Hi everyone, this is our first blog article from the collecting community! Prolific community member Al "CheshBreaks" Caynes has solved the mystery of the 95' Topps Finest Orange borders for us.
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Charlie @ Team Cherry
Back in the 90's, Topps experimented with a lot of different ways to produce cards, pushing the boundaries on not just inserts, but also foiling on base cards with sets like Stadium Club. In a bid to truly break away and separate themselves from Upper Deck, Fleer, Flair and other card companies, they made an entire “chrome” set called Topps Finest.
Topps Finest became a highly praised set and they continued to produce the set for a number of years creating some of the most sought after cards in the hobby but not for the reason you’d think;
In 1995 after Topps dropped the third year of Finest collectors noticed a huge mistake was made.
A print run of sheets was included in the set, a set of sheets that had been ordered to be destroyed.
95/96 Series One Mystery Refractor Orange Border Test Issue Error
For many years (when 1995-96 Topps Finest Basketball hit we didn't really have much access to the internet like we do today) the error went unnoticed and many just assumed the error test cards were just a special short print that had failed to be listed on the back of the packs. This happened now and again with some sets - you would crack a pretty cool card and it wasn't listed in any of the odds on the pack or box.
Once the internet was in full swing, the legend leaked out in all its glory.
The Legend Was Born
The legend goes: When Topps were testing out printing methods for new inserts, they designed a heavily orange bordered refractor mystery card to go along with the base orange bordered mystery cards in the set. These cards had a black film over both sides of the card so you didn't know who you were getting, hence the name Topps Finest Mystery.
A higher up in Topps decided that the Orange Bordered Refractor looked garish and ugly, and decided to go with a silver and gold borderless version instead (yeah because that wasn't garish and ugly, Topps). All printings of the test refractor were to be destroyed and not included in any current or future print run of 95 Topps Finest, however a worker accidentally included approximately fifty sheets in the final product accidently leading to one of the coolest hidden gems we have seen from the Junk Wax era of Basketball cards.
Rare As Hen's Teeth
Given that the legend is that approximately fifty cards of each superstar was printed and included, some of these in a 10 are extremely hard to find and usually pretty pricey. The PSA/BGS 9/9.5 are still around in limited capacity and snagging one is pretty cool for your collection.
I just snagged the Larry Johnson below at a steal off eBay, so keep your eyes out on those auctions!
-Al “CheshBreaks” Caynes
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