The 1998-99 SP Authentic set is a great set of cards for many reasons. And one of those reasons is that the set starts off with ten Jordan cards! He retired for the second time after the 1997-98 season, so a subset honoring him was a great choice. But why ten cards? Is it just a nice number? It’s actually because of one of his records. His ten scoring titles were the most in NBA history. And each of the ten cards talks about one of those titles.
This is card #7, and it’s an important one. His seventh scoring title was actually his seventh in a row That’s from 1986-87 until his first retirement! He held the scoring title the entire time! This seventh one allowed him to match Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA record for the most in a row. He averaged 32.6 points per game this season! As the reverse of the card points out, he also led the league in steals this season (the third time in his career) and won the NBA MVP and Finals MVP.
About this 1998-1999 SP Authentic set… It was really designed to appeal to collectors. The set can be described in one word: limited. The set is limited to only 120 cards in three simple sections: the first ten cards are this Michael Jordan subset honoring his second retirement the previous season, one card for each of his ten scoring titles. Then there’s an 80 card base and finally, 30 “rookie F/X” cards limited in production to 3,500 each. (WARNING!!! Maybe not!!! See the article on the Vince Carter rookie here!) Back to the set. I’d say the design is limited too. The white, matte-finish, background eliminates the majority of the photograph, forcing the eye towards the player alone. The player remains glossy for a nice effect. These high quality sets with a limited number of cards may be commonplace nowadays, but for 1998-99, it was really innovate and these cards remain popular with collectors who know a classy set when they see one.
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