Rare 1994 Action Packed Basketball Hall Of Fame Autograph Set Key Cards Celtics
This is truly for the basketball collector that needs the best! Or a Boston Celtics fan as 8 cards (with both versions of the Walton autographs included since he finished his career as a Celtic) dominate this set. I know it is expensive but read the history behind the set. 1994 Action Packed Basketball HOF Autographs Set… All Hall of Famers 42 cards in all official set has 37 cards, but included are extra autos/card to keep sequence where no cards were issued. One of the toughest sets to be completed…. See our notes below. Initially most of the cards were owned by a former executive at Action Packed and thus includes the special/rare cards noted below. All cards except Maravich (he had previously passed away in 1988) each have their authentic autograph. The Maravich card is his 24kt gold card with a facsimile auto. Much of the information below and many of the cards were obtained from Action Packed creative director Tom Hansen. #6 Billy Cunningham comes in black and silver autos (both included, see photo). Later at shows he has signed the facsimile regular base cards but they are not the originals. This is one of those original six. (both included, see photo). #16 John Wooden, rare as he was elderly. #19 Dean Smith, rare as he initially refused to sign, but later signed some 20 est. To honor some of the redemptions through the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. #26 This was not issued as Pete Maravich had passed in 1988. There is a 26G (for 24kt Gold) in its place. #29 Bill Bradley has an auto later in this set so none was issued here. Included is an autograph obtained later on the base facsimile card. #30 Bill Walton has an auto later in this set so none was issued here. The following 4 cards are part of the subset “Greats of the Game” and were limited to 500. #37 Bill Bradley redemption card. #38 Bill Walton redemption card. #39 Bob Cousy redemption card. #40 Bill Russell redemption card, HAND NUMBERED to 500. This is his jersey #6 of 500. One can readily conclude that only an Action Packed executive could readily get his hands on this card. The #39 Cousy and #40 Russell autos were only available as redemptions and cards for them were not even included in the base set of facsimile autos. Some #37 Bradley and #38 were inserts but some were redemptions as well. All autographs/redemption cards were advertised as 1 per case. Additional history for cards not included. The #37G, #38G, #39G, and #40G all were planned (but not released) as redemptions in 1995, but Action Packed went out of business that year. They were all limited to 100 per Pawn Stars, Season 20, Episode 18, with #40G Russell being the only numbered to 100 in Russell’s own hand. I have the #1 of 100 (presumably his first auto) which carries a premium. All four of the 24kt “Greats of the Game” subset autograph cards were only available as redemption cards and very few were sent out. For those interested in the Las Vegas find, here is the article from Sports Collectors Daily. Previously Unknown 1995 Action Packed Redemption Autographs Found In Storage Locker. By Bob D’Angelo. It’s a story straight out of Storage Wars. But instead of an A&E television series, Tyler Feldman did not have a script. What he found was certainly spellbinding hard to believe. Feldman, 29, who has run Inscriptagraphs in Las Vegas for five years, literally stumbled across two boxes of autograph redemption cards from the 1995 Action Packed Hall of Fame basketball set. The boxes held a total of about 600 cards including 93 signed by basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell, along with signed cards of fellow Hall of Famers Bill Bradley, Bob Cousy and Bill Walton. There were 94 Bradley autographs and 96 each for Cousy and Walton. “This is an unbelievable find, ” Feldman said. Action Packed put out a 38-card basketball set in 1995, and collectors could pull a redemption card that was a case hit, entitling them to an autograph of one of the Hall of Famers in the set. Because Russell and Cousy only signed cards, they did not have a base card, so the redemptions included 40 different subjects. 26 Pete Maravich was not signed since the Pistol died in 1988. Production of the set was limited to 2,000 cases and there were two different series issued during the season. The redemptions were broken down this way. Hall of Famers were featured in cards 1 through 31, members of the 1994 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class were card Nos. 32 through 36, and Greats of the Game were the final four cards. Among the 23 different autographs Feldman found were multiples of Dean Smith, Hal Greer, Connie Hawkins, Dolph Schayes, Nate Thurmond, Jerry Lucas, Walt Bellamy, Calvin Murphy, Frank Ramsey, Carol Blazejowski and Nate Archibald. The Russell cards were especially intriguing. Russell, now 86 (deceased in 2022), stopped signing autographs during the mid-1960s. In his 1980 book, Second Wind, the former Boston Celtics center said “that signing autographs was impersonal” and he did not want to give up a piece of himself in that fashion. He would “rather just shake your hand, ” Russell said. Writing in The Saturday Evening Posts Jan. 18, 1964, issue, Russell was even more explicit about autographs and the perception that he was supposed to be a role model, saying he refused to misrepresent myself. I refuse to smile and be nice to the kiddies, he wrote in the magazine. “I don’t think it is incumbent upon me to set a good example for anybody’s kids but my own”. Times change, and in 1992, so did Russell. He signed a two-year deal with Sports Archives, Inc. By 1995 still a tough signature Russell was amenable to signing for Action Packed. The cards he signed were the first autographed trading cards he ever signed. That brings us back to Feldman. This guy summoned us to his storage locker. Feldman said the man had some household items and autographs of former presidents like John F. Kennedy, William Howard Taft and Herbert Hoover. But what caught Feldman’s eye were two boxes of cards. They were signed cards from the 1995 Action Packed set, cards that were autographed as redemptions by 23 different players and coaches. Feldman said the man told him his father had once worked for the NBA. “I didnt know what I had, ” Feldman said. I just paid him for the Russell cards and he threw the other ones in there. When he got packed to the office, Feldman realized he had quite a find….. These were cards still packed in the original Action Packed boxes. Each of the cards in the boxes came with certificates of authenticity from Action Packed. Russell’s cards are the only ones in the set that are hand numbered, up to 100. The # to 100 Russell cards don? T appear on any checklists and the serial numbering appears to be in his handwriting. The find included 360 24k gold versions of Bradley, Walton, Cousy and Russellabout 90 of each that no one apparently knew existed. What Action Packed planned to do with those is a mystery. As for the rest of the cards, Feldman says he’s getting them encapsulated by Beckett and will eventually turn them into a mystery pack product. How the cards wound up in the storage unit to begin withor when isnt known. For whatever reason, they were either unredeemed by collectors, or the redemptions expired in the packs, Feldman said of his discovery. Or, Action Packed had extra cards signed by the players and coaches. Or, perhaps a combination of these scenarios. Whatever the case, it’s a new chapter in the chronicle of 1990s basketball cards.
Category: rare