There once was a time when the NBA had a young successor to Michael Jordan and everyone loved him.  He had his team, his city, and the league in his pocket, with the ability to do no wrong.

Then, we had “the decision” and everything changed in one fell swoop. Lebron James went from the NBA’s favorite superstar to exiled, hated, and fan divided overnight.

Usually, when a player joins a star studded team in a bigger market, they are looked in a positive light.  Their cards see an uptick on the market and people stash them away for a big return on investment.  In this case, collectors were severely divided and the market showed this almost immediately.  Cards that were usually the hottest sellers, instantly took a hit.

The card pictured above usually should have sold for at least $700, and possibly would have gone even higher.  Instead, it sells for a low price of $300.  It’s quite amazing how much of a difference a new market and the public’s perception can have on a player. Even cards his top rookie card, 2003-04 UD Exquisite has dropped to the $6k range, which is unheard of for such a monumental rookie.

It’s unclear if he will ever return to the same hobby stardom again, but it’s safe to say that no player is a safe investment.  Even all the people crowning Kevin Durant as the next “do-no-wrong” player should remember the Lebron James market collapse.

For a change of pace, we bring it back to the old school days of USA cardboard – 1994 Skybox (aka Dream Team #2).  After Dream Team #1 was completely dominant, the marketing of the team was viewed as a hobby money maker.  The major companies back then included Fleer/Skybox and they were the makers of the USA basketball products.

When they made the 1994 set, they also took time to make a gold ink parallel version (on-card autographs!) of the base cards for a select few player.  The actual autographed set was only seven names, which are listed below.

Larry Johnson
Dan Majerle
Tim Hardway
Joe Dumars
Isiah Thomas
Shawn Kemp
Dominique Wilkins

You can see that the cards were inserted by Skybox into the product, due to a embossed stamp on the card itself.  It’s very similar to the Donruss buyback autographs from the earlier 2000′s in baseball.

The Isiah Thomas was listed and sold for some pretty good money, given he is not a sought after autograph on the market.

Makes you wonder where all the rest are these days and what the actual print run was…

I reported earlier on the new Panini Hall Of Fame Dream Team Autographs and their potential craziness on the eBay market.  Well, it’s even crazier than anyone though and still climbing.  Some auctions were being bought immediately in the $150-250 range for players, but now the prices have almost doubled on a few since the product hit.

Check out some of the recent sales…

Scottie Pippen #’d /49 & Auction #2 – $180/$200 increase in a week!

Magic Johnson #’d /44 – $200 increase in a week!

Chris Mullin #’d /49 – $50 increase in a week! One more listed.

Clyde Drexler #’d /49 – Only one to sell so far. One more listed.

Larry Bird #’d /49 - $200 increase in a week!

It’s also worth noting that we have yet to see any of the following players hit the market.  Either they are too tough to pull, or people aren’t breaking a lot of the product.

Christian Laettner
David Robinson
Charles Barkley
Patrick Ewing
Karl Malone

I feel sorry for any deep pocketed collector trying to make this Dream Team Set.

In a perfect world, Panini would have made the 2009-10 Panini Hall Of Fame USA Dream Team Autograph set complete with a certain somebody as the headliner.  Unfortunately, Michael Jordan is still locked up by Upper Deck exclusively, even though they do not have the NBA license for cards anymore.

Thanks to a friend on FreedomCardBoard.com, we get to see what could have been.  Here is the Michael Jordan Dream Team Autograph, in all it’s faux-beauty.

What would it sell for, say serial #’d /23…. $1000? $2000?

Sigh, we’ll never know.