We’re continuing or exploration of the 29-card rookie subset from Series I of 1995-96 Finest. Within the 140-card Series I is a 29-card subset of rookies with an orange border and “NBA 1st Round Draft Pick” on the front. They appear in the order the players were drafted starting with card #111 (but be careful, in addition to the #111 Joe Smith rookie, the #140 checklist in this set was also accidentally labeled #111). So, being the seventh pick in the draft, this is the seventh card in the subset, the #117 Damon Stoudamire rookie card. Stoudamire ended his college career with some serious momentum! Look at the stats on the reverse of the card. His college career scoring average was 15.0, but in that final college season, it was 21.8!
My particular Damon Stoudamire card shows him turning into the Hulk. It’s definitely my worst case of greening that we’ve looked at so far. If you’re curious about early Finest and Chrome cards turning green, watch the video on the Jerry Stackhouse rookie card from this set. He’s turning green too and we discuss the contradicting stories collectors have about this. Fortunately, whatever might be causing this, it seems to have stopped around 1998 or so.
I also want to address the protective film on this card in particular. Collectors frequently debate about leaving this on or taking it off. It doesn’t seem to affect value either way. Some collectors like the card closer to its original state with the film on and don’t want to damage removing it. But there are strong aesthetic arguments for removing it. Obviously, the company intended it to be removed. And the design of these cards is busy enough without the words “Topps Finest Protector Peel and Remove Coating” scrawled across the front. But if you want to leave it on, this is the situation you want. Sometimes those words will cut right across a player’s face. I was lucky with this Damon Stoudamire where the text on the coating doesn’t interfere with the photo so much.Finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, there is a very informative blog post about how these cards were made. The author saw that printing plates for Chrome were reversed from regular Topps. He then took apart a Chrome card and looked up the patents on the back of these Finest cards. He discovered that the cards were printed in reverse on a clear plastic section. Then this plastic section was joined with the foil (think of the card as a sandwich…top plastic part, ink underneath that, foil part). And I just read a bit more and ran across something really neat! He explains that the clear, protective coating that you peel off…well, he thinks that it is was still used in the production of later Chrome cards, it’s just that Topps removed it after printing before the cards went into packs. It’s a really cool blog post and really worth a read! And when you look at the patents, you’ll realize just how much effort Topps was putting into what they referred to as Chromium technology. I really think you’ll enjoy it.
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