Damn I Am Old

One of my favorite 1990s sets of all-time is the 1998 Skybox EX-2001 set.  I have done a few little write ups on the card set over the past two or three years of blogging, but I am always looking for new cards and new ways to enjoy some of my old favorites from yesteryear.  The old boxes of the cards are often outrageously priced, otherwise I would buy one and do a cool box break.  Mainly I just dabble with single cards from the set.  

I have already assembled the set, so I am mainly just picking up inserts and parallels.  A few days back while I was in school one of my trade partners, who dabbles in basketball started to blow up my Twitter messages.  I could feel my IPhone buzzing and when I got to lunch I had pictures and trade offers to look at and review.  I couple of words stuck out in the messages....

"look at this old guy"

"I am not sure what this guy did in college"

"this card is from one of those retro sets"

"when is last time NC State won something"

"TJ Warren and this other guy"

This is a really cool trade partner, but that last one stung.  As I sat in my classroom playing checkers with a group of my students, eating a PB&J sandwich and apple slices (I swear I am a 30 something) I suddenly felt really old that all of these words could be used to describe a card set that I loved collecting while I was in college.  He was not even sure how to respond other than to make a quick trade and question my age quietly to myself.  Note: Later in the day I fell in a mud puddle playing kickball at recess adding to my wonderment.  

Here are my two awesome new basketball cards starting off with a great looking David Thompson card which was pulled from a box of 2011-2012 Fleer Retro. 

I could see where you might think David Thompson is old, but if you are not sure what he did you need to spend a little bit of time on Google.  He has the only retired jersey at NC State and was the inspiration for Michael Jordan.  Even gave his introduction speech at his induction into the basketball Hall of Fame.  I hear David Thompson made it into the Hall first though.  Thompson also helped NC State win the 1974 National Championship.  I got a cool bonus card thrown in with the David Thompson of 2013-2014 ACC Player of the Year T.J. Warren.