should say hello, I do watch his show. Maybe not, he is busy talking to a few other people. Down the stairs to a What's New store. Plenty of packs and cards to look at. Might as well stop at the newsagency, I can pretend I am going to buy the Beckett book. They used to be affordable, but have really gone up in price. Those little NBA digest types books have disappeared, they used to be good to read.

Plenty of trains, and a tram, today and now time for a bus or two. Off to Chadstone, to see what is new for basketball cards at What's New. I used to take another bus, to Keysborough, there was a card store there but it may have closed down. They had some good cards, and a VCR that played NBA games. Vlade Divac was starring for the Lakers last time I saw some of a game there. This Chadstone place is big, I am sure it is big enough and they won't double its size every decade in the future.

Maybe I should go to the World 4 Kids store, it may not be far away, maybe they have basketball stuff. I remember that they were taping Agro's Cartoon Connection episodes there, that would be fun to see. I am sure World 4 Kids will be in business for a long time so there is no rush to go there.

Probably enough time, although a tad difficult, to go to Ringwood. Not a lot in that shop, buy a pack of Hoops. I could catch a bus to Knox but no time for that today, and they never have good cards. Now on the train again, to Nunawading. They have commons to look through. Back on the train, and might as well look to see what TV shows I have missed out on today. Supermarket Sweep, I don't understand the rules of that. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, it is fun to watch Amy Jo Johnson kill ugly aliens. Seinfeld is on later tonight, I am sure Kramer will be doing something funny.

Finally to the last store, best for last, at Glenferrie. I will be back in a few weeks to sort through their many common cards, it is on the same tram line as Malvern is. They shouldn't be closing for a while so I have time to go through the ritual of looking through all the big boxes of common cards. I am fortunate, few basketball card collectors seem to want the cards from the team I collect. Not sure why Joe Kleine and John Bagley don't have lots of fans, but that does keep the prices down.

That was a fun day. Packs of Fleer, Hoops, Skybox, Topps, Upper Deck, I am certain that the NBA will always have lots of choice for basketball fans. Stern may be stupid and evil and stern but no way would he give a company a monopoly for the NBA cards. More companies would be good, Action Packed could bring something different to NBA cards.

Not sure about the big prices for Vin Baker and JR Rider rookie cards, I could be wrong but those players may not have good futures. But it is good that everyone is buying them, and Van Exel, and leaving the Dino cards for me at cheap prices.


As a few people have mentioned on here that they would have liked to have been able to buy cards from stores in Melbourne, this is what it was like, sort of.

Collectors who did go to these stores can play the Guess The Store Name game, or not. The San Newman part, like all of this, was true but the person he was talking to wasn't included on the show that week.

In case it doesn't make sense, this was written as it could have been in 1994. If North Melbourne Giants fans are offended, that is funny, but Ray Borner was rude to me. Pat Reidy was worse, and will never be forgiven. Nothing against Paul Maley, but his nickname was terrible and undeserved. Not a fan of the Tigers either.
 
We really were spoiled for choice back in the early 90's, youngsters these days have nothing. On a Thursday night i'd go shopping with mum and i'd go hang in Granny Maes at westfield eastgardens while she did her shopping. The place was always packed with collectors. My weekly $5 allowance always went on a pack of cards. (Fleer Ultra and Skybox Premium were my favs at the time) Also remember my old man taking me to Bondi to this card shop that was next to the Rebel sports store where I bought the full set of Dynamic Dunks, I saved for what felt like an eternity to buy that set, cost me $60 at the time. There were a couple of stores in Darling Harbour and up Oxford street aswell.
 
I remember going to all the local markets in melbournes eastern suburbs and there would be atleast 5 places selling NBA cards, singles, packs what ever, it's a shame the sport and not just collecting has died down so much
 
Agro's cartoon collection, saved by the bell and a plenty full of card shops those were the days not to mention we had NBA jam session on channel ten with the top ten dunks of the week oh they were the days... Thank you sooo much for the memories even though that was Melbourne and I'm in Sydney it was just good to reminese and how life was sooo much simpler lol
 
nice...brings back so many memories!!! now hows this for dedication to the hobby...or maybe pure obsession...
I would back in the days stack my work roster so i could head down to melbourne every 4-5 weeks to buy packs and lots of singles, i went to a multitude of different stores over the years from msc out at moonee ponds, to a number of city stores that my old memory now wont let me remember...there was one in the beehive building in elizabeth street, one in i think it was tivoli arcade off bourke street, good old card heaven out at hawthorn, minotuar books when back in bourke street used to sell shitloads of packs and had "specials boards" and even good old rip off mate himself cardzone when accross from the vic market, there was a guy even at the vic market that had a great range...
heres the thing, at the time i was living in Mildura! which by car is a good 6 hour drive, i would catch the 4.20am bus to swan hill get on the train at swan hill at about 7.20am, would then get the train straight through to melbourne, would get in at about 11am, would go like the clappers out to the card stores, stop for some lunch and get the train back to swan hill at 5.40pm, i would get home at about 12.45am, so it was a twenty hour round trip for my hobby! ....would at times too go to adelaide which was closer but didnt have as much variety, the card shop in the rundle mall was always a rip off and i think is still there, the parafield markets had some good cards stalls there too...
fast forward many years and am in bendigo, about an hour and a half away from melbourne...still make trips down to see family and of course drop in to see malcolm at the markets to get some boxes...looking back i cant believe i did what i did...absolute craziness....im lucky too that my better half understands my obsession and is cool with it...for that i suppose it makes me a lucky man, my four year old daughter is taking a small interest, she can go through a deck of cards and pick out the kobes and lebrons for me, so i may have an heir!!!
 
Who remembers going to American Basketball Collectors that store was amazing

I wish i had some old One on One or Silhouette Stadium magazines to find there adverts
 
Anyone remember card 'n' stuff? They last day sales i spend my entire pock saving $200 with in 2 hours.
 
We really were spoiled for choice back in the early 90's, youngsters these days have nothing. On a Thursday night i'd go shopping with mum and i'd go hang in Granny Maes at westfield eastgardens while she did her shopping. The place was always packed with collectors. My weekly $5 allowance always went on a pack of cards. (Fleer Ultra and Skybox Premium were my favs at the time) Also remember my old man taking me to Bondi to this card shop that was next to the Rebel sports store where I bought the full set of Dynamic Dunks, I saved for what felt like an eternity to buy that set, cost me $60 at the time. There were a couple of stores in Darling Harbour and up Oxford street aswell.

Honestly i dont think more card shops would help much because all the these boxes like prizm that retail over $120! And thats not even high end how are kids like me gonna get coin like that! Personally i dont even get pocket money! I remember buying my box of certified, i spent $125
 
ahhhh.... I remember when we had THREE card shops in launceston, The Game Cellar which was cards and playstation games, Empire Comics comics and cards and some other card store. I was a regular at the Game Cellar, then it moved and became Flight 23, was a regular there too. Steve took good care of me, often selling me boxes of commons in the early 00s.... but they are all gone now. We have a new card store for yugioh and magic and all those CCG types plus it sells comics and doubles as internet cafe.... no sports cards though - so disappointing. I remember all the markets someone would be selling cards... man I miss those days. Get into town about 3:40 from school bus, run over to Game Cellar/Flight 23 look at cards and race back for the 4:10 bus back to the burbs and home, sometimes stopping at the fish and chip shop to play NBA Jam...

I really miss those days.
 
It wasn't about the money, you had a place to hang out with other collectors, got to talk basketball and check out cool cards that were mostly un-obtainable.
I didn't buy my first box till I was 15 after saving for weeks from my weekend job ($25 each Saturday!)



Honestly i dont think more card shops would help much because all the these boxes like prizm that retail over $120! And thats not even high end how are kids like me gonna get coin like that! Personally i dont even get pocket money! I remember buying my box of certified, i spent $125
 
But u gotta admit its hard to buy boxes nowadays with these prices!

For kids around our age yes! But remember, most collectors are adults and have jobs and can use that money to pay for cards and buy boxes!

I thing I try and do is buy some cards cheap off ebay and resell them (whether it be here or on eBay) to make some $ to build some funds to buy PC cards or boxes! :thumbsup:

Cheers,
Whitey
 
But u gotta admit its hard to buy boxes nowadays with these prices!
It was never easy to buy boxes, my first box was 93-94 fleer and I believe it cost me $80. No auto's no GU no numbered inserts and that was close to 20years ago (thanks for reminding me how old I am :lol:).
 
Back
Top Bottom