What's the Best Year in the History of Basketball Cards?

[LinguaSpCards]

I had a little free time today and started thinking about the basketball card collecting industry. I tend to gravitate towards the 1990s as that is the era I grew up in. Nostalgia aside, I think an objective argument can be made that cards peaked during the 1997/98 season.

If we exclude Jordan’s stint with the Washington Wizards, 1997/98 marks the only NBA season that featured an active Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and MJ – three of the most important players in NBA history. Think about it: the 1997/98 card season has Tim Duncan rookie cards, Kobe Bryant (not to mention Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, and Steve Nash) second year cards, and a wonderful line-up of scarce parallel and insert sets that are headed by Michael Jordan in a Bulls uniform. Yes, LeBron James came along in 2003/04, and the King may ultimately match or perhaps even overtake Jordan as the greatest basketball player of all-time (he's not there yet in my opinion). However, in aggregate, the 2003/04 card season (featuring a rookie class of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Dwyane Wade) can not match a 1997/98 season comprising of Air Jordan, The Black Mamba, and The Big Fundamental. I will give 2003/04 its due credit because of the spectacular debut of Upper Deck Exquisite, but 1997/98 just has too much depth in terms of player selection and card options.

I'm not saying anything too original here, but this is just my way of showing appreciation for the late 1990s. And also, this is not an attack on present day cards.

[tjforce]

I don't think you can beat 2003-04.

You had LeBron's rookie year. And Wade, Carmelo and Bosh.

And you had MJ, Kobe and Duncan. All the guys you mentioned.

You had Topps Chrome hitting it's stride with only a few parallels.

You had a developed auto/patch card selection coming from brands.

And most importantly after LeBron, you had the release of the set that changed the collecting game.... Exquisite.

1997-98 might have been the peak of the 90's era, but 2003-04 was the dawn of a new era.

[BBallCT]

Originally Posted by tjforce

I don't think you can beat 2003-04.

You had LeBron's rookie year. And Wade, Carmelo and Bosh.

I agree, changed the game of collecting (for better or worse)



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[RogerGodahell]

Originally Posted by tjforce

I don't think you can beat 2003-04.

You had LeBron's rookie year. And Wade, Carmelo and Bosh.

And you had MJ, Kobe and Duncan. All the guys you mentioned.

You had Topps Chrome hitting it's stride with only a few parallels.

You had a developed auto/patch card selection coming from brands.

And most importantly after LeBron, you had the release of the set that changed the collecting game.... Exquisite.

1997-98 might have been the peak of the 90's era, but 2003-04 was the dawn of a new era.

It makes you wonder what will be the next big release that changes the hobby? Or will there ever be another one? I feel like they kind of tried to do that with Flawless but it never caught on like they wanted it to.

[Deadshot]

Originally Posted by RogerGodahell

It makes you wonder what will be the next big release that changes the hobby? Or will there ever be another one? I feel like they kind of tried to do that with Flawless but it never caught on like they wanted it to.

This is a good question - all of the sets that are really popular now are more or less copies of other prominent releases.

And I agree that 2003-04 can't be beat.

[RogerGodahell]

Originally Posted by Deadshot

This is a good question - all of the sets that are really popular now are more or less copies of other prominent releases.

And I agree that 2003-04 can't be beat.

Yeah it's tough one. When you think about what else can they do that they haven't already done? I don't think just raising the price of a product to $3000 a case is the answer (Flawless) and hoping people bite.

[tjforce]

Originally Posted by RogerGodahell

It makes you wonder what will be the next big release that changes the hobby? Or will there ever be another one? I feel like they kind of tried to do that with Flawless but it never caught on like they wanted it to.

I don't know.

What Panini's done a good job of is emulating successful brands of the past, not creating new ones.

Prizm is Topps Chrome.

National Treasures is Exquisite.

Revolution is Metal (or pick you low end fun 90's set).

Yet, they haven't created something brand new that we've never seen before.....


Really the two biggest things they've done is ushered in the era of hardcore rainbow chasing (which i'm 50/50 about), and brought in the unnumbered SSP insert/parallel that we've seen be successful lately (which i love).

[Rob 23]

I'm biased as a 90s collector but 1997-98 takes it for me too.

PMG
UD game jersey
Jambalaya
Star rubies
Finest gold embossed die cut refractor
Super rave
Ultra stars gold
SPX promotion auto
Star power supreme
Platinum portraits
Golden touch

The list goes on.....

[Kobefan]

I don’t have a top pick, but here are the iconic years:

93-94: introduced premium card products in the form of finest series one.
96-97: popularization of numbered cards and auto cards such as autographics.
97-98: popularization of gu jersey cards.
03-04: introduction of ultra expensive and high end product of exquisite.

[duron]

Even looking outside of the players in the league at the time, from a sheer design perspective, 97-98 was still the pinnacle for b-ball. My runner up will always be 96-97, but I don't consider it that far behind. Its non-parallel inserts were masterpieces.

[ThoseBackPages]

THIS YEAR!

you have everything mentioned above, AND new stuff THIS YEAR!

[tjforce]

Originally Posted by ThoseBackPages

THIS YEAR!

you have everything mentioned above, AND new stuff THIS YEAR!

Other than MJ and LeBron autos.

The hobby kinda misses those.

[Giantrobot]

92-93

Shaq hype was huge. Insert cards were the new hot thing. Upper Deck was really taking it up a notch, and the other companies had to follow. Ultra and Stadium Club were introduced to compete. The hobby really caught fire that year. Maybe the cards aren’t worth a fortune, if much at all, but it was a very important year for basketball cards. Those who were around then understand this.

[hawkfandan]

2003-04

Exquisite was a game changer.

[rats60]

I would have to go with 96/97. You have the 2nd greatest draft class of all time (only exceeded by 84 with Jordan, Olajuwon, Barkley, Stockton, etc.) with Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Stephon Marbury, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Jermaine O'Neal and Derek Fisher. You had the first MJ auto in 1996 SPX
followed by autos 96/97 SP, SPX and UD3. You had the first Autographics set. You had the first numbered parallels (Legacy and Credentials). You had the first Topps Chrome set with the Kobe RC refractor. That was the year that changed the basketball card market in my opinion.

2003/04 has Exquisite, the greatest set of all time, and a good but not as good as 1996 draft class, but what else did you have?

[tjforce]

Originally Posted by rats60

I would have to go with 96/97. You have the 2nd greatest draft class of all time (only exceeded by 84 with Jordan, Olajuwon, Barkley, Stockton, etc.) with Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, Marcus Camby, Stephon Marbury, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Jermaine O'Neal and Derek Fisher. You had the first MJ auto in 1996 SPX
followed by autos 96/97 SP, SPX and UD3. You had the first Autographics set. You had the first numbered parallels (Legacy and Credentials). You had the first Topps Chrome set with the Kobe RC refractor. That was the year that changed the basketball card market in my opinion.

2003/04 has Exquisite, the greatest set of all time, and a good but not as good as 1996 draft class, but what else did you have?

You had a total collection of LeBron cards produced that was far better than the collection of Kobe's produced.

How many great rookie year Kobe cards were made? Topps Chrome, TC Refractor, Finest Refractors, Showcase Legacies, Credentials. Not one rookie auto or RPA made (unless I'm missing something obscure).

Now look at LeBron. Exquisite RPA, Every Exquisite insert (LL, Etc), Ultimate Collection, SP Authentic, SPX, Topps Chrome, TC Refractors and Parallels, US SE Die Cut (base and black), Finest Refractors, BC Refractors.... the list goes on and on.

On top of all this, you have many of these same offerings for guys like MJ, Kobe, Duncan, Garnett, etc in 2003 as well.


2003 was just more robust and includes some of the most key cards of hands down the 3 most collected players in NBA history.

You can't say that about any of the last 90's releases.

[Lee42]

1996/97 was a sensational year with the rookie class and releases.

But if I had to go back to a stretch it would be between 2003/04 and 2007/08.

To me the Hobby just seemed to be booming.

Lebron/Wade/Melo in 03/04, Dwight 04/05 (yes he was popular at one stage) then players in 05/06 Cp3/Deron and Bogut (for us Aussies).........you would start out with the lower end releases and the year was culminated with UD SP Authentic, then Ultimate then Exquisite around the Nationals time in July.

You then had 3 months grace to chase down cards until the new lower end releases were out in October for the upcoming season!

These days its 15 months worth of releases for a single rookie year!

There just seemed to be such huge excitement around that Ultimate/Exquisite release time.......lots of breaks happening.....not necessarily on Youtube either......people would break boxes in real time on message boards such as this in threads rather than live stream them.

Lots of refreshing of pages in those days to see the latest hits.

Constantly refreshing eBay on release day to first see what the cards looked like and then try and grab them before the prices went crazy.

There was always a race to try and unearth where your key cards were pulled before one of the big collectors would try and grab it!

You had huge collectors like ExquisiteCollector and Exquisite613 (Jim) buying up all the huge cards.....that we all sort of dreamed we could own!

Players like Kobe (in his prime) and (Lebron the early years) helped drive this along with the new rookies along the way.

I guess it was also a time when a lot of collectors (who collected in the late 80's/early 90's) also came into our prime (20's/30's) and had cash to be able to pick up some of these great new cards being made.

That couple of years in the hobby was sensational.

Cheers
Matt

[Starman101]

Originally Posted by duron

Even looking outside of the players in the league at the time, from a sheer design perspective, 97-98 was still the pinnacle for b-ball. My runner up will always be 96-97, but I don't consider it that far behind. Its non-parallel inserts were masterpieces.

^^^THIS^^^

Agreed 100%

[Starman101]

Originally Posted by Rob 23

I'm biased as a 90s collector but 1997-98 takes it for me too.

PMG
UD game jersey
Jambalaya
Star rubies
Finest gold embossed die cut refractor
Super rave
Ultra stars gold
SPX promotion auto
Star power supreme
Platinum portraits
Golden touch

The list goes on.....

[drobfan8]

In each decade, for me it goes.

90s = 97/98 so many incredible designs and fun inserts
00s = 03/04 Exquisite, Ultimate, Bowman and Topps
10s = 12/13 Flawless, Immac, Prizm

[Jin]

Originally Posted by drobfan8

In each decade, for me it goes.

90s = 97/98 so many incredible designs and fun inserts
00s = 03/04 Exquisite, Ultimate, Bowman and Topps
10s = 12/13 Flawless, Immac, Prizm

In hindsight 12/13 was nice but at the time the market still felt kinda dead for Panini products. I thought 16-17 was a nice year w the great rookie class, the introduction of FOTL, and the resurgence of retail product

[tjforce]

Originally Posted by Jin

In hindsight 12/13 was nice but at the time the market still felt kinda dead for Panini products. I thought 16-17 was a nice year w the great rookie class, the introduction of FOTL, and the resurgence of retail product

Man, that was really early FOTL. Didn't make the huge impact 17-18 did.

What products were even FOTL in 16-17? Flawless. Anything else?

[rats60]

Originally Posted by tjforce

You had a total collection of LeBron cards produced that was far better than the collection of Kobe's produced.

How many great rookie year Kobe cards were made? Topps Chrome, TC Refractor, Finest Refractors, Showcase Legacies, Credentials. Not one rookie auto or RPA made (unless I'm missing something obscure).

Now look at LeBron. Exquisite RPA, Every Exquisite insert (LL, Etc), Ultimate Collection, SP Authentic, SPX, Topps Chrome, TC Refractors and Parallels, US SE Die Cut (base and black), Finest Refractors, BC Refractors.... the list goes on and on.

On top of all this, you have many of these same offerings for guys like MJ, Kobe, Duncan, Garnett, etc in 2003 as well.


2003 was just more robust and includes some of the most key cards of hands down the 3 most collected players in NBA history.

You can't say that about any of the last 90's releases.

Outside of Exquisite, you have no desirable MJ cards. Bulls playing era Autos and Inserts trump cards of a retired MJ. Every 96/97 product was desirable. Most 03/04 products were crap and below cost at release. Every Fleer product and every Topps product except Chrome and Bowman. Only Upper Deck products and the 2 Topps products were desirable. There was too much crap released in 03/04 for me to rate it so highly.

[Jin]

Originally Posted by tjforce

Man, that was really early FOTL. Didn't make the huge impact 17-18 did.

What products were even FOTL in 16-17? Flawless. Anything else?

I meant 17-18 haha

[drobfan8]

Originally Posted by Jin

In hindsight 12/13 was nice but at the time the market still felt kinda dead for Panini products. I thought 16-17 was a nice year w the great rookie class, the introduction of FOTL, and the resurgence of retail product

I couldn't care less about the market. The market was dead in 99 too and that doesn't make those releases any less awesome.

It was the first release of Flawless, Immac and Prizm. Even GS was nice. I'm yet to see any of the following releases prove dominance.

Flawless was a monumental hit, with boxes doubling in price in no time after people were saying it was a rubbish gimmick. $2k per box tells me the market was pretty strong. Not too sure what that has to do with the OP.