Set Information

Topps Chrome is perhaps the most important product in the history of modern basketball cards. It debuted in 1996-97, featuring an elegant, chromium, silver-bordered base set. Originally seeded at 1:12 packs, the now legendary Topps Chrome Refractor parallel--which utilizes the refractor technology that Topps first experimented with three years earlier in 1993-94 Finest--would become a hobby staple, supplying a perennially coveted rookie card for thirteen seasons. 2003-04 Chrome bisects Chrome's NBA card tenure, which came to an end in 2009-10 due to Panini securing an exclusive license to produce NBA cards. Even after its discontinuance, Chrome cast such a long hobby shadow that Panini created its own heir to Chrome--Prizm--in 2012. 2003-04 Chrome contains one of the most widely sought after rookie cards of all time: #111 LeBron James. Emblematic of the historically talented 2003-04 rookie class, the set also boasts rookie cards of Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. There were only four base parallels: the refractor, black refractor /500, x-fractor /220 (seeded one per box), and gold refractor (/50 for rookies, /99 for vets). Hobby boxes sell for around $4,000.