As the year 2000 approached, there was an explosion in terms of number of sets and parallels in basketball card collecting. It was becoming overwhelming and Upper Deck was a major culprit of this problem. In addition to your regular 1999-2000 Upper Deck, there was Black Diamond, Encore, Gold Reserve, Hardcourt, HoloGrFX, Ionix, Legends, MVP, Retro, Upper Deck Victory and Ultimate Victory in addition to three pre-season Jordan sets! To me, this felt like a marketing ploy to keep collectors spending money searching for yet another rare parallel or insert in one of many sets. But most of these sets and cards are nice in isolation and shouldn’t be overlooked despite the abundance of options.
Like many of the sets during this season, Upper Deck Black Diamond was a small set with few cards per pack (6 cards for $3.99). This, in theory, keeps the quality high and collectors buying! Only 120 cards in Black Diamond, 90 veterans and 30 rookies known as “Diamond Debut.” These rookies were a bit more rare at 1:3 packs. You’re looking at card #47, Kevin Garnett. The cards were all foil except for the player who stayed clear and slightly elevated about the background. Integrating the black diamond into the background is a great idea for 1999-00. Black Diamond premiered the previous season, ’98-99, and the name came from a black diamond on the border of the card with parallel sets featuring two, three and even four of these diamonds depending on rarity. But here, in ’99-2000, it’s the background that gives Black Diamond it’s name. At different angles, you can see the entire basketball scene within the dark diamonds, or the metallic background can shine actually highlighting it more than the player, or parts of the metallic foil become like clouds or smoke making the picture more abstract. Parallels this year included Diamond Cut and Diamond Final Cut which were die-cut cards.
The back is really simple, just stats and basic bio along with another picture and a diamond background. Overall, a nice set that can be overlooked in the flood of Upper Deck cards this year. Especially with Upper Deck integrating the small diamond from ’98-99 and making it a huge part of the design. Cool idea!
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