John Calipari
2021 Leaf Metal
#JC1 So Money
Blue Rainbow 27-of-50
PSA Grade: MINT 9
PSA Auto Grade: 10
The majority of the 2021-22 Leaf Metal Basketball checklist revolves around the game’s youth. That comes through in a couple of forms, though, thanks to new NIL rules that open up the sport’s prospect possibilities. Recent draft picks are joined by players slated for the 2022 NBA Draft. High schoolers and college players are also in the set, offering something more long-term for collectors to watch and follow. In addition to the main Metal Autographs line are themed inserts, including Court Queens, First Round Bound, So Money!, State Pride, and With Pick. The “So Money” autograph set checklist features only 26 cards. The rainbow parallels (in blue) are numbered to 50 or less.
John Calipari was previously the head coach at the University of Massachusetts from 1988 to 1996, the NBA’s New Jersey Nets from 1996 to 1999, the University of Memphis from 2000-2009, and the University of Kentucky from 2009-2024. He led the Wildcats to one NCAA National Championship in 2012. He has been named Naismith College Coach of the Year three times (1996, 2008 and 2015) and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
The World Trade Center Dedicated
2022 Topps Heritage #NF5
News Flashbacks
PSA Grade: GEM MT 10
The standard insert lineup matched past years, including Baseball Flashbacks, showcasing '73 baseball action, New Age Performers, for 25 modern stars, News Flashbacks, with notable world news during 1973, and Then and Now, which compares past and present talent. The “News Flashbacks” set checklist of 15 cards included the London Bridge opening, President Nixon swearing in for a second term, the Endangered Species Act was passed, NASA launched Skylab Space Station and the World Trade Center dedication among others.
On April 4, 1973, a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the completion of the Twin Towers’ construction. At 110 stories each, 1 WTC, or the North Tower, and 2 WTC, the South Tower, provided nearly 10 million square feet of office space. Reaching over a quarter of a mile into the sky, they were the tallest buildings in NYC, and for a brief period, they were the tallest buildings in the world. As of 2001, the WTC housed more than 430 businesses from 28 different countries—roughly 50,000 workers. They attracted tens of thousands of tourists and commuters every day.
World’s Tallest Buildings
2012 Topps Allen & Ginter
Authentic Auto #WTB5
Rudy Giuliani
Beckett Grade: Authentic
The world’s tallest buildings insert checklist features 10 cards inserted 1:10 packs. The list included the Burj Khalifa, Empire State Building, and the Chrysler Building among others. Opened in 2014, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere is also the seventh-tallest building in the world. One World Trade Center soars to a symbolic 1,776 feet as a New York landmark.
Serving as the 107th Mayor of New York City (from 1994 to 2001), Giuliani previously served as the US Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983, and the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989. After a failed campaign for Mayor of New York City in the 1989 election, he succeeded in 1993, and was reelected in 1997, campaigning on a "tough on crime" platform. Rudy Giuliani led New York's controversial "civic cleanup" from 1994 to 2001 and appointed William Bratton as New York City’s new police commissioner. In 2000, he ran against First Lady Hillary Clinton for a U.S. Senate seat from New York, but left the race once diagnosed with prostate cancer. For his mayoral leadership following the September 11th attacks in 2001, he was called “America’s Mayor” and was named Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2001.