Basketball card collectors find the “Bowman” name legendary. 1948 Bowman was the first all-basketball set and the name disappeared from basketball cards until 1996-97 when Topps revived it with Bowman’s Best. These were higher-end cards, (six-card packs for $3.99) but, like most successful premium sets, Bowman’s Best was compact with only 125 cards and a higher percentage of stars. There are 80 base cards, Michael Jordan being the highlight. Next are 25 rookie cards, starting with this one, the #R1 Allen Iverson. These are part of the main set, but are numbered separately with an “R” prefix. Kobe Bryant is the highlight of the rookie subset, but Allen Iverson is a landmark rookie, and he does start things off being the number one draft pick.
These cards felt like earlier Topps Finest because they used the exact same production process. The same patents and trademarks are on the back of both Finest and Bowman’s Best. How is the Chromium technology, and it’s metallic finish, used in these cards? First, the border… On the front is a wavy border on the left with the last name’s initial, and two rectangles on the bottom finishing the name. The colors of these borders are inverted for the base cards and rookies. On the base cards, the border on the left and the rectangle with the first name are gold while the bottom rectangle is silver. The silver and gold are switched for the rookie subset. The Chromium effect is also used on select items. With this Allen Iverson, the ball has a metallic glimmer to it and the red and blue in his jersey show the Chromium effect. The overall effect is subtle, not intruding too much on the photo.
The reverse of these cards is busy. Color and information everywhere. But the 1996-97 Bowman’s Best stats are unique and interesting choices. There’s “Points + Assists per Minute” (PTS + AST / MIN), showing that Iverson was contributing to the scoreboard nearly every minute he played (.85 there). “Points per Field Goal Attempt” is another valuable stat that incorporates more information than simple field goal %. Iverson’s very solid here with every attempt resulting in 1.32 points. And when there’s a larger stat, a “Super Stat” is included in the extra information.
Overall, this rookie card, the first one we’ve looked at from the 1996-97 Bowman’s Best set, is a real highlight!
Extra (What is Chromium Technology): Starting with Finest, Topps was innovating the actual card construction. They called it “Chromium” technology and it provided a unique, metallic shine. What was this technology? I want to draw your attention to a very informative blog post about how these cards were made. The author saw that Chrome printing plates were reversed from regular Topps. So he took apart a Chrome card, looked up the patents, and discovered that the ink is actually printed behind a clear plastic section that makes the front. This section is joined to foil, so think of the card as a sandwich…top plastic part, ink underneath that, then a foil part. To show that the ink isn’t on the front, he sanded the front. It scuffs the card, but no ink comes off. He also believes that the clear, protective coating on early Finest cards was probably used to make later Chrome cards, but the company removes it after printing before packaging. It’s a great blog post and really worth a read! And when you see the patents, you’ll realize just how much effort Topps was putting into this design.
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