For a lot of sports activities card collectors the late 1990’s was the golden period. The cardboard producers had been producing technologically modern and legendary designs. This period is understood for its uncommon and scarce parallels playing cards such because the PMG, Essential Credentials and Star Rubies. Whereas these 3 had multi-year runs, there may be one other parallel from 1998 – 1999 that solely had 1 yr for every sport. The 24-Karat Gold parallels from the Fleer Brilliants units of baseball, basketball and soccer are a number of the rarest, scarcest and most visually beautiful parallels in sports activities card pastime historical past.
1998 Fleer Brilliants Basketball
Whereas there are 2 different parallels to the bottom card on this set, the 24-Karat is the crown jewel, being numbered to simply 24 with blinding gold shine. Right here’s a breakdown:
Blue Parallel (not serial-numbered)
Gold Parallel (serial-numbered to 99 copies)
24K Gold Parallel (serial-numbered to 24 copies)
For a lot of basketball card units throughout this time interval the primary query tends to be “Is Michael Jordan within the set?”. The reply to that query for Fleer Brilliants isn’t any. There’s no MJ however the set is loaded with Corridor Of Famers like Kobe Bryant and a rookie of Grime Nowitzki beneath:
1998 Fleer Brilliants Soccer
The Fleer Brilliants soccer set is full of all-time greats as effectively. Typically you additionally get a “good storm” of occasions that create 2 of the best soccer playing cards ever in a set. The lone yr of the 24-Karat parallel additionally occurred to be the rookie yr for Randy Moss and Peyton Manning:
1999 Fleer Brilliants Baseball
Baseball accomplished the trifecta with the identical magical parallels. If you mix legends like Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. with a print run of 24, in a design like this, you get playing cards that promote for a lot of hundreds of {dollars} like these:
What If?
The 24-Karat Gold parallels have a cult-like following within the sports activities card pastime however they don’t at the moment have fairly the mainstream fanfare because the PMG, Important Credentials or Star Rubies from the identical time interval. What if Michael Jordan was within the set? What if Fleer / Skybox made greater than 1 yr of those per sport? Is there actually 24-Karat gold in these playing cards like some say?
I’m personally grateful these lovely one-hit wonders exist in any respect. Should you personal one CONGRATS and in case you’re nonetheless on the hunt GODSPEED!
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