A Unique 90's Refractor Set 5 Years in the Making

[SHowley2003]

When I first got back into collecting in 2012 I had impulsively bought two boxes of cards on Amazon as a bit of a mid-life crisis (& I've been hooked since!). The first was a box of 92-93 SC which landed me a Jordan Beam Team. The other was a 98-99 Finest. Upon opening the box I found a Ron Mercer oversized refractor. Being a Celtics fan and loving refractors I was pumped. As time went on I decided to get it graded to protect it. More time went on and I picked up another box of Finest and landed a Starbury oversized refractor. I loved it so I decided to chase the set. There are only 14 cards in the set but they proved very hard to track down. Several trades and purchase later and the set is complete. I had them graded just to protected them.

The set list:
1- KG
2- Keith Van Horn
3- Shaq
4- Shareef Abdur-Raheem
5- Antoine Walker
6- Gary Payton
7- Pippen
8- Alonzo Mourning
9- Kerry Kittles
10- Kobe
11- Stephon Marbury
12- Duncan
13- Ron Mercer
14- Karl Malone

Just a few pics...
http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag18/SHowley2003/2E8A1DD6-86C0-4312-BC4E-B0BDB067154B_zpsg0u0e8rv.jpg (http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/SHowley2003/media/2E8A1DD6-86C0-4312-BC4E-B0BDB067154B_zpsg0u0e8rv.jpg.html)

http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag18/SHowley2003/B7BF69F5-3E21-4559-B580-0953CCC00394_zpst1wa86qn.jpg (http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/SHowley2003/media/B7BF69F5-3E21-4559-B580-0953CCC00394_zpst1wa86qn.jpg.html)

http://i1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag18/SHowley2003/3DD57E6A-13DE-4FC3-A418-80EAB54DCDC0_zpsfbdybjmv.jpg (http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/SHowley2003/media/3DD57E6A-13DE-4FC3-A418-80EAB54DCDC0_zpsfbdybjmv.jpg.html)

[Rareairx23]

Those are sweet! How big are these?

[hkcardcollector]

Congrats!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SHowley2003]

Those are sweet! How big are these?

They are a real odd size. About 4.75 X 3.5.

[AlabamaSlamma]

Really cool. Clean design, some nice detail with the hardwood floor grid in the background, and great action shots.

[SteveO21]

Very cool set. I was actually looking at picking up one of the Kobe's recently, but decided to pass. They seem to be pretty reasonably priced still.

[Harper]

Now what? Will you move t a new set or try For condition upgrade on this one?

I love the idea of getting these cards graded. In another 20 years all the rest of these cards remaining are gonna be beat up... Moreso than now. You will have something so unique!! You already do!

[derotter]

Love this set. I still have the KVH I pulled when I opened a box of Finest last year, one of my favorite 90's design :)!

You gave me the idea to follow your path :coffee:

Cheers,
Vincent

[SHowley2003]

Now what? Will you move t a new set or try For condition upgrade on this one?

I love the idea of getting these cards graded. In another 20 years all the rest of these cards remaining are gonna be beat up... Moreso than now. You will have something so unique!! You already do!

I'm working in the 98-99 Finest Court Control Refractor insert set. I will focus more heavily on those. They are all /150. Yeah I am glad I graded these. In retrospect though I wish I had just submitted them for spabbing and gotten the "Authentic" blue label. Not surprisingly some of these came back with surface issues. They are almost 20 years old and people who traded them to me definetly dug them out of old collections. The 2 I pulled fresh from boxes graded out at 9.5.

Love this set. I still have the KVH I pulled when I opened a box of Finest last year, one of my favorite 90's design :)!

You gave me the idea to follow your path :coffee:

Cheers,
Vincent

Good luck!