Few sports cards products are as dependable as the Topps Chrome line. Whatever the sport, collectors know they will find glitzier versions of the current season's Topps cards, plus Refractors and an autograph or two. The 2008-09 Basketball edition follows this outline to a tee, with Chrome rookies in every other pack and one auto per box.
Hobby boxes of 2008-09 Topps Chrome Basketball hold 24 four-card packs. Every hobby case should yield one Youthquake autograph and one veteran autograph variation.
Base Cards
Like this season's regular Topps Basketball set, the Chrome base set goes 220 cards deep. The first 180 cards are devoted to current veterans and retired stars, with the final 40 depicting 2008-09 rookies - up from 25 in regular Topps.
The look should be familiar to anyone who saw any base Topps brand from 2008, with white borders and team-colored circles spelling out the team name at the top. The Chrome technology makes the photos pop a bit more than one would see on regular cardboard, and the stats on the card backs are some of the best around.
Rookie cards are supposed to be seeded 1:2 packs, and I came pretty close to that ratio when I opened a random hobby box to review, pulling 11 in all. I also found 72 of the veteran and retired cards, meaning much more than one box would be necessary to have a realistic shot at putting the whole set together.
Refractors
A staple of any Chrome set, Refractor parallels cover the entire base set and are advertised as falling 1:2 packs. This season's array includes unnumbered regular Refractors, as well as Orange (numbered to 499), Gold (#'d to 50), Red (#'d to 5) and SuperFractor (1-of-1) varieties.
Rookie Refractors are always a hit with hoops collectors, and I pulled two fairly good ones in Eric Gordon and Brook Lopez. The About.com sample box also produced five regular, four Orange and one Gold veteran Refractor.
Autographed Cards
All but five of the rookies appearing in the base set signed Refractor versions of their cards, which make up the bulk of the rookie signatures found in Chrome Basketball this season. Interestingly, they are numbered as part of the base set, taking it to 255 cards in all.
Other kinds of signed cards can be found approximately one per case. Youthquake autographs show off 15 players' signatures, heavily focused on the current rookie crop with a few rising young stars mixed in.
Another 15 players signed 1958-59 Autograph Variations, which pay tribute to the design of the Topps Basketball set from 50 years ago. Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and Magic Johnson are among the names on the checklist.
All autographed cards can be found in several low-numbered Refractor versions, ranging from X-Fractors (25 copies) to hobby exclusive SuperFractors (one copy each). My review box's autograph was a Gold Refractor version of rookie Darrell Arthur numbered to 10, but it unfortunately came in the form of a redemption card. Redeeming it at the Topps website gave an expected ship date of late April.
The Last Word
With Topps Chrome Basketball, you pretty much know what you're getting. In this case, it's Chrome rookies, which are a little more desirable than their normal counterparts, plus Refractors and a rookie autograph.
The downside is that the brand hasn't really made too many changes to keep things fresh for the past few years - even regular Topps brands have increased their number of autographs and memorabilia cards recently. The result is a product that may not stand out distinctly from its competition but should still have its share of fans thanks to its name and dependable reputation.