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Within one week, the world was introduced to 2 of the year's best basketball products - Bowman Signature and Pristine. Despite the high price points for each, I am sure that the collecting world was and will continue to be satisfied with each and every pack that they rip.
Bowman Signature Basketball
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The premiere issue has been a smashing success. Each pack contains an
"encased" autographed rookie card, with some also containing a jersey swatch.
The print run is quite low as every rookie card is serial-numbered to 999, with the
parallel versions topping out at 99 copies. Some of the highlights include an encased Yao
Ming rookie
autograph and autographed jersey rookie cards of Amare Stoudemire,
Drew Gooden and Caron Butler. Dejuan Wagner and Marko Jaric also makes an appearance.
The only rookie card that is not autographed, but is serial numbered, is the Chicago
Bulls Jay Williams. This product has been strong on the open market,
as unopened boxes have been consistently selling for close to $200 per.
Individual pack sales have also been strong at close to $40 per. |
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This is easily one of the nicest products to date for Topps and hopefully
will be a sign of many things to come. We were very impressed with not only the
cards themselves, but also the packaging and the strong rookie selection that they were
able to fit within such a reasonable price point. I've had the pleasure of opening
two boxes and in each I pulled a top rookie, including Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire.
As a whole, I really enjoyed Bowman Signature and wouldn't
hesitate purchasing another box (so long as my girlfriend isn't looking!). |
Topps Pristine Basketball
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Ah…the good old pack within a pack within a pack theory.
Yes, you heard me correctly - in every pack of
Pristine basketball you are getting an additional 2 packs.
The first contains an "encased" Pristine refractor; the second contains a
game-used relic; and the last contains a random 5-card assortment of regular Pristine
stars and/or rookies, with some being serial-numbered. Pristine basketball was a
success last year and hasn't slowed down in 2003.
Unopened boxes are retailing at close to $150 per and have showed no
signs of slipping in recent weeks. In addition to the "encased" cards and
the relics each box contains a randomly inserted gold refractor serial-numbered
to just 99 copies and a certified autographed card.
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We were fortunate enough to
open a box of this product and were very satisfied. We pulled encased rookie
refractors of Yao Ming, Mike Dunleavy and Jay Williams, as well as an "uncommon"
Yao Ming serial-numbered to 1499 copies. Our autograph pull was Chris Wilcox, a
top pick of the Los Angeles Clippers. The real key here was pulling 2 serial-numbered
Yao Ming rookie cards in our box. A very good day if you ask me and from what we've
heard around the hobby, many collectors had even better days with their Pristine pack busting.
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For more information regarding the aforementioned Topps products, please visit their website at www.Topps.com.
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Images Supplied by M. Eisner
January 2003 | |
