Placing It In Context: It’s no small feat to understand the structure of the 1999-2000 Topps Gold Label set. First, you have to make sure you’re not confusing it with the regular Topps set from that year, or the Topps Chrome set, or the Topps Gallery set, or the Topps Tipoff set… Got it! Well, the Topps 1999-00 Gold Label itself set has a sprawling hierarchy. Class 1 Gold Label cards are considered the base. The stadium background, although slightly blurred is in color. One in every two packs yielded a Class 2 Gold Label with an entirely different image. Class 2 backgrounds show the stadium, but it’s in grayscale. One in every four packs yielded a Class 3 Gold Label with another different set of images. The stadium background is barely visible through the gold background on these cards. All three classes show the same 100 players (15 of which are rookies). If this isn’t complicated enough, each of the three classes is also available in “Red Label” and “Black Label” versions which show a color change on the “Topps Gold Label” in the corner. Yes, it is that silly…you would see the words “Topps Gold Label” in red and refer to the set as “Red Label.” And finally, every regular and insert from Gold Label has a 1/1 version. I’m over it! Who else longs for the days when there was a single base set with a few inserts?
Topps was obviously trying to make a variety of cards that would keep collector’s buying, but it quickly becomes overwhelming, thus these cards don’t usually command prices worthy of the quality, design or rarity. The cards are simple and attractive. Borderless, with a small image of the player in the foreground overlayed on a larger image in the background. They are thicker than usual. When viewed in limited light, the front appears like a normal image, but once hit by light has a metallic sheen, known as Topps’ “Refractor” technology.
The Card: The Steve Francis rookie, #87 in the set is an attractive card that can be picked up for a low price. It’s value was certainly affected by the issues outlined above. The 2001 Standard Catalog of Basketball Cards listed it as the highest value card in the set at $12. This value didn’t hold. It nevertheless remains a classy looking card for a Steve Francis collector. The market isn’t saturated with them, but they can be found without too much of a wait.
In Short: Is there such a thing as too many cards? As the year 2000 approached, the answer was becoming “yes” very quickly. This is a great card, a Steve Francis rookie from Topps Gold Label. Nice PSA 9, just a little bit of a rough edge up here. This one is a Class 1 Gold Label. It’s not a Class 1 Red Label or Class 1 Black Label. Or a Class 2 Gold Label or Red Label or Black Label, or a Class 3 Gold Label or Red Label or Black Label…and it’s not a 1/1. There was a 1/1 for every one of those cards mentioned. Does anyone miss the days of a base set with some great inserts? Yep, the Year 2000 sounds like a good cut-off point for my collecting! Subscribe and collect with us at Cataloged Clutter. We study this card, and every card we can get our hands on, in depth! No matter how common!
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