Once upon a time, Topps Co-Signers cards were just rare insert cards with autographs from two players. These days the insert has graduated to become its own brand, complete with a basketball set that plays on the two-athlete theme.
Hobby boxes of 2007-08 Topps Co-Signers Basketball contain 12 packs each, with autographed cards (including one Co-Signers dual-signed card) falling two per box on average. Each 24-box case will also average one Tri-Signers triple autographed card.
Base Cards
If you like silver, you'll like the look of the Co-Signers base cards. A total of 100 players from the past, present and future of the NBA appear on cards with color action photos, silver top and bottom borders (which also incorporate basketball net elements) and the brand's signature gray background photo.
Veterans and retired players are unnumbered, and rookies are numbered to 499 - much lower than the 1299 that Topps originally solicited - and fall three per box on average. Collation was a little bit of an issue with the random box I opened to review; I found 19 duplicates to go with 37 of the veterans and legends. I found the expected three rookie cards: Acie Law, Josh McRoberts and Thaddeus Young.
Half of the 50 rookies have autographed variations to their rookie cards, which should be found one per box. The cards aren't numbered, but Topps announced that 10 of the rookies signed only 75 cards. Mine turned out to be Detroit draftee Rodney Stuckey.
All of the base cards have a number of parallels, but they are extensive and different enough to have their own section below.
Autographed Cards
Naturally, the Co-Signers dual autograph cards make up the foundation of the set. There are 50 different combos for 2007-08, ranging from pairs of rookies all the way up to the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird pairing that is featured prominently on the packaging. The cards use trapped signatures over team logos that look great. Though they aren't numbered, Topps announced print runs for just over half of them.
As mentioned in the info, some boxes (1:24) will also contain a Tri-Signers card which ups the ante with a third autograph. This year there are 10 different cards, including the all-centers card that shows off Bill Russell, Greg Oden and Shaquille O'Neal autographs.
The About.com sample box beat the odds with two Co-Signers cards, though neither was cause for excessive celebration. The first featured Blazers teammates Sergio Rodriguez and Jarrett Jack while the second paired Nets running mates Marcus Williams and Sean Williams.
Parallel Cards
Co-Signers Basketball joins its baseball and football sister products by utilizing the unique Changing Faces parallels. Each player in the base set is matched up with two different teammates, with one of their pictures taking the place of the gray ghost image. It certainly fits with the two-player motif.
But it's not quite that simple, because each combo has nine different color levels - named for the color of the ghost image and the borders - meaning each base card has 18 different parallels. That's a bit excessive, especially when most collectors aren't going to see much distinction between a card numbered to 109 and another numbered to 89.
The 2007 Co-Signers Football set at least had a checklist in every box to help explain the Changing Faces cards, but that was absent here, at least in my review box. I did find a total of nine Changing Faces cards (one in every pack without an autograph), the rarest of which was a Hyper Silver Blue Derrick Byars/Andre Iguodala numbered to 29.
The Last Word
Though it's great that Topps has turned the Co-Signers cards from scarce inserts to guaranteed content, the truth is that multi-signed cards are getting increasingly common in today's market. The relatively low-numbered rookies and Changing Faces cards are nice, but neither seems like a strong enough hook to sell boxes on their own.
Autograph collectors should find some value in 2007-08 Co-Signers Basketball. Everyone else will probably find it solid but not spectacular.