Read time: 7 min.

I stuffed a series of straining binders with thousands of basketball cards as a kid. Most came from packs and boxes, but special trips to the local card shop let me buy singles of my favorite players. I pared my collection down years ago but recently discovered thirty-two worthless Oliver Miller Cards I saved. I bought more last April for cheap, and it looks like my binge led to a run!

Oliver Miller is an obscure name in NBA history, a journeyman who played for the Arkansas Razorbacks before the Phoenix Suns drafted him in 1992. The backs of some of my cards describe The Big O as a deft passer for his size and a great shot-blocker with a soft shooting touch from close range.

Yet Oliver Miller got his nickname for a reason. Weighing in at 280 pounds during his rookie year, scouts said he needed to play more intensely and control his weight to find success in the pros. Despite that, he had a solid rookie season for the Suns and peaked for the Toronto Raptors during the 1995-96 campaign.

Unfortunately, his weight crept up and Miller washed out of the league at twenty-nine. After a years-long stint in Poland and Puerto Rico, he played part of a final season for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2003-04 at the age of 33.

Throughout his career, the Big O averaged 7.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists, and 1.5 blocks over nine seasons. Even though he didn’t live up to his college potential, he turned in a solid NBA career, and advanced metrics like VORP and PER agree.

I’ve been some version of fat for most of my life, but I put up similar stats when I played travel ball and on my school team. I practiced basketball obsessively and developed into a solid sixth man, and the Big O showed the Big T that he could succeed in a sport, at least for a while, in the face of some physical disadvantages.

All those memories burbled up when I came across my last binder of cards last March. I was never a serious collector of basketball cards. I had a lot of them, but I grew up in what’s called the junk wax era, an age of overproduced cards printed on thin stock with little value. I stored them two per slot and frequently took them out to shuffle and sort. Even then, I didn’t have much in the way of value. Many of my Big O cards were probably worth a quarter, at most.

After I found my old binder, I decided to continue to collect Miller’s cards as an adult. The best part of collecting someone like Big O is how easy it is to acquire the cards for a song! A few beers deep into a Saturday night last April, I logged onto COMC -Check Out My Cards- to see what I was missing. Thirty-six cards were what I was missing.

I was their proud owner after I spent $92.36. It sounds like a lot to pay after valuing my cards at a quarter apiece, but a slabbed autograph certified by Beckett cost $32. Another autographed card went for $11. I’ve got sixty-eight Oliver Miller Cards now. I haven’t added to my collection since, but I periodically scroll through COMC in hopes of something new. That’s what led to my discovery.

I was searching for print plates of ex-Ball State forward Theron Smith the other day when I saw that cards Olliver Miller autographed, like the one I paid eleven bucks for, have skyrocketed in price. The same card, one of five hundred printed, now costs a whopping $69.54!

Just for fun,. I decided to compare what I paid for each of my thirty-six cards to their current going price. The perceived value of any collectible is subjective and dynamic, and the value of an Oliver Miller card only becomes meaningful when there’s a willing schmuck buyer -like I was- in the market.

I put my invoice next to a spreadsheet. Unfortunately, comps don’t exist for my most expensive Big O card, the slabbed auto. After the 1992 Front Row – Authentic Signature that started me down this rabbit hole, my 1993-94 Fleer Ultra – Power in the Key insert experienced the next-highest price increase. I paid $5 for it, but now it sells for $10.64!

My 1995-96 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice card depicts the Big O in his Detroit Pistons days in a year he shaved his head, wore goggles, and averaged 8.5 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 1.8 blocks a game. I picked mine up for ninety-three cents, but they go for $4.48 now.

The cost of a 1996-97 Topps Finest card rose as well. It’s a thick card with a protective coating showing Miller playing for the Dallas Mavericks. It sells for $4.99 today, but I paid $1.68 for mine. The price of Miller’s Topps Finest refractor from the previous year also increased, from ninety-nine cents to $3.29.

Aside from the slab, the asking price for twenty-eight of the thirty-six cards I bought increased over the past eight months. The cards that didn’t now sell for anywhere between ten cents and two dollars less than what I paid. Overall, buying the new parts of my collection would cost $83.48 more than when I actually paid, or $24.94 if I forgot the autograph.

The perceived value of obscure players’ cards sometimes rises a little after they die, but Oliver Miller is still with us! 223 of his cards are listed on Trading Card Database, but only a fraction are available for purchase. I have to assume that my random binge of nearly all of them pumped up the price.

Looking through current offerings, I see a couple cards my collection lacks. Some sellers are asking a little more than I think they’re worth, but others seem right in line with my valuation. Oliver Miller’s basketball cards won’t ever make me rich, but he and Tee Smith are the only guys I actively collect now that I’m in my thirties.

I’m not biting for now, but I’ll probably keep adding to my collection of the Big O’s basketball memorabilia in the future. Oliver Miller helped me overcome some of my own obstacles in middle school, and I feel a real connection to the guy. I’ve seen a pair of his game-worn Pistons and Timberwolves jerseys on eBay for months, and they’d look mighty fine next on my wall!