[folkertino]

Further to my preview thread a little while back I thought I'd start an ongoing thread with how I am getting on with getting my custom cards signed. All updates in the first post. Full stories on www.folkscards.com.
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UPDATE 15 JUNE
Just came home from an amazing win-or-go-home Game 5. After the two losses at home against Barcelona, we won both games in their arena to equal the series for a decisive final game with a ticket to the Finals at stake. We led by 11 at halftime, but with -once again- some questionable calls we were trailing throughout most of the second half. We managed to tie the game with 6 seconds on the clock remaining, but unfortunately that was enough for Marcelinho Huertas to make a buzzer-beating layup. Nevertheless it's been an amazing season, winning the Eurocup trophy, setting a historic team record for victories and with a ticket for the Euroleague tournament next season.
After the game I received two autos on regular cards from Pablo Aguilar and Brad Oleson. On Tuesday I'll do a recap of all customs as well as the booklets which I haven't been bale to present yet.



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UPDATE 10 JUNE
The day before yesterday our team suffered its second home loss in playoffs against Barcelona (59-60). We were up by one with only two seconds left on the clock, when we failed to grab a defensive rebound which Ante Tomic converted into an easy bucket underneath.
I couldn't attend the game myself but a friend of mine, who I lend my pass, managed to get these three cards signed for me.


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UPDATE 6 JUNE
Yesterday we received FC Barcelona in the first game of the Semifinals in ACB Playoffs. We played a dreadful game with terribly low shooting percentages and a clear disadvantage in rebounding. A bummer to lose home court advantage in the first game, I'm hoping tomorrow we'll do better at home for Game 2.
In the morning I caught the team when they arrived for a shooting session. Juan Carlos Navarro, Maciej Lampe, Ante Tomic (Jazz next year?) and Bostjan Nachbar signed custom cards for me. After the game yesterday evening I received further autographs on custom cards from Joey Dorsey, Alex Abrines (Thunder next year?), Marko Todorovic and Jacob Pullen. Maciej Lampe signed a regular card and so did former Valencia player Matt Nielsen. I won't be able to attend tomorrow's game and the following two games are in Barcelona, meaning this one might have been my last game of the season. Justin Doellman is more than likely to leave the team (to Barcelona it's being said) so I asked him to sign my jersey!








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UPDATE 30 MAY
Yesterday Cajasol Seville visited Valencia again, this time for the first game in the Playoff Quarter Finals. By halftime we lead by eight points, an advantage we were able to extend over the second half to finally win the game 84-54. Tomorrow is the second game in this best-of-three series. If we win we will face either Barcelona or Laboral Kutxa.

After the game I had the opportunity to get two custom cards signed by Marcus Landry (brother of Carl Landry), which I couldn't get signed two weeks ago. I also made another card for Kristaps Porzingis - just in case he gets drafted this summer.



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UPDATE 17 MAY


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UPDATE 12 MAY
First of all last week Valencia Basket won the Eurocup! The Eurocup is the secondary pan-European league (the principal being Euroleague), although Eurocup finalists would usually rank in the Top 10 of European teams overall. An amazing achievement that makes our team only the second to win three European titles.
For the occasion I did a remake of an earlier video, here is the 2013-14 Folk's Cards Valencia Basket Eurocup tribute video!


Then yesterday Cajasol visited Valencia Basket.
After the game I got autographs on custom cards from Tomas Satoransky (Wizards draftee) and Kristaps Porzingis (listed for 2014 Draft), and Romain Sato and Aito García Reneses, who coached his 1000th ACB game, signed regular cards. I also had an opportunity to get my picture taken with Eurocup trophy, which was fun.




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UPDATE 3 MAY
Today Bilbao Basket played against Valencia and we took a relatively easy W. Unfortunately I couldn't atted the game but a fellow fan was kind enough to have some of my cards signed. Both Raül Lopez and Damir Markota signed a custom card and a regular card.
Then the day before yesterday we played the home game in the Eurocup Finals against UNICS Kazán from Russia. We knew it was going to be a tough game because we had faced them twice earlier in the tournament and lost both times. This time however we won by 13 points. It was a victory with mixed feelings because in the third quarter we actually led by over 30 points, which would have virtually sealed the Finals and make the return game in Russia coming Thursday a formality. No such luck however and it's going to be fingers crossed and hard work to maintain this lead and bring in the Eurocup trophy. After the game I couldn't stay long so I missed on Andrew Goudelock, but I did catch Luke Harangody for another custom card auto.



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UPDATE 22 APRIL
Today I received another package with through-the-mail autos. This time it was from Victor Claver who plays with the Blazers and is from our Spanish town Valencia. His current second year in the NBA has been equally as difficult as his rookie year and he has been struggling for minutes, although I hope he'll see some action in the Playoffs.
The same day that I sent my cards to Vitor Faverani (see below) I also sent a package to Claver, containing one die-cut card from the Folk's Cards set and a card for the Valencia Basket custom set. Today they finally came back and they're wonderful additions to my collection




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UPDATE 14 APRIL
The Fuenlabrada team visited Valencia Basket yesterday. After the game our coach Velimir Perasovic signed my Valencia Basket custom card - the last one I needed from the current roster. James Feldeine and Eloy Vargas signed custom cards as well. Also, last year, the card I had designed for James Feldeine was printed in the Fuenlabrada team magazine. Yesterday I took the magazine with me and got a few autographs in there as well. Andy Panko and former national team player Carlos Cabezas signed their picture on the cover. In the interior pages I got further autographs from Marcus Arnold and Moussa Diagné, who was actually carried off the court after he had fainted in the second quarter. James Feldeine signed the picture of my card also.







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UPDATE 2 APRIL
Yesterday Valencia Basket received Russian team Nizhny Novgorod in the home game of the Eurocup semi-finals. Although theoretically our team is stronger, Nizhny Novgorod proved to be a tough competitor and we won the game by only 9 points. Therefore we must win next week's return game or at worst lose by a maximum of 8 points to proceed to the Finals, which is feasible but won't be easy. After the game I received autographs on custom cards from Dijon Thompson, Primoz Brezec and Taylor Rochestie.


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UPDATE 28 MARCH
Tomorrow Valencia Basket will receive the Obradoiro team from Santiago de Compostela. As I wont be able to attend the game I caught the team upon their arrival today and got autographs on custom cards from Durand Scott and newly signed Travis Peterson.

A few days ago I also received from my parents the through-the-mail autos on custom cards I had sent to two American players in Holland, Patrick Richard and Justin Knox.

NOW. The big through-the-mail arrival of today is of Vitor Faverani, the former Valencia Basket big man who, after doing some workouts with various NBA teams, signed with the Celtics last summer. Two weeks ago or so I sent him three custom cards, one of which a die-cut, and he very kindly signed all three. I am absolutely thrilled about these, because he's a great guy and I think he has got great potential to become a dominant center in the NBA. Awesome!

from left to right: regular, die-cut, and regular custom cards


Here's also a video of the 'break':


and 'the other' guys



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UPDATE 25 MARCH
A couple of moths ago our team signed Lubos Barton to cover for some injured players. As they are now rejoining in the team I expect that his month-by-month contract will not be extended so yesterday I quickly picked up two more autos from him. One was on a custom card from his days at Valparaiso (when he still had hair). The other one on his warm-up jersey that I won in a contest a few months ago.



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UPDATE 22 MARCH 2014
A little while ago I was able to organize a little surprise for a befriended collector who has a special interest in Ryan Toolson and Jaycee Carroll. I made custom cards of these players and mailed them to have them signed and dedicated to him. Toolson's came back quite swiftly but I never received Carroll's. Then, when his team came over to Valencia to play our team I made new copies and had them signed in-person. He told me he recalled receiving those cards I had sent and that he had signed and returned them. It suppose those got lost in mail and to date (three months later) they haven't surfaced.
A few days ago my friend received his dedicated cards so now I can showcase my own copies too!



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UPDATE 17 MARCH 2014
Yesterday Valencia Basket received Unicaja. A tough opponent as always and also very advanced in Euroleague, the team from Málaga was bound to give us a hard time at home. Nevertheless we lead pretty much throughout the game and ended up taking the W by 91-83.
Unfortunately I couldn't attend the game but a fellow fan was extremely kind and picked up my cards to get them signed. I received autos on custom cards from Fran Vázquez, Earl Calloway, Zoran Dragic and Latavious Williams, for the Valencia set from Romain Sato, Bojan Dubljevic and Rafa Martinez and two more from Thomas Kelati. It's awesome when people help you out for the love of the hobby!




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UPDATE 5 MARCH 2014
Today BC Khimki visited Valencia Basket in the first last-16 game of the Eurocup. At the last minute it turned out that I couldn't attend the game, but fortunately I had already intercepted the team yesterday upon their arrival in the airport. I picked up these four autos on my custom cards. I also had four regular cards ready for signature after the game but those now remained unsigned



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UPDATE 03 MARCH 2014

Yesterday we played against Laboral Kutxa. The game was of particular interest because it was the Spanish league debut for Lamar Odom, who signed with the visiting team about a week ago. Despite the high expectations his physical deficiency was evident and he ended up with 2 pts (1/5 FG%), 2 reb, 1 blk and 1 ast in almost 17 minutes.
After the game a big crowd waited outside to catch a glimpse of Odom and it was of little surprise that he was escorted by team assistants straight into the bus. I did get a chance pick up autos of Andrés Nocioni and of former Spain Olympic Team coach Sergio Scariolo on custom cards.



These are the cards I had prepared for Odom, one regular and one 'die-cut'.


It wasn't actually meant to be a die cut, in reality I cut the card wrong and because I couldn't use it in its original form I tried out to see what it would come out like as a die cut. The imperfections around the chin are just the flash of my phone, the card came out quite nice actually.
As I didn't get a chance to get them signed, and probably won't have another opportunity, I'll send them over to the team and try a TTM. I don't have any high hopes, but hey you never know.

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UPDATE 19 FEBRUARY 2014
Yesterday we played a Eurocup game against UNICS Kazan (Russia). Despite having already qualified for the next round this still was an important game for seeding purposes, as winning by 7 points would make us leader in our current group, thus avoiding the very strong BC Khimki in the next round. After trailing by almost 20 points in the first quarter we made a slow but steady comeback and Valencia was even up by 4 points in the last quarter. We couldn't extend that lead however and we ended up losing the game 73 -76.
After the game I received autos from Andrew Goudelock, Luke Harangody, newly signed Valencia center Ksystof Lavrinovic and Belgian basketball legend Tomas van den Spiegel.
A major bummer was the fact that my black marker had apparently dried out a bit. This meant the Harangody and Van Den Spiegel regular cards came out a bit crappy. Against my better judgment I used my blue marker for the Goudelock card and.. it blotted completely. Fortunately the custom cards came out perfectly fine.




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UPDATE 03 FEBRUARY 2014
Yesterday Valencia Basket received FC Barcelona in what was a crucial game for consolidating our second position in the league's ranking.
Barcelona started off very strong and was ahead 16 points in the second quarter. In the third quarter, however, Valencia made an epic comeback with a 33-16 split. The fourth quarter was an equal battle and the game could have gone either way. The 'Fonteta' arena turned into hell's kitchen with the fans supporting the team more than ever, which may have given that little extra to help Valencia take the win 95-93.
After the game I was able to pick up autographs from Mario Hezonja, Joey Dorsey and Juan Carlos Navarro.



UPDATE 1 FEBRUARY 2014
Last week I realized there was a former Tar Heel, Justin Knox, who plays in Holland (my native country, although I now live in Spain). I made a custom card, sent it over and my parents in Holland just sent me a photo of the signed card delivered to their house


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UPDATE 25 JANUARY 2014
Today we received the Joventut Badalona team (remember the green jersey of Ricky Rubio's rookies?, that team). Picked up these four autos when the players arrived for the game, Shurna was kind enough to sign two cards.
More, as always, on www.folkscards.com




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UPDATE 22 JANUARY 2014
Our team received Stelmet Zielona Gora from Poland yesterday. Picked up these in-person autos, two from Craig Brackins on the regular cards and one from Christian Eyenga on a custom card.



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UPDATE 12 JANUARY 2014
Another big win yesterday and got to pick up 7 autos, five of which I can show (the other two will be landing on someone's doormat soon). I got one auto from Luke Sikma - yes, the son of - and one of a Spanish legend. He is now color commentator and he is actually the example image for the 'color commentator' entry on Wikipedia. The other three are players of our local team and the cards are part of this season's team set that I made. The bald guy is the one whose warm up jersey I won the other day.





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UPDATE 09 JANUARY 2014
Yesterday Belgian team BC Oostende played here and I picked up these two autos. The Echenique card was a rush job as he was signed only three days ago to cover for an injured player. This was the best NBA photo I could find of him. Ryan Thompson is the younger brother of Jason Thompson (Sacramento Kings).



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UPDATE 28 DECEMBER 2013
Yesterday I caught up with Kyle Kuric to get his signature on a custom card that captures a very exciting moment. Check out the video for the full play! I also chatted with his ever-so proud dad for a moment (who wore a Cardinals jacket) and who took a photo of us when Kuric signed the card.

[vgqv]

It's funny how none of them thought to sign on the lower bottom of the card. My friend makes custom cards of the real rare players to get signed. Especially guy's in Summer League and Preseason. We always get a kick out of the guy's who happen to miss the big white box for them to sign in. I guess they honestly don't realize but for the NBA veterans, I think they're sabotaging. And some guy's even smudge the card after they sign it. I like how you incorporate action photos, something I wish Panini would do more than just in their low-end sets.

[Megatron2181]

Awesome stuff man! Especially love the Satoransky

[TBarn291]

Great stuff man, I am looking forward to reading the stories tonight when I get home.

[folkertino]

It's funny how none of them thought to sign on the lower bottom of the card. My friend makes custom cards of the real rare players to get signed. Especially guy's in Summer League and Preseason. We always get a kick out of the guy's who happen to miss the big white box for them to sign in. I guess they honestly don't realize but for the NBA veterans, I think they're sabotaging. And some guy's even smudge the card after they sign it. I like how you incorporate action photos, something I wish Panini would do more than just in their low-end sets.

I was actually going to mention the 'off'-signing in my post. It really, really pisses me off. It is so blatantly obvious (at least for me) where they should sign and they'll just put it in the dark are of the picture...
It's not because the cards are too small because they are actually 8x11cm (3.15'x4.3').
The action photo was one of the main criteria for me when designing the cards. I started collecting with the 1994-95 Collector's Choice series... nuff said.

Great stuff man, I am looking forward to reading the stories tonight when I get home.

Cool, great to have a visitor. Another story coming up on Sunday or Monday.
BTW: I am using the design I did for your custom cards for my new Valencia set. Some small alterations, but I stuck to the same principle. I'll update on that in a few weeks' time.

[folkertino]

11 November update i post #1: http://www.beckett.com/forums/thread-154...pid2377899

[vgqv]

Cool mini. story behind the jersey. I actually pulled an auto card of Henk Norel awhile back, always wondered what happened to him. Same with Petteri Koponen (not sure if I spelled his name right but that's what I remember from his card), drafted by Portland in like 07, not sure if they still own his rights. Your two latest autos look quite nice (since they signed in the right space!)

[folkertino]

20 November update in post 1

[buckunteer]

I like the Sato auto in the X jersey! I grew up only about 80 miles from Xavier. Awesome stuff as usual Folk!

[folkertino]

I like the Sato auto in the X jersey! I grew up only about 80 miles from Xavier. Awesome stuff as usual Folk!

Thanks Buck, Sato is awesome. On our team is also Justin Doellman who was also a Musketeer.