What are your ranking of the Topps Chrome releases?

[SacKingsCards]

I'm sure the answers might change if you focus on specific aspects of each release (e.g. photography, gold refractor only, base parallels, inserts, etc.), but considering whatever aspects you care about, what's your ranking of Topps Chrome releases?

I'm not quite ready to answer but figured I would wanna hear some thoughts

[AbraCalabro]

96/97 - Can't say I'm a fan, because of the inherent discoloration problems. Additionally, they had inserts that did not get the refractor treatment, so they pale in comparison to their paper predecessors, or in the case of the Youthquake inserts, to their wood predecessors.

97/98 - Again, marred by discoloration issues, the aesthetics of the designs on the front and back were great, but when the chrome versions turn gonorrhea green or yeast infection white, it's just not worth the money in any case, ever. The inserts also sucked ass.

98/99 - Beautiful design on the front of the card, the backs of the cards were bland. The fronts were outstanding though, especially if there was a great photo on there. Clean silver borders really made all the details of the action stand out and caused the refractors to be more eye catching. No discoloration issues for the most part.

99/00 - Great front and back design over all, no discoloration issues.

00/01 - One of the better years, just in my humble opinion. The purple borders were a nice change, testament to the beauty of plain simple borders, much like the previous two releases.

After this there were some good designs and some weird designs, they went a little overboard on some of the front borders for these sets. 04/05 and 05/06, wtf were they thinking.

07/08 - Great design on the front, sweet photography.

08/09 - Absolutely outstanding design, in particular, this design worked best on the landscape orientation cards. The Kobe is easily the best card in the entire set. The variations weren't too crazy in terms of how many there were, but crazy in how limited some of them were.

09/10 - Plain and simple aesthetics are the best, reminds me a lot of Collector's Choice, which to this day is one of the best looking products out there with the best photography.

-

Summary

The earlier years were subject to defective production process causing discoloration, unfortunately for people who collect Kemp, Penny, Hill and others these were the only years you were going to get your favorite player on your favorite teams. The inserts sucked ass.

The later years overall had better designs without the discoloration flaws, problem is the league was filled to the brim with scrubs and no names who never did anything and unless you were a follower of the good players / teams during these years, you probably don't care as much. That's just my perspective.

When they got it right, they really got it right. When they got it wrong, they got it really wrong.

[green_stiller]

The white of 02-03 is up there, the purple base of 00-01 is close. 96-97 is insanely classic…. Idk if I feel comfortable rankings. The 2000s has such a range of designs. Some duds in there refractor wise imo.

[kingofsnake]

I like my Chrome looking like, well, Chrome. Therefore my favorites are:

1. 1996-97 - The OG
2. 1998-99 - Bought a whole bunch of this stuff looking for a centered Vince Carter.
3. 1997-98
4. 2007-08 - Lots of cool photos.
5. 1999-00 - By default, as the last silver Chrome on the list.

[Deadshot]

I'm gonna have to sit down and really work through this some day. In the meantime, I'm surprised no one mentioned 2006. I know the rookie class stunk, but the shine on the golds was unreal! Plus they were numbered to /25 (not to mention the /10 Xfractor as well).

[SacKingsCards]

There's so much involved that I have trouble with literal rankings too. Excuse the ramblings, it's a flaw I've come to accept.

Some general things I've noticed in exploring various Topps Chrome cards:
1. I generally like the uniqueness of 2000-2002 with the stray from white and silver borders. I just wish the photography was generally better.

2. As Abra mentioned, despite the great designs in the first few years of releases, the greening sucks and that's hard to overlook when it affects so many of the cards.

3. Photography is usually hugely important for my enjoyment of a card, and 2007 and 2008 seem like the clear best of the brand with photography. Combination of landscape and portrait orientations was really brilliant. Have we seen that anywhere else? One of these two would be my absolute favorite, but I actually don't love the card designs. 2007's top and borders borders are just too thick, and I've never been a fan of the colored bubble letter design in 2008, which I believe is a minority opinion.

4. Most of all, I appreciate how Topps Chrome stuck true to its style without feeling like the same thing year after year. Especially since 2019, Prizm has just been the same silver border with slightly different designs on a slightly thicker border every year. So bad. I wouldn't be able to tell differentiate between any of those years of Prizm.

My eye keeps coming back to 05-06. I feel like the photography is generally good, but mostly I like the pop of color in the border design and player name. And it's a bonus that it isn't necessarily a team color. Putting team color into the card design is just so overdone. The contrast with the black refractors in particular is vibrant and looks incredible. I like that the XFractors are that baby blue since I generally don't like XFractors and the coloring kind of helps make it more unique, if not mute the effect a bit. So yeah, I guess 05-06 tops my list (pun intended).

[darz90scardz]

Nevermind the the greening issues, but anyone know wtf is up with the first 3 years of Chrome and the film that can gradually build up on the surface? It’s particularly noticeable along the borders.

I could be wrong but it seems like this just doesn’t happen to Chrome beyond 98-99.

[FrankAZHP]

This is such an insanely tough question for me as I typically like all Topps Chrome releases.

The ones I'm NOT fond of are ones that have a color instead of silver/chrome. Stuff like 2000-01 with the purple, 2001-02 with the light blue, and 2002-03 with the dark blue.
I don't hate them, but they aren't as appealing to me.

I'm probably most fond of 1996-97 and 1997-98, but that's likely due to nostalgia. And clearly they had greening issues as we know.

Nevermind the the greening issues, but anyone know wtf is up with the first 3 years of Chrome and the film that can gradually build up on the surface? It’s particularly noticeable along the borders.

I could be wrong but it seems like this just doesn’t happen to Chrome beyond 98-99.

1999 Topps Chrome football has it BAD too. I've got cards slabbed as PSA 9 that look like garbage because of the film. It can be wiped away, but obviously can't do that while in slab.

[darz90scardz]

Nevermind the the greening issues, but anyone know wtf is up with the first 3 years of Chrome and the film that can gradually build up on the surface? It’s particularly noticeable along the borders.

I could be wrong but it seems like this just doesn’t happen to Chrome beyond 98-99.

1999 Topps Chrome football has it BAD too. I've got cards slabbed as PSA 9 that look like garbage because of the film. It can be wiped away, but obviously can't do that while in slab.

I’m so clueless with other sports that I don’t even know how the releases lined up with basketball.

Would 1999 for football be 98-99 or 99-00 in b-ball?

[FrankAZHP]

Would 1999 for football be 98-99 or 99-00 in b-ball?

Technically that'd depend on the release dates, but typically the first year matches up with the solo year.
This dates back pretty much to 1992-93 Topps and 1992 Topps.

First year Chrome for both was 1996 / 1996-97 and even though they had different designs they used the same tech (refractor wise). Parallels are similar too as they both started "Black Refractors" in 2001 / 2001-02

[darz90scardz]

Would 1999 for football be 98-99 or 99-00 in b-ball?

Technically that'd depend on the release dates, but typically the first year matches up with the solo year.
This dates back pretty much to 1992-93 Topps and 1992 Topps.

First year Chrome for both was 1996 / 1996-97 and even though they had different designs they used the same tech (refractor wise). Parallels are similar too as they both started "Black Refractors" in 2001 / 2001-02

Roger that.

Over the years I’ve peeked into the football and baseball 90s threads on BO and have always been insanely impressed by their inserts. I don’t say that to come across as surprised, since it was more or less the same designers, but I think they’re even nicer and more varied than in basketball. It’s crazy how their markets have lagged behind basketball to such a degree.

I even put a wantlist together of Jeter and Griffey inserts at one point, but haven’t pulled the trigger on any. I’ll grab a 1998 and 1999 Diamond Producers one of these days.

[cookies]

surprised to see love for the non-silver years of 00–02. as a Kings collector i don’t mind the purple year, but otherwise I don’t think I’d be a fan, and i don’t love the blue years either (big fan of the black parallels for those years though).

[SacKingsCards]

surprised to see love for the non-silver years of 00–02. as a Kings collector i don’t mind the purple year, but otherwise I don’t think I’d be a fan, and i don’t love the blue years either (big fan of the black parallels for those years though).

I think between 25ish years of chrome and prizm releases, are 00-02 the only ones without a white or silver base? And even then only 03-06 are white? Most years are silver and I get why but it makes it a bit less exciting for me.