Hello friends from the trading card community,
welcome to my website and first of all I would like to introduce myself:
I’m Thorsten Behnke from Munich, Germany and my first contact with the hobby was as a teenager, where many kids collected stickers from the German Soccer League and traded them in the schoolyard.
My collecting career of NBA trading cards started in 1993. In the season 1993/94 Upper Deck released different international editions and also in Germany you could buy the packs at many sales points. So I became aware of American Trading Cards for the first time and I catched fire.
After collecting complete sets at first, Shaquille O’Neal became my first choice as a PC player. His dominant play on the court and his presence off the floor had fascinated me – like many other NBA fans. With his trade to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1996-97 season, I became aware of a rookie who was total different from the dazzling Diesel.
I started to collect – away from the great attention paid to Shaq and Kobe – a classic role player in Derek Fisher. Over the years, I’ve amassed what is probably the most complete and largest collection in the world, which of course fills me with a bit of pride.
As with many collectors, the rising completion of a collection, the question of new goals arose, so over time I developed my passion for German players. Of course, Detlef Schrempf, our trailblazer for all subsequent German players in the NBA, was my first choice. Besides Dirk Nowitzki and Dennis Schröder, where I only collected a few cards, Paul Zipser became my new „all-in“ player, whom I collect completelyl. As a current Bayern Munich player in my hometown, I naturally have a special relationship with Paul. I even had sporadic written contact with him and of course dream of a live meeting in the future to present my star his own cards. Despite my biblical age beyond 50, the child in the man always comes out here 😉
But now see for yourself and get an insight into my passion for colorful cardboard cards 😉
Best regards
Thorsten