Basic Cards

Collectors know what makes a card special. Fleer is giving them -- as long as they're 18 or younger -- their chance to design an NBA card.The contest will be judged in two age groups, 12 and under and 13-18, and prizes are identical. The top prize is a trip to the NBA All-Star Game and Jam Session in San Antonio. Runners-up get autographed basketballs, and second prize is a complete set of 1995-96 Fleer or Fleer Ultra NBA cards.The contest judges know their stuff -- they include NBA players and Fleer designers.

One of the biggest trading card hits has been "Magic: The Gathering." It's a fantasy role-playing game that uses trading cards.Magic cards, like their sports counterparts, can be rare (and valuable -- in monetary terms or for playing the game) or common. Some hobby dealers say it helped save their bottom line during last year's baseball strike.Upper Deck noticed and is bringing out a fantasy football game. That's fantasy football that Magic devotees will recognize, not the kind for NFL statistics fans.

Cal Ripken seems to be everywhere -- at the ballpark (naturally), on the cover of virtually every publication, on T-shirts, on a lithograph and on baseball cards.Fleer/Skybox International is honoring the Orioles shortstop with a pair of 10-card insert sets, in the premiere edition of E-Motion Major League Baseball and in Series 2 of Flair.The Ripken insert sets feature highlights selected by Ripken. The E-Motion set is called "Timeless," and the Flair set is "Enduring."Both sets will be augmented by five cards highlighting the 1995 season, available by mail.