1993 Nike/Warner Bros. Michael Jordan

Three years before the debut of Space Jam, Jordan's Looney Tunes lineage was established. While the 12-card promo release of cards/stickers does not highlight Jordan exclusively — ample attention is also paid to Bugs Bunny, Marvin the Martian and Porky Pig — it is still highly coveted.

By Todd Tobias

Player collecting used to be simple and streamlined, focusing only on a small number of base issues each year with the occasional regional offering shaking things up. And though some traditionalists might grumble at the sheer amount of parallel rainbows and low serial numbers in the hobby nowadays, others find the artful complexity intoxicating.

Buddy Wilson — who goes by the moniker Buddyw41 on the PSA Set Registry — is one of those people. And when we say he’s a Dirk Nowitzki super collector, we’re probably underselling it. Since starting down this path in 2016, he has accumulated 5,100+ Nowitzki cards, which includes more than 200 autos, nearly 1,300 memorabilia cards and an astonishing 127 1/1s. He sat down recently to talk about his collecting adventures and introduction to the Set Registry.

PSA: WE WILL SPEAK ABOUT YOUR INCREDIBLE DIRK NOWITZKI COLLECTION SHORTLY, BUT LET’S START AT THE BEGINNING. HOW WERE YOU FIRST INTRODUCED TO THE HOBBY?

BUDDY WILSON: Like a lot of people, I collected sports cards as a kid. I think the first packs I ever opened were 1991 SkyBox Basketball. I collected for a few years and then stopped around 1995 or ‘96, when I started eighth grade. I got back into the hobby in 2016 when I decided that I needed a way to spend some of my extra time. I began buying boxes and cases online and enjoying the rip.

PSA: DID YOU HAVE HOBBY GOALS AT THAT POINT? WERE YOU BUILDING SETS OR JUST HOPING TO HIT GREAT CARDS THROUGH RIPPING PACKS?

BW: I didn’t have any goals when I reentered the hobby. But as I started to rip different products I developed a particular interest in Select and Studio basketball. I became obsessed with Studio because of the Downtown inserts, which were case hits. Another thing I enjoyed from that set was the Teal /15 variation. Each of the 100 base cards have a Teal variation, and they hit at a rate of one Teal card per 16-box master case. It took me about two-and-ahalf years, but I was able to complete the Teal set. I recently graded the entire set with PSA and added it to the Set Registry.

PSA: LET’S SHIFT GEARS AND TALK ABOUT YOUR DIRK NOWITZKI COLLECTION, WHICH IS

INCREDIBLY IMPRESSIVE. WHAT GOT YOU INTERESTED IN COLLECTING HIM?

BW: I loved the idea that he was a seven-footer who could easily drain three-pointers. I used to be a fan of Keith Van Horne back in the day. He was about 6’ 9” and had a big outside game. When Dirk came into the league he developed into one of those quiet assassins. It took him a couple of years to get acclimated to the NBA, but he was one of those guys who never talked trash and simply let his game make a statement.

PSA: HOW DID YOU BEGIN YOUR COLLECTION? DID YOU HAVE A PLAN OR JUST BEGIN PICKING UP CARDS?

BW: I went all-in right from the beginning. I began by downloading a list of all the Dirk Nowitzki cards that had been produced to that point, and then started buying anything I could find. Most of my purchases came through eBay or various Facebook sports card groups. I didn’t really have a goal other than to get as many different cards as I could find.

PSA: HAS THAT GOAL CHANGED IN THE YEARS SINCE?

BW: It really hasn’t changed at all; I am still trying to get every single card. But as I have learned more about the Set Registry over the last couple of months, I have been trying to achieve the No. 1 ranking in any Dirk Nowitzki-related sets. I’ve also put an emphasis on anything from his rookie season. So I am more selective in only trying to obtain PSA 10 examples of his rookie cards for the Set Registry. Otherwise, I would probably already be No. 1 in some of the sets where I currently have a lower ranking.

PSA: LET’S TALK A BIT MORE ABOUT TRYING TO GET ONE OF EVERYTHING. THAT IS AN AMBITIOUS GOAL WHEN COLLECTING A MODERN ERA PLAYER, BUT YOU ARE FURTHER ALONG THAN MOST PEOPLE MIGHT THINK POSSIBLE.

BW: Like I said, I downloaded the entire list and put it into an Excel spreadsheet where I have tabs for each year. Excluding printing plates and 1/1s, Nowitzki currently has about 7,150 different cards. That includes base cards, serial-numbered material, memorabilia cards, autographs, autographed memorabilia cards and everything else. I currently have just over 5,100 items from that checklist, so according to my calculations I am 72% complete with this collection.

PSA: IT’S NOT LIKE YOU ARE SKIPPING OVER THOSE 1/1s, EITHER. HOW MANY DIFFERENT 1/1s HAVE BEEN PRODUCED, AND HOW MANY OF THEM DO YOU OWN?

BW: I currently own 127 Dirk Nowitzki 1/1s. Current rookies can easily have 300 to 400 different 1/1s in a single year. Not as many Nowitzki cards are produced now that he is retired and no longer in the league, so he probably only has around 40 new 1/1s issued each year. But as of right now, there have been slightly less than 1,200 different 1/1s produced since his rookie season.

PSA: SO YOU HAVE MORE THAN 10% OF THE 1/1s ALONE. THAT IS EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE.

BW: Obviously a high completion percentage in that area is simply not achievable. These 1/1s can get very expensive. When I see one come up for sale I will try to get it at a reasonable price, but I really put the majority of my focus on the non-1/1s to try and keep that percentage high.

PSA: A 100% COMPLETION PERCENTAGE IS LIKELY NOT POSSIBLE FOR ANY MODERN PLAYER. DO YOU HAVE AN OVERALL PERCENTAGE YOU THINK IS ACHIEVABLE?

BW: I think I can get to at least 85%. Out of the roughly 2,000 cards I am missing, some of them were issued in lower-end sets: Donruss, Hoops and things like that. But you also have to consider that there are a lot of Dirk Nowitzki collectors in the hobby, which adds a lot of competition to his lower-numbered cards. I might not ever see some of these cards come up for sale because of his large fan base. Cards can also be lost to the hobby. That actually happened to my childhood collection when my parents' house burned down when I was in college. Low-numbered cards can be lost in a move, destroyed in a fire, accidentally thrown away, or be taken out of the hobby by some other disaster. But I think I can realistically get to 85%. The more difficult stuff will be the pre-Panini era cards numbered to five or less.

PSA: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CARDS YOU ARE MISSING THAT YOU WOULD MOST LIKE TO ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION?

BW: I still don’t own a Flawless Logoman 1/1; that is something I’d love to add to my collection. I have seen three or four sold in the recent past, but I wasn’t able to manage them financially when they came up. Nearly all of his cards were selling for crazy amounts of money during the boom, so I am hoping that something will resurface in a few years or at least after things have cooled down a bit. There is also some low-numbered rookie stuff like the E-X Credentials /23 that I would love to own. Definitely any Topps Finest or Bowman Chrome Superfractors from the mid-2000s would be highlights on my list.

PSA: IT SOUNDS LIKE A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF WHAT YOU ARE MISSING IS INEXPENSIVE BASE ISSUES?

BW: Yes. He had a lot of cards in 2018, but that is also Luka Doncic’s rookie year, so prices of unopened material are very high. I think a lot of that stuff will take a while to obtain. Hoops, Donruss, Optic and sets like Court Kings are areas where he has a lot of base cards and inserts with multiple rainbows. Otherwise, the higher-end stuff like Immaculate or National Treasures autos and patches rarely come up for sale, and when they do they are very expensive.

PSA: HOW DOES GRADING FACTOR INTO YOUR COLLECTION? ARE YOU TRYING TO GRADE EVERYTHING OR JUST CERTAIN CARDS THAT ARE NEEDED FOR REGISTRY SETS?

BW: I haven’t made a final decision on how far I will go with grading. Including the Teal set I mentioned earlier, I have just over 750 graded cards in my collection. I have another 200 to 300 that are either currently at PSA or will be shortly. There is only one master set for DIrk on the Set Registry. Before I got into the Registry I would guess that there were 98 cards in that set. But as I began to get stuff back from being graded, Optic and Prizm rainbows and things like that, I would get them added to the set. I don’t see that set growing a lot unless I get a lot more cards graded. Right now getting $1 and $2 base cards graded isn’t something I want to do.

PSA: YOU’VE SPOKEN A BIT ABOUT IT ALREADY, BUT WHAT WAS YOUR INTRODUCTION TO THE SET REGISTRY AND HOW DO YOU USE IT?

BW: I love the Registry. I was introduced to it through a customer of mine. I own a card shop in North Carolina and one of my customers asked if my Dirk collection was on the Registry. I graded my cards through PSA, but wasn’t very familiar with the Registry at that point. But I was hooked immediately after learning about it and graded about 600 cards within two months of joining. I have multiple graded rainbows now for Prizm and Optic. I have completed 12 rainbows at this point, and the largest would be 2020 Prizm, which I believe has 40 cards. The set doesn’t include any inserts or autographs, but I have all of the base cards and everything else with the exception of two 1/1s. All told, it is north of 55 cards.

PSA: THE REGISTRY ITSELF IS SET-BASED, BUT HAVE YOU LOOKED INTO SET REGISTRY SHOWCASES? THEY CAN BE SELF-CURATED AND I HAVE TO THINK A SHOWCASE WITH 127 1/1S OF THE SAME PLAYER WOULD BE EXTREMELY IMPRESSIVE.

BW: I’m definitely interested in getting that done. What has been awesome is that starting this year PSA has been imaging every single card they grade. About half of the cards I initially submitted were at the Value Bulk rate, so they weren’t scanned. But my goal is to backtrack and get high-resolution scans of all of my PSA-graded cards and then put together a showcase. I still have to get some of my 1/1s graded, but once they are all in PSA holders then I will definitely put together that showcase and then any other unique sets that I’ve collected.

PSA: YOU ARE COLLECTING DIRK’S POSTCAREER CARDS AS WELL. SO YOU WILL HAVE A CONTINUOUS CHALLENGE FOR YEARS TO COME.

BW: For sure. There are definitely fewer cards being produced each year now that he is retired, but he still averages around 350 new cards each year. Trying to hit and then maintain an 85% completion rate will continue to be an uphill battle. My one Christmas wish for this year is that Panini takes a break from producing Dirk cards so that I can get my completion percentage back up.

As of Dec. 2022, every service level for any card submitted is imaged after encapsulation, front and back. This post-grade imaging service was previously available to submission tiers beginning with Economy, but with the lens wide open, we’re looking at a 1567% daily imaging increase from the year prior.

Bobbleheads are on the brain at PSA, where our grading facility has been infiltrated by four-inch figurines hailing from every corner of the pop culture canon.

Yes, if you haven’t heard the news, PSA is now authenticating and grading Funko Pop! vinyl figures using the same numerical grading system the company applies to trading cards and tickets.

From superheroes to hardwood heroes to event exclusives and chase variants, there are infinite ways for collectors to pursue their passions.