Topps Chrome started in 1996-97 and, for the fourth year in a row, in April 2000, Topps once again took the same cards from their regular set, produced them with Chromium technology and changed the brand logo to “Topps Chrome.” On one hand, they’re attractive and durable cards that truly upgrade the Topps set with chromium paper and thicker card stock. On the other hand, they are just another version of regular Topps and make that normal Topps set almost irrelevant. It is nice to have both versions of the card to get the full effect of the Chromium upgrade though. Factoring in the refractor versions of Topps Chrome actually gives you three versions of any given Topps card.
So for 1999-2000 Topps and Topps Chrome, you have 257 cards. Most were base cards, nine were USA cards and twenty-eight of these are rookies belonging to a Draft Picks subset. Fourteen of these Draft Picks are in Series I and fourteen in Series II. This Lamar Odom rookie card is #231, found towards the end of the second series.
It’s a really neat design. A lot of border, but with the Chromium effect, it really is eye-catching. And the Chromium also allows for particular angles where the background can become dark and allow the player to stand out completely independently. The number he was selected in the draft is displayed prominently on the front and that same spot on the reverse is used for the card number. I’m not sure why they didn’t want to include a space between the player’s first and last names. And statistics are eliminated from the back for text-only (it’s the first text we’ve seen that refers to Odom as a “left-handed Scottie Pippen).
This card is, unfortunately, a precautionary tale of falling value. When the cards were produced, collectors were really chasing Steve Francis and Lamar Odom rookie cards. The 2001 Standard Catalog of Basketball Cards values this card at $40. There are completed sales on eBay as low as $2 now…even a PSA 10 sold for $10.50.
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