>>>***The Hobby Boards Basketball Card Encyclopedia***<<<

[AbraCalabro]

I'll update this first post as the thread progresses, just want to see how much information we can fill this thread with.

If there's anything you are knowledgable about, please post here and make it as thorough as you can, clean scans or photos. Hopefully this can be a help to legitimate collectors who enter the hobby, or maybe guys that have been around for a while, but they're moving into different sets that they're not too familiar with.

* if you spot any errors, sound off.

I'll start off with something that should already be known, but I still see these list and sell on eBay. If you're buying an unfinished card you're getting ripped off. These are oddball cards at best and no legitimate collector applies any real value to them.

1997 / 98 Flair Showcase Legacy Collection UNFINISHED / BACKDOOR Cards

Card features highlighted in yellow are almost always present in the unfinished cards, ALL the features highlighted must be present in a finished card. The items highlighted in red are typically missing, but sometimes only a serial number, or name is missing. Check for ALL card features being present.



Part 1 of the serial number in the example below is the individual serial number, 051 and part two is OF 100.

[AbraCalabro]

1998 Upper Deck SPx

FYI* This is NOT 97/98 SPx, this is *just* 1998 SPx.

What's the difference between Gold and Grand Finale?

Two obvious ways to tell the difference between these two parallels.

1. The Grand Finale parallel has a bottom right quadrant on the front of the card has a golden hue / tint over the player's head shot photo. The Gold does not have the gold hue / tint over the player's head shot.

2. The back of the card on the Grand Finale is hand numbered to /50.

see details highlighted in red in screen shot below.



This is my actual copy, the serial is blurred, that's not on the actual cards.

Another example from COMC, see the hand numbering followed by the print run /50.



Double X The Beast did a great video on this one and it does more justice to the topic:

[AbraCalabro]

Which Finest / Chromium Cards go green?

- Up until 1998, these cards have discoloration isues. This INCLUDES all the inserts that were part of these pre-1998 sets, I.E. 93/94's Main Attraction and 94/95's Cornerstone*, Lottery Prize* and Rack Pack*. Even the acetate cards from 94/95 are susceptible to discoloration in the Iron Man and Marathon Man sets. There are also Chromium and acetate cards released as part of Topps Stadium Club issues during these early years and those also have discoloration issues, I.E. 93/94 Frequent Flyer Upgrade which were Chromium stock and 94/95 Clear Cut which are acetate.

*both base and refractor versions.

- You may even see some cards issued in 1998 (i.e.Topps Roundball Royalty inserts, both base and refractor) that have the same discoloration problems as earlier releases, but generally less common for other cards. After 1998, the cards should be solid with no discoloration, unless improperly stored.

- Below are examples from 93/94 and 94/95 Topps Finest Basketball. What's discussed applies to issues for 95/96, 97/98 up to 1998.

- All cards produced pre-1998 are susceptible to discoloration even if they're not currently discolored and it's likely that the overwhelming majority have become discolored by now. Below are some comparisons of discolored cards and cards that have had some color restoration done to them so you can get a glimpse of what they originally looked like.

93/94 Topps Finest Basketball
Examples from COMC, base, refractor parallel and also the Main Attraction inserts which did not have a refractor parallel.



It's NOT vitiligo.


Compare the cards above to a restored Shawn Kemp refractor:



94/95 Topps Finest
Unfortunately, these also have discoloration problems. Check out these examples below and compare them to color restored versions. Sad way for one of the Finest products out there to age. Pun intended.

DISCOLORED



RESTORED

Just look at the difference. These used to look stunning.

[AbraCalabro]

97/98 Finest Place Holder - W.I.P.

- 97/98 Features a 3-tiered set: bronze, silver and gold themed cards. Each tier adds a different refractor pattern and card design. There are also themes that run throughout the set: MASTERS, BALL HAWKS, CATALYSTS, DEBUTS, FINISHERS and FORCE.

- Serial number location on the back of each card may differ dependent on the card theme, the FINISHERS theme and the CATALYSTS themed cards for instance, are stamped in different areas on the back, but the font used for the serial numbering remains the same.

Bronze - base and refractor
Silver - base, refractor (SN to /1090), embossed, embossed refractor (square/diamond pattern refractor, SN to /263)
Gold - base, refractor (SN to /289), embossed diecut, embossed diecut refractor (atomic refractor pattern, SN to /74)

* On serial numbered cards, you will see a / before the print run for Series 1 (1-173) cards and you will see the word 'of' before the print run on Series 2 (174-326) cards. See below for example:

Series 1 Antoine Walker Silver refractor with /1090 and the Series 2 Gold with: of 289


Be careful about cards that do not have serial numbering matching the fonts you see on properly issued cards and also be aware that there are test refractor versions and/or sheet cuts of the Gold embossed refractors...except they're not diecut, they're your standard rectangular card. These are typically NOT serial numbered, so don't fall for it. Also be cautious about cards with unfinished serial numbering, in other words a blank spot followed by /100 or of 100. Always check to make sure that the fonts match the majority of the population when the serial numbering is finished.

[darz90scardz]

Abra, can you do 97-98 Finest at some point?
One of my favorite products ever right there, but still so much tricky crap to navigate, between the aftermarket stamps and sheetcut non-embossed/non-diecut but still atomic gold refractors. Talk about landmines.

[AbraCalabro]

Abra, can you do 97-98 Finest at some point?
One of my favorite products ever right there, but still so much tricky crap to navigate, between the aftermarket stamps and sheetcut non-embossed/non-diecut but still atomic gold refractors. Talk about landmines.

Yeah dude those are TOUGH - I've been slacking on this thread. I'll try to dig in and get my research done on 97/98 Finest. I want to do Flair Showcase and Topps Gold Label as well.

[BallinSon]

Can you also go through which cards have traditionally been faked the most and how to tell the difference?

[AbraCalabro]

Can you also go through which cards have traditionally been faked the most and how to tell the difference?

Yeah definitely. That may take some time. I know for sure PMGs red/green have been faked as well as Star Rubies, primarily from 97/98. Don't even get me started on autograph forgeries, I.E. Fleer and Skybox Autographics issues, but UD stuff has been forged as well. They were perfecting Michael Jordan PMG counterfeits back in 2014 if I remember correctly.

You can thank all the hype men and price fixers for providing an abundance of incentive to create counterfeits and forgeries.

[benxcrunner1]

Adding some resources, https://www.blowoutforums.com/showthread.php?t=1343655