underrated basketball sets

[halekulani]

so i'm visiting home now where my card collection is and i found a random stack of base cards in one of my shelves. apparently at one point i busted a box of fleer ex 06-07...wow the base cards are really well done. they're like plastic, see through and autographs are on the card...this set went back to the classic stuff like jambalayas...man i wish they brought this back.

what are some other sets you guys thought were underrated/need to bring back?

[Italy61587]

EX was really underrated a little after it released and then for a couple years. I remember buying a few boxes of 06-07 EX for around 45 bucks during the 07-08 season, then they shot up like crazy. Around the same time I was buying 07-08 boxes for around 40 bucks as well, then the Durant craze started and quickly put an end to that.

[WilyWestbrook0]

Flair. It cost $5 a pack in 1994-95, had a killer design, and was just the second high end product in bkb after Finest. It got even better when it became Showcase and had the Row/Masterpiece stuff.

[pwaldo]

Flair. It cost $5 a pack in 1994-95, had a killer design, and was just the second high end product in bkb after Finest. It got even better when it became Showcase and had the Row/Masterpiece stuff.

Weird because I never really understood the hype for Flair until it turned into Flair Showcase. Flair just seemed so simple compared to Topps Finest. Which brings me to my underrated basketball set in Topps Finest. This set and the refractors in it were HUGE in basketball and other sports until Topps Chrome hit. Then it became second fiddle and basically fizzled out quickly. I know Topps Chrome had refractors as well but it was just a chrome version of Topps whereas Finest had new images and was basically something different. I can't believe how low the early Finest sets can be had for in basketball now but that seems to be happening with a lot of the older basketball stuff.

[halekulani]

which finest set was underrated?

[WilyWestbrook0]

I never thought of Finest as underrated, but I agree with the surprise at how low some of the earlier Finest sets go for now. I can't believe I landed a KG Finest rookie, for instance, and that it's only worth $30 now. Used to consistently be around $80. Grant Hill's and Jason Kidd's rookies are even cheaper - $15 apiece, I think. They used to go for around $40.

The cause? Probably a mix of these being produced in larger quantities than we thought (if not as ridiculous as many other '90s sets) and a younger collecting demographic that doesn't remember those players as well as us thirtysomethings and older, and thus isn't as interested in their RCs (especially ones without autos, serial, etc.).

[jordan23]

96 spx where they did the hologram action shots. One of the most innovative where they actually got the player to pose for the action shot. The one card I remember the most is the mj where every time you moved the card he was winking. So cool!!!!

[pwaldo]

Oh I don't think they were underrated when they came out but now. The first set up to the one with Grant Hill I guess. After that like I said it seems like it got cast aside for Topps Chrome as being the best rookie card for a player. But for Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Jason Kidd, Grant Hill, Kevin Garnett, etc those were always the best rookies. Even the Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were huge cards from the 1993-94 set and the Magic Johnson for the year he tried to come back. Not so much the regular base cards but the refractors.

Plus I always liked the designs of the basketball Finest cards over the the baseball, football, and hockey counterparts. Then in later years they basically made them all the same and sucked the originality out of it.

[halekulani]

92-93 fleer ultra
i'll never get over the card design. easily one of my favorites. it brings back such good memories

[WilyWestbrook0]

Yeah, I LOVED those first couple of years of Ultra's design. I remember first seeing the 1992 football set and just going nuts over it as a kid.