Yao Ming Rookie Card

[HoRockets]

Yao Yao Yao
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by Russ Cohen
2002-08-30

One thing is for sure this basketball season and that’s Yao Ming will be the focal point for the first part of the season. For a guy that has spent just 5 or so days in this country he is already a big star, a really BIG star.

Ming looked pretty good against Jermaine O’Neal recently and there is no reason to think he can’t average 12 points and 10 rebounds in his rookie season, so that coupled with the fact that he was the #1 overall pick in 2002 makes him very collectible.

He will have to gain some weight and learn how to use his size a little better, but Ming does have a sweet outside shot that will cause many matchup problems for the other teams.

Fans can get their hands on no less than 5 different autograph cards and 5 different jersey cards (1:30 packs, numbered to 99 or less), plus 4 different combination cards (Yao Ming/Jay Williams is one and they are limited to 10 each) of Ming in Sage Autograph Basketball 2002. This is significant because it won’t be easy and will be near impossible to get a Ming autograph any other way.

At $11.00 a pack you ARE getting your money’s worth as SAGE President Tom Geideman pointed out.

“There are two different lines of employees watching the feeder so 1 autograph card or 1 jersey card are in every pack,” said Geideman. “The cards are also coded and we use surveillance as well.”

Collectors know that collation is key and SAGE is on top of it.

SAGE let us know how hard the Ming cards have been hard to come by. Ming’s cousin is his agent and is based in Chicago. SAGE had to fly him to China to attend the signing session. The Chinese government has been very guarded and access to Ming has been very limited. SAGE is the only place right now for Ming game-used jerseys in packs; there are no redemptions.

This set is truly driven by Ming and Williams but there are other future greats in this set like David Carr, Eric Crouch and Joey Harrington. There is also a card that has Ming and Carr jersey’s on it and that’s significant since they were both #1 picks in their respective sports.

http://www.hoopsology.com/cardsartic...3?ArticleID=94


I haven't collected Bball cards in a long while. But I would love to get my hands on some Yao Ming Rookie Cards. I just gotta get my fix!