Topps Finest and Chrome Basketball Cards

For over a decade, the Topps Finest and Chrome brands have been very popular among collectors. They typically have a higher value than other brands such as Fleer, Upper Deck, and Skybox. Unlike those brands, the Topps Chrome and Topps Finest cards tend to be more durable depending on how you take care of them. Most Topps Finest cards have a glossy coating that you can peel off. This coating is used to protect the card itself. If you remove this coating, you will hurt the card's value because collectors prefer trading cards that were never tampered with. I bought a few of these particular cards several weeks ago and peeled the coating off and noticed the card was even more appealing than with the coating. As for Topps Chrome, the cards are indeed worth as much, but are harder to find for some odd reason.

Way back in 1996, Basketball's Topps Finest brand may have released some of the most valuable trading cards ever due to the talented players from that were drafted to the NBA in that particular year. Some of these players include Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, Ray Allen, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and Antoine Walker. All of these players have made it to the All Star game at least once and four of them have reached the NBA Finals. Finding a Kobe Bryant rookie card in a Topps Finest pack can be very difficult, but if you purchase a box of the packs, you will likely find one. The basic card alone is worth around forty dollars, but the refractor version of this card is worth hundreds of dollars according to www.beckett.com.

I was fortunate to find a Ray Allen rookie card from the Topps Finest packs, but it wasn't a refractor. These packs alone can cost you up to eight dollars due to their rarity. Unfortunately, a box of these packs can cost up to $500 on www.eBay.com. Ever since Kobe Bryant won his fifth championship title this year, his cards have gone up in value because he is one championship away from tying Michael Jordan's six. Interestingly enough, a Michael Jordan refractor would also go for hundreds on eBay. The only way to find those cards cheap is by buying the packs, but that's only if you want to spend eight dollars per pack.