The Dandy Dozen🏀: 12 Players' Vintage Basketball Cards Worth Collecting!

Collecting vintage basketball cards is a great way to round out your sports card collection. Of all the main sports, basketball is the one that doesn't go really as far back with sports card production, like baseball and football. Basically, the really attainable cards come from 1969 and forward, with a chunk of '80s years without any cards.
I invented "The Dandy Dozen," which is a list of 12 players from each era in each sport, whose vintage basketball cards I'm targeting for my collection.
It doesn't mean you have to buy the rookie cards of these players, but by buying any of their cards, their values should continue to rise, and you can work toward improving either the year of the player's card, or the grade of the cards.
The Dandy Dozen Vintage Basketball Cards:
Time Stamps!
0:00 - Introduction
2:14 - 1. Wilt Chamberlain
4:57 - 2. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / Lew Alcindor
7:39 - 3. Julius Erving
8:26 - 4. Jerry West
10:00 - 5. Oscar Robertson
10:48 - 6. Pete Maravich
12:34 - 7. John Havlicek
13:57 - 8. Elgin Baylor
16:05 - 9. Bill Walton
17:30 - 10. Walt Frazier
18:52 - 11. George Gervin
20:07 - 12. Elvin Hayes
21:00 - My "Just Missed" List
Let me know in the comments which players' vintage basketball cards I left off -- and who on this list you would replace them with!
Here are the links to my other Dandy Dozen videos!
Baseball --
Vintage: • The Dandy Dozen⚾: 12 V...
Modern: • The Dandy Dozen⚾: 12 M...
Millennial: • The Dandy Dozen⚾: 12 M...
Football --
Vintage: • The Dandy Dozen🏈: 12 P...
Modern: • The Dandy Dozen🏈: 12 M...
Millennial: • The Dandy Dozen🏈: 12 M...
Card images are provided to us BuysSportsCards.com BuySportsCards.com
If you are collecting and investing in sports cards on a limited budget, subscribe to my channel to see more videos with tips on how to do so! That’s what I’m all about!
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Visit my website for more sports card stories: davidgonos.com/
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The Dandy Dozen Series - Best Players to Collect in Each Sport, in Each Era:
• The Dandy Dozen
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Have a #HappyHobby !

[@studfieldmouse1369]

Gail Goodrich was my favorite growing up

[@mikethesportshistorycollec1947]

Great video. Funny about Baylor and Worthy kinda being forgotten behind Wilt, West, Kareem and Magic, but just to show how great they were, all 6 were named to the NBA top 50 team of all time. That's some great talent.

[@DavidGonos]

Oh wow, that’s a great point! Far fewer teams in the ‘60s, too. Altho, a lot more teams in Worthy’s day. Thanks, Mike!

[@rayfromphilly6969]

great list of vintage basketball cards david.

[@DavidGonos]

Thanks for watching and commenting, Ray!

[@studfieldmouse1369]

Jerry Buss went and got the best centers over the years. Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem and Shaq in that order. Fun fact. I met Wilt at a tennis tournament in Miami. Huge man. Shook his hand (kinda)

[@DavidGonos]

Good point! He got the best centers! I wonder if he’d work on getting Jokic these days somehow!

[@Scott__H]

Was looking forward to this one, great list, David. Looking at the just missed, I actually think you had the right exact 12 guys. Also, really great trivia and nuggets, as always! My collection is sorely lacking a lot of these guys, unfortunately. Now if I can just take a little of this budget and spend it on some singles instead of all the darn Wemby and Stroud retail, I might be able to remedy this, but don’t you hold your breath! Thanks for sharing!

[@DavidGonos]

Yeah, this year has been tough on those wanting old stuff -- Elly, Wemby, Stroud, Connor Bedard -- we're burning up our budget! It's been a great year for rookies, for sure. Thanks for commenting, Scott!

[@godisgreat8462]

Keep up with the great videos

[@DavidGonos]

Thanks, will do!

[@robertsprings3591]

Great video and awesome picks for the Dandy Dozen Mr David Gonos. I thought Star card company was producing cards from 81-82 Thu 85-86. I might be wrong about that. Have a good Tuesday and ✌️ Mr David Gonos.

[@DavidGonos]

Thanks Robert -- yesss, Star did produce cards, but they only distributed them in team packs, so it wasn't like you'd buy a pack and NOT know who you'd get out of it. They're just not considered the same as regular issued cards in regular packs IMO.

[@Ben_Loughrey]

Great video!

[@DavidGonos]

Thanks, Ben! Much appreciated!

[@richardprice8951]

It's hard to imagine the Honus Wagner T206 card of basketball doesn't even get a mention 🤔 The 1948 Bowman George Mikan rookie card is THE card in vintage basketball 🏀

[@DavidGonos]

Yeah, that’s not what this is. This is a video about which players the average collector should collect. 99.9% of people can’t afford Wagner. Mikan had the one card - this is for collectable players that have several cards to choose from. Watch the video and it explains how I did the breakdown.

[@eddywil]

awesome list for me i have to add Chocolate Thunder Darryl Dawkins

[@DavidGonos]

Hahaha good dunker, mediocre player, but I remember the posters back in the day!

[@DavidGonos]

I believe he said he was from LoveTron. Hahaha

[@eddywil]

@@DavidGonos but he was one of the 1st high schoolersto make the jump. yes he was crazy but so were the 70's he is iconic to his time

[@DavidGonos]

@@eddywil very true!

[@studfieldmouse1369]

#happyhobby

[@davidbrasfield6720]

Baylor, west, robertson, etc have two cards in the '61 set. The inserts are more affordable.

[@DavidGonos]

Thanks for watching and commenting! The inserts?

[@davidbrasfield6720]

Could be the wrong term. The non-base cards. They have sayings like, "Oscar passes around the defense." They are more affordable. The Robertson one includes Bill Russell.

[@DavidGonos]

@@davidbrasfield6720 Ahhh yes, those are great deals -- that's the only Dr. J rookie card I own from that '72 set, his All-Star card! Can't afford the big boy. Gonna do the same with Bill Russell at some point!

[@skywalkersindar7463]

Before I start the video, im going to predict Kareem #1

[@DavidGonos]

You were close!