Though it's coming well after the 2008-09 NBA season is underway, Topps Tip-Off Basketball celebrates the start of another hoops campaign with cards everyone can afford. Temporary tattoos should appeal to kids, and collectors of all ages should enjoy a rookie card in every pack for under a buck.
Hobby boxes of 2008-09 Topps Tip-Off Basketball come with 36 packs of six cards each. Rookie autographs are seeded two per hobby case on average.
Base Cards and Parallels
Topps Tip-Off packs the past, present and future of the NBA into a concise package of under 150 cards. Veterans and retired players make up the first 110 cards, followed by 33 2008-09 rookies seeded one per pack.
The base card design employs silver borders with a shield-shaped frame for the player photos and lines that run through both sides. Player and team info is toward the bottom with the brand logo toward the top.
Along with the low pack price, the relatively small set size and lack of any numbering or short prints makes this an easy set to assemble. I opened up a random hobby box to review and found all but one base card, and with 30 duplicates to boot.
Parallels come in Red (numbered to 2008) and Gold (numbered to 99) varieties and simply change the color of the borders. My box provided me with 36 Red and two Gold cards.
Insert Cards
The inserts in Tip-Off are definitely aimed toward younger collectors. Falling six per box are Team Tattoos, which are actual temporary tattoos of all 30 NBA team logos.
Code cards for ToppsTown, the company's online community, are also generously inserted. I found nine codes in the About.com sample box, as well as six Tattoos.
Autographed Cards
Though the odds are long (just two per case), collectors can also hunt for autographed variations of 30 of the 33 rookie cards. These cards place a transparent autographed sticker right across the bottom of the player photo, resulting in a clean look.
The Last Word
Topps Tip-Off is a straightforward and simple set of basketball cards. It might even be too simple, as it has fewer elements than low end products from other sports.
Be that as it may, it's a solid effort at a price point that might be needed in the hobby now more than ever. It's hard to beat basketball cards for less than a dollar, and that's exactly what you'll find here.