We recently looked at a Joe Dumars card from 1994 Upper Deck USA Basketball, and I ran across this other Dumars card from the 1997-98 Topps Chrome, Topps 40 insert set. This is the next-to-last card in the set, #39. Not following basketball closely before 1991, I didn’t think about Joe Dumars much. But that last card we looked at pointed out that he was the 1989 Finals MVP, and he made the Dream Team II…that’s why he was in that Upper Deck set. And now, I’m running across him in this insert set as one of the Top 40 NBA players currently playing in 1997-98. I’m beginning to realize that, not watching the ’80’s live, Dumars is a much stronger player than I gave him credit for. So strong that it looks like he’s glowing with kryptonite on this card (all kidding aside, we’ll be sure to address why he is completely green a bit later). I think the paragraph on the back of this card captures why some of us ’90’s fans overlooks Joe Dumars.
Let’s talk about this particular set of inserts. For the second year in a row, Topps took their regular Topps set, applied their Chromium technology to those cards, and produced Topps Chrome, basically a large parallel set. Some of the regular Topps insert sets were also reproduced in Chrome versions, including this Topps 40 insert set. Here, in 1997-98, Topps wanted to mark 40 years from its legendary 1957-58 basketball cards. This wasn’t technically 40 years of producing basketball cards, because Topps took a really long break after its 1981-82 set, not returning until ’92-93. So this “40 years of cards” idea isn’t the strongest statement considering this long gap. The idea behind this insert set was that players, coaches and writers would work with Topps to come up with the 40 best players in the NBA. The number 40 really isn’t subtle in the design with the large “40” behind the Topps logo on the front. The first twenty insert cards were found in Series I and the remaining twenty, where this Joe Dumars is found, in Series II. The cards are numbered with a “T40-” prefix before the card number. They could be found 1:6 packs, but there are refractor parallels at 1:18 packs.
Some trivia about this particular Topps Chrome insert set…Does Topps have something against Latrell Sprewell? There’s no T40-7 Latrell Sprewell in the Chrome Topps 40 set, although it appears in the regular Topps inserts. He’s missing. But here’s what’s interesting…they made the same mistake in the Topps Chrome Season’s Best insert set too! Topps forgot to make a Chrome version of the #8 Latrell Sprewell for the Chrome Season’s Best! Seriously, is there a reason why he’s consistently missing from these ’97-98 Chrome insert sets?
When talking about any Topps Chromium card, we have to deal with the fact that many of these cards are turning green. Chromium technology as described in the many patents listed on the cards was innovative with its unique, metallic shine. Unfortunately, this technology later brought what we call “greening,” or for a touch of humor, “Hulking.” This Joe Dumars shows a particular type of this where the whole player kind of glows in a radioactive green. Unfortunately, we don’t have a conclusive explanation. There’s lots of stories…partial sets turning green, cards turning green in grading slabs, collections that seem to avoid greening for 15-18 years and then suddenly, one day, the cards begin to turn. There are stories of cards coming from the pack with some green. Some swear that if humidity and light are avoided at all costs, there is no change. Others seem 100% confident that the fate of all early Chromium cards is to turn green. What can we say for sure? It never hurts to avoid humidity and sunlight when storing cards, whether this helps greening or not. Many factors probably contribute, but there seems to be a reaction between the ink and other materials in Chromium cards. This 1997-98 season does appear to be the end of it though. Changes were made and cards produced after 1998 aren’t yet affected by this phenomenon.
This Chrome insert set is overlooked because collectors can search for the regular Topps 40 and the Chrome refractors. But the idea of honoring the 1957-58 Topps cards on their 40th anniversary with the forty best current players is a really fun idea. And with these Chrome inserts, collectors can obtain the set easier than the refractors while still having the quality that the Chromium technology brings.
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