The Bowman Sterling brand has been around for several years, getting its start in baseball at a time when Topps didn't produce many sets aimed at high end collectors. Since it proved to be a winner, Topps is hoping the same formula can apply to the NBA.
Hobby-only boxes of 2006-07 Bowman Sterling Basketball hold six packs of five cards each, plus a box topper pack with one extra card. On average, each pack should produce two regular rookie cards, one autographed rookie card, one relic (memorabilia) rookie card and one veteran or retired relic card.
Veteran/Retired Relic Cards
Regular common cards won't do for a product like Bowman Sterling, so 30 top players from today and yesterday are featured on cards with a swatch of player-worn uniform. The card design is primarily white with a grayed-out background image behind the player and an ornate border that incorporates some of the player information. A blue semi-circle at the bottom holds the player name.
The card stock has the same type of finish as Topps Finest except the cards are a bit thicker. The relic swatches are a pretty nice size by today's standards, though some of the material is event-worn instead of game-used, which is a little strange for a product like this.
While the regular relics are unnumbered, refractor parallels are numbered to 199 and seem to be seeded at a generous rate. Collectors can also find black (numbered to 25) and red (1-of-1's) refractors. My sample box provided by Topps yielded four regular veteran or retired relics, including Carmelo Anthony and Bob Lanier, as well as a pair of refractors of Tim Duncan and Chris Paul.
An additional 10 past and present NBA stars are included on autographed relic cards that fall one per box on average. The big draws on the checklist are Larry Bird and Dwyane Wade. The About.com review box came up empty here, but I did find one in the box topper pack which is covered in its own section.
Rookie Cards
Seeded at a rate of two per pack, regular rookie cards mark the debut of 10 first-year players. Most of these players are fairly obscure (some were undrafted or drafted several years ago), though Tyrus Thomas of the Chicago Bulls is a notable exception. The base rookies also have refractor parallels numbered to 199.
I found all of the regular rookies except for two in my review box, plus duplicates of Tarence Kinsey, Leon Powe and Jose Barea and a Kinsey refractor.
Rookie Relic Cards
The next tier of rookie cards come with a swatch of event-worn material and fall one per pack. Twenty rookies get the relic treatment, including Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay and Jorge Garbajosa.
Allan Ray and Rajon Rondo were among the five rookie relics I pulled, along with a refractor parallel of the Sixers' Bobby Jones.
Autographed Rookie Cards
The next 20 rookies in Bowman Sterling appear on autographed cards that are identical in design to the regular rookie cards but add a signed sticker at the bottom. As with the other types of rookies, the standard autos are unnumbered and the three levels of refractors are printed in the same quantities.
While none of the most sought-after first-year players are in this tier, players like Utah's Ronnie Brewer, New York's Renaldo Balkman and Sacramento's Quincy Douby all have their fans. I found three autographed RC's in my sample box: Cleveland's Daniel Gibson, Toronto's P.J. Tucker and Portland's Sergio Rodriguez.