You may be familiar with the term pulp, used to describe some of the older, cheaply made periodicals from many years ago. However, the term "story-paper tabloid" may not be as common. Story-paper tabloids are similar to pulps in the low quality of the materials used, but differ in their format and size. Produced using cheat wood pulp paper, they frequently suffer from deterioration. Whatever their limitations in durability, they made up for in terms of their place in vintage basketball history. Some of the coolest artwork ever is on these covers - Top Top Weekly being one of the best examples. Typically called a pulp, Tip Top Weekly was a story-paper tabloid published by Street & Smith. It ran for more than 800 issues. It began April 19, 1896 with an August 12, 1912 title change to New Tip Top Weekly. Making a 1915 transition from a story-paper tabloid to a standard pulp magazine format, it was re-titled Tip Top Semi-Monthly and then became Wide Awake Magazine from December 10, 1915 to June 10, 1916. Promoted as "an ideal publication for American Youth," this magazine featured several fictional heroes but was mainly devoted to the ongoing adventures of student Frank Merriwell, who began at a fictional New England academy and then moved on to Yale. Within Tip Top Weekly are 7 basketball-themed magazines from 1900-1908, each written by William George Patten under the pseudonym Burt L. Standish. They are some of the best of old "basket ball"!

Recently, I was lucky enough to find 10 of the 16 cards from the 1954 Clark Candy basketball set. These cards are quite rare and seldom seen, even by advanced basketball collectors.

Recently, I came across a surprising find - the 1928 Cuban Aguilitas Album Redemption postcard. When I've seen these in the past, they have always been baseball related. This one is basketball themed and shows the same image as card #397, the HNOS Maristas. The seller of this item said he found it in Cuba three decades ago. It is a nice and unexpected addition to the collection! You can see examples of the 1928 Cuban Aguilitas cards and a bigger scan of this postcard at http://www.vintagebasketball.com/home/item/1928-cuban-cigarros-aguilitas/