This one is for @eponmantel

Picked up a couple of these last month for my daughter (who recently has gotten into collecting) to track during the NCAA Tourney....Looking forward to seeing Lauren Betts stock continue to grow!!

Snagged this PSA 9 pink refractor of UCLA's 6' 7 star yesterday for $18... which is crazy cause getting any card slabbed by PSA costs at least $22.

Today, Betts had herself a game vs Indiana.

"BLOOMINGTON — IU women’s basketball simply had no answer for UCLA's Lauren Betts in a 73-62 loss at Assembly Hall on Saturday afternoon.

The 6-7 forward scored a game-high 25 points (12-of-16) with 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocks to help the No. 1 team in the country win its 15th straight game. The Bruins (15-0, 4-0 Big Ten) opened the day as one of just seven remaining unbeaten teams in the country."

Love how much this community has educated me about Type 1 photography already. I've been looking around at photos to grab but prices have been outside of my 'experimentation' budget.

I found an 'original photo' of UCLA/Indian Pacers legend Reggie Miller in the most recent Heritage Auctions sale and decided to go for it. Not authenticated/slabbed, but all appears legit, and it has some markings on the back that indicate it was used by a media outlet at the time (thank you @BenchMob for helping with that nugget).

Pulled the trigger with a $15 bid (estimates were for $200+) and I guess nobody else thought it was cool because I won last night.

Planning to send to PSA when it comes in- hopefully it gets officially recognized as a Type 1.

I swear I’m not trying to pump my own bags, as they say (I’m not selling any!!) but its possible that Kiki Rice of UCLA could see her card market explode. Let me explain why I’m keeping an eye on it…

In her first two games of the tourney she’s led UCLA in scoring (a very good team, btw) and had 24 points in the round of 32 leading UCLA to a comeback win over Creighton.

IF (big if) UCLA, the number 2 seed and at one point the top team in the country, makes a run and wins the tournament they will need her to be the massive talent that she is in order to (theoretically) beat Angel Reese and LSU, then Caitlin Clark and Iowa, then JuJu Watkins and USC in the Final Four, THEN an undefeated South Carolina team in the finals.

Just an insane schedule ahead - again, theoretically since Iowa/USC/SC could technically lose along the way.

IF that happens for UCLA then she might become the biggest name in the sport (ok, biggest non-Caitlin Clark).

I think I’m going to take the plunge to build a set of every UCLA Bruin to ever play in the NBA. 104 total players, so I have my work cut out for me, but it’s doable.

But for many players, especially the modern ones, there isn’t ‘one’ Rookie card. Do I build off base cards? Graded? Certainly no one right way to do this but curious, for any set collectors, is there a recommended approach?