Another 90's Insert Set: '99 E-X Century Dunk N' Go Nuts

In my never ending quest to collect any and all 90's basketball inserts, I recently started putting the 1999 E-X Century Dunk N' Go Nuts set together. The Dunk N' Go Nuts set is comprised of acetate cards that was released by SkyBox. Acetate is the process of encasing or printing an image on a translucent plastic. This is one of the coolest looking and one of my favorite trading card technologies. I'm also putting the '98 Metal Universe Titanium and the '97 Ultra Court Masters sets together. Both of which are also utilize acetate technology.

SkyBox was one of the more creative companies of the 90's. They released set after set that utilized the absolute most cutting edge technologies of the day. Who can forget their totally rad early 90's sets and graphics? If you've forgotten, checkout the TV commercial for the '92 SkyBox Series II release. Awesome!

The '99 E-X release is mostly remembered for the Essential Credentials inserts and a very solid Vince Carter RC, and rightfully so. The Credentials card design is one of the most beautiful trading card designs ever produced in my opinion, but these Dunk N' Go Nuts cards aren't too bad themselves. Plus, they're a fraction of the cost of the Credentials cards. It's tough to tell from the scans, but these cards are translucent and the text reflects light. Those design elements make for one cool looking card.

Although more reasonably priced than Essential Credentials cards, the Dunk N' Go Nuts cards typically sell for over their book values. This is rare in a hobby that book value is usually cut in have on e-markets like eBay. Take the Michael Jordan for example: (click here). I know it's Michael Jordan and all, but that's nearly $100 over book value. Not all of the cards in the set go for that much over book value, but many of them consistently out perform their values by 15% - 35%.

The cards are not terrible rare with a pack insertion rate of 1:36. You can typically find a number of these on eBay any given week. Even the Jordan pops up two to three times a month. I should know, the Dunk N' Go Nuts cards are part of my daily search routine. A completed set recently sold for $250 (click here). That's a bit more than I'm willing to shell out all at once. Plus, what's the fun in that? It's almost like cheating if you buy the entire set all at once.

I currently have six cards from the twenty card set. I don't have any of the big guns from the set like Jordan or Kobe (by "big guns" I mean expensive), but I did manage to acquire a few notable names like Grant Hill and Tim Duncan.

Most would think the Hill, McGrady or Duncan would be the ones I was most excited to add to my collection, but they're not. I coined the term "Felipe Lopez Effect" several months ago when describing getting a card of a player that may not be the most collectible in the hobby, but you as the collector really cherish. I call it that because I like collecting Felipe Lopez inserts and auto's. Lopez was the 1994 Parade, USA Today, Gatorade and others High School Player of the Year. He was one of the most highly touted amateur players since the likes of Lew Alcindor and Kenny Anderson. Yes, at one time Anderson was considered a dynamic talent. Lopez had an up and down career at St. John's University in NYC and I probably watched every game of his collegiate career, but I still collect inserts of Lopez today. Checkout the bottom of the Dunk N' Go Nuts Lopez card. He's rockin' some low top Adidas kicks.

The set will most likely take me a while to put together since I have a number of other sets and players that I'm collecting. Plus, I usually look for the deals. Hopefully I'll be able to add to my Dunk N' Go Nuts set regularly. I do however have a number of cards coming in for a few of the other sets I'm also putting together, so stay tuned for those. Happy collecting and… "Enjoy Every Bounce of the Ball".