Topps Finest was a hit when they were first produced. The premium cards were referred to simply as “Finest.” But in 1996-97, the status of the set began to waver. Their release was delayed and, in my opinion, the structure of the set is complicated. The ’96-97 set is quite busy in card design, and in structure! There are 291 cards in two series (146 Series I and 145 Series II), and within each, there are two things to monitor. First, there are levels or tiers of rarity, “common,” “uncommon,” and “rare” (with bronze, silver, and gold border colors). The bronze are the most common, silver was 1:4 packs and gold was 1:24 packs (or one per box). Knowing it would take multiple boxes to complete a set was disappointing to many. This type of structure was probably borrowed from card games like Magic, which were very popular at the time. Second, there are different “Themes” of cards, printed in large type on the front of the card. In Series I, these themes are Apprentices, Gladiators, Maestro and Sterling. Series II themes are Heirs, Foundations, Mainstays and Sterling. But the themes are scattered through the set and cards within a theme are not in set order! For example, in the Apprentices, the Kobe Bryant is #A10 and this Allen Iverson is #A23…but Iverson comes before Kobe in the main set, Iverson is #69 and Bryant is #74! At least all of this (standard set number, theme number, tier) is summed up in a box on the back (Iverson is Card 69, Theme A23, Common). You can begin to see why, together with the late release, this Finest set didn’t have the draw of earlier sets. As you can see, there’s a lot more to think about than a simple 291 cards. In terms of difficulty, it is more helpful to think that Series I is 100 bronze, 27 silver and 19 gold and Series II is 100 bronze, 27 silver and 18 gold. Collectors wanting even more can collect the parallel “Refractor” versions of the cards.
One last item to discuss is the protective film. Whether the film is on or off doesn’t impact the value drastically. Some collectors like the card closer to its original state with the film. They don’t want to risk any damage to the surface when removing it. It’s intimidating to start picking at the edges or (please no!) the corners when removing it. But the design of these cards is busy enough to begin with and the film really clutters it with the words “Topps Finest Protector, Peel and Remove Coating” scrawled across the front. Also, it could be the case that when grading cards with the protector on, scratches on the protector lower the grade of an otherwise scratch-free card.
Individual Cards:
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