2008-09 Topps Basketball
What I pulled--
Gold Foil Parallels (non-Rookies) – 27
Gold Parallels (#ed to 2008) – Rasheed Wallace, Ricky Davis, Ben Wallace, Moses Malone, Chris Wilcox
Black Parallel – Jeff Green (#15/51)
Rookie Cards – Derrick Rose, Kosta Koufos, Robin Lopez, George Hill, Alexis Ajinca, Jerryd Bayless, Eric Gordon, Roy
Hibbert, Joe Alexander, Anthony Randolph, Marreese Speights, O.J. Mayo
Rookie Card Gold Foil Parallels – Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo
58-59 Parallels – Joe Alexander, Jerry West, Dwight Howard, John Stockton, David Thompson, LeBron James, Brandon Roy,
Eric Gordon, David Robinson, Carlos Boozer, Chris Paul, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Lenny Wilkins, Dwyane Wade, Kobe
Bryant, Michael Beasley, Baron Davis, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, Kevin Garnett
Own The Game – Dwight Howard (Double-Doubles), Dwight Howard (Rebounds per game), Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups,
Josh Smith, Joe Johnson, Marcus Camby, Baron Davis
In The Genes – Mike/Mike Dunleavy, Kevin/Stan Love, Kobe/Joe Bryant, Coby/George Karl
58-59 Parallel Autograph – Tim Hardaway
NBA Rookie Photo Shoot Autograph – Kevin Love
Review:
When it comes to Topps, base sets are still king.
We’ve seen this design, although it is tweaked a bit (the player name and photo size is a little different than
in Baseball and Football), so it will come as no surprise that I think 2008-09 Topps basketball is a winner.
And the box I opened up was a monster as far as base sets are concerned.
Topps has gotten into the great habit of loading up its base product with parallels and inserts, and this box
is no surprise. I will admit that I might have liked a few more different inserts, as I was starting to find the
pack makeup a bit repetitive as the break went on – 23 cards from one subset is a bit much for me. But all
of the designs and concepts are great, be it the 58-59 Flashback cards or the very nice In The Genes
cards. Add in all of the parallels and you have a fun box to break.
The thing that blew me away, however, as you can probably tell from my break results, was the
autographs. Forget about the great Tim Hardaway auto I pulled and let’s focus on that awesome Kevin
Love autograph. Not only is it his first one in a Topps product, but it is a hard-signed card that
commemorates the annual NBA Rookie Photo Shoot. On card autographs are rare in Basketball products
these days, so this one is a pull that most collectors would go crazy for.
We all know I’m giving this a good grade. It gets the Hochuli treatment (graded down) a tad for the lack of
variety of inserts, but two great autos in a base product box mostly offset that.
In other words, here is yet another quality Topps product. Not a big shock there, though..........
B+
What I pulled--
Gold Foil Parallels (non-Rookies) – 27
Gold Parallels (#ed to 2008) – Rasheed Wallace, Ricky Davis, Ben Wallace, Moses Malone, Chris Wilcox
Black Parallel – Jeff Green (#15/51)
Rookie Cards – Derrick Rose, Kosta Koufos, Robin Lopez, George Hill, Alexis Ajinca, Jerryd Bayless, Eric Gordon, Roy
Hibbert, Joe Alexander, Anthony Randolph, Marreese Speights, O.J. Mayo
Rookie Card Gold Foil Parallels – Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose, O.J. Mayo
58-59 Parallels – Joe Alexander, Jerry West, Dwight Howard, John Stockton, David Thompson, LeBron James, Brandon Roy,
Eric Gordon, David Robinson, Carlos Boozer, Chris Paul, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Lenny Wilkins, Dwyane Wade, Kobe
Bryant, Michael Beasley, Baron Davis, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo, Russell Westbrook, Derrick Rose, Kevin Garnett
Own The Game – Dwight Howard (Double-Doubles), Dwight Howard (Rebounds per game), Steve Nash, Chauncey Billups,
Josh Smith, Joe Johnson, Marcus Camby, Baron Davis
In The Genes – Mike/Mike Dunleavy, Kevin/Stan Love, Kobe/Joe Bryant, Coby/George Karl
58-59 Parallel Autograph – Tim Hardaway
NBA Rookie Photo Shoot Autograph – Kevin Love
Review:
When it comes to Topps, base sets are still king.
We’ve seen this design, although it is tweaked a bit (the player name and photo size is a little different than
in Baseball and Football), so it will come as no surprise that I think 2008-09 Topps basketball is a winner.
And the box I opened up was a monster as far as base sets are concerned.
Topps has gotten into the great habit of loading up its base product with parallels and inserts, and this box
is no surprise. I will admit that I might have liked a few more different inserts, as I was starting to find the
pack makeup a bit repetitive as the break went on – 23 cards from one subset is a bit much for me. But all
of the designs and concepts are great, be it the 58-59 Flashback cards or the very nice In The Genes
cards. Add in all of the parallels and you have a fun box to break.
The thing that blew me away, however, as you can probably tell from my break results, was the
autographs. Forget about the great Tim Hardaway auto I pulled and let’s focus on that awesome Kevin
Love autograph. Not only is it his first one in a Topps product, but it is a hard-signed card that
commemorates the annual NBA Rookie Photo Shoot. On card autographs are rare in Basketball products
these days, so this one is a pull that most collectors would go crazy for.
We all know I’m giving this a good grade. It gets the Hochuli treatment (graded down) a tad for the lack of
variety of inserts, but two great autos in a base product box mostly offset that.
In other words, here is yet another quality Topps product. Not a big shock there, though..........
B+
