Understanding the structure of the 1999-2000 Topps Gold Label set is no small feat. First, you have to make sure you’re not confusing it with the regular Topps set from that year, or the Topps Chrome set, or the Topps Gallery set, or the Topps Tipoff set… Topps went a bit overboard with set number this year! And the Topps 1999-2000 Gold Label itself has a sprawling hierarchy. Class 1 Gold Label cards are considered the base. The stadium background, although slightly blurred, is in color. One in every two packs was a Class 2 Gold Label with an entirely different image. Class 2 backgrounds show the stadium, but it’s in grayscale. And one in every four packs had a Class 3 Gold Label with yet another different set of images. The stadium background is barely visible through the gold background on these cards. All three classes show the same 100 players (15 of which are rookies). The class is also listed in small print on the back of the card. If this isn’t complicated enough, each of the three classes is also available in “Red Label” and “Black Label” versions which show a color change on the “Topps Gold Label” in the corner. Yes, it’s really that silly…you would see the words “Topps Gold Label” in red and refer to the set as “Red Label.” And finally, every regular and insert from Gold Label has a 1/1 version. I’m over it! It really makes you long for the days when there was a single base set with a few inserts!
Topps was obviously trying to make a variety of cards that would keep collector’s buying, but it quickly becomes overwhelming, thus these cards don’t usually command prices worthy of the quality, design or rarity. The cards are simple and attractive. Borderless, with a small image of the player in the foreground overlayed on a larger image in the background. They are thicker than usual. When viewed in limited light, the front appears like a normal image, but once hit by light the Topps Refractor technology comes through with its metallic sheen.
The rookie cards in this set are unique because of a small detail found in the statistics on the reverse. They list both the 1998-99 season and the “College Best” statistics. This isn’t something we’ve seen yet in the cards we’ve looked at. It’s kind of irrelevant for Lamar Odom though, since he only played one season of college ball. Concerning Lamar Odom specifically, this is the only rookie card I’ve seen yet that mentioned the story of his mother. Events like this are heartbreaking, but still an integral, powerful part of his biography.
The Lamar Odom rookie, #89 in the set, is an attractive card that can be picked up for a low price. The 2001 Standard Catalog of Basketball Cards listed it at $10. This value didn’t hold. It nevertheless remains a classy looking card if you’re looking to have a collection of the 1999-00 rookies.
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