Refractorpalooza part 1: Basketball

Well, I'm finally getting around to some of the refractors I mentioned over a month ago. I had planned on getting to them much sooner, but I'm sure most of you know how that goes.

For those that didn't see the post mentioned above or for those of you who don't fell like clicking on the link, I will reiterate that all the cards in this post were had for 10 cents each. I don't know how all the refractors were still there as I had gotten a slow start that morning and arrived about thirty minutes later than I would have liked, and the seller had apparently set up earlier than normal. Needless to say once I started in on the first row and came across the first signs of the bounty that was to come I quickly began building some very large stacks. There was another fellow at the other end of the row of boxes who clearly was seeking out the refractors as well, and I was fairly certain he was looking for resell purposes, which is what you normally see with this sellers items. Thankfully I seemed to be on better end of the rows, and even as feverishly as I was trying to move through them I was still able to find a lot of non refractor cards as well. Some of which hve already been shown in the baseball parallels and Prizm parallels posts.

I decided to start with basketball first, simply because at 61 cards they made up the smallest stack. These are not in any kind of order, except for the order they were scanned in. Also I know scanners rarely pick up the refractorieness (word?) and I didn't scan the backs, so you will just have believe me when I say that they are all indeed refractors.

First up is 1997-98 Bowman's Best:

The Dikembe is really quite stunning in person and even though it looks like an insert, it's just a base card. The Hakeem is a Best Techniques insert though.

These four are all atomic refractors.


Next up is 1997-98 Topps Chrome:

The Kendall Gill on the right is a Season's Best insert.


Here's where things started to get mucked up slightly. In this next group the top two are still 1997-98 Topps Chrome, while the bottom two are 1998-99 Topps Chrome.

The Gugliotta is a Topps 40 insert and the Mcdyess is a Destiny insert.


On to 1997-98 Topps Finest:

Now we start heading backwards in time for some1996 Topps Finest:

1995-96 Topps Finest:

1996-97 Bowman's best:

One lone card from 1994-95 Topps Finest:

Forward in time again for these 1998-99 Topps Finest:

And this Terry Davis from the same set is a no peel refractor, which is why I scanned both sides even though you can't really see shiny back very well:

These next four are a bit of a hodge podge:

The Allen Iverson is a 1999-00 Stadium Club Chrome Eyes of the Game insert. You can't tell from the picture but is a partial acetate card that looks even cooler with the refractor rainbow quality mixed in. The Tim Duncan is from 2001-02 Topps Chrome. Shawn Kemp is from 1999-00 Topps Chrome. And the Horace Grant is from 1996-97 Topps Chrome.

These next three are from 2000 Topps Team USA:

These are a little different in that they seem to come in multiple refractor combinations, some are a refractor on just the left or right sides and others are both sides. I hadn't heard of this before and honestly the idea seems kind of dumb to me. But I still wasn't going to pass them for 10 cents each.

This second to last one is a 1999-00 Topps Finest Double Feature insert:

Like the Team USA cards above this one too is just a refractor on the left side. Even though I don't really like this concept, it looks like if I had any interest in selling any of these that this card and the Iverson would be the most profitable.

And finally a 1998-99 Topps East/West insert (both sides):

Well, that's it for the basketball portion of the refractors. I don't know when I will get around to the others, but the baseball will be next since there are 63 of those compared to 116 for football.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.