Monday, December 28, 2009

The first ABA - International basketball cards

Long before the red, white and blue basketballs - way before the satin shorts and big afros were cool - the Argentina Basketball Association was playing hoops in South America back in 1965. The "other" ABA - American Basketball Association would peak in the 1970's.

Some of the Argentine basketball pioneers were pictured on gum card made by Tarjton - a subsidary of Topps in Argentina. A closer look at 1965 Tarjeton Sports set the design hints of the 1960 Topps football cards. WARNING - the following samples are not PSA material.



The set also includes boxers, track & field (world record runner Osvoldo Suarez- below), automobile sports and of course - soccer. About 75 % of the set is soccer teams from the Argentine 1st Division.


The highlites of the set include the top club players from River Plate, Independiente and Boca Juniors. However, included are members of the Italian Champions - Inter Milan (aka Internationale) with Spanish star Luis Suarez and Brazilian "Jair".



These cards are very rare compared to any American issues. They do not appear often and a complete set in mint condition would be priceless. As you can see from these samples above, condition is a major factor in foreign issues with binders, card holder and card savers a luxury.

2 comments:

shoeboxlegends said...

I don't collect basketball or soccer but those are some cool cards!

sociallyawkwardjellyfish said...

Very, very cool!