1996 Topps Chrome Kobe Bryant (Refractor) Rookie #138 BGS Pristine 10....

Click the image to load the highest resolution version.

Sold on Aug 27, 2022 for:

$795,000.00 Bid Source: Internet bidder

Get one of these:

Share this lot

Track Item Printable Auction Results

Sell One of These

Description

Auction Info

Guides & Info

Description

Population two!

1996 Topps Chrome Kobe Bryant (Refractor) Rookie #138 BGS Pristine 10. It's the ultimate symbol of supremacy. No, we're not speaking of the number "8" Lakers jersey worn by the teenaged subject of this shimmering rarity (although that's a fair assumption), but rather the Beckett Black Label beneath which the budding legend is sheltered. Only the tiniest percentage of trading cards have earned this distinction, issued only to subjects that run the table with perfect 10 ratings for all four subgrades: Centering, Corners, Edges and Surface.

In nearly three hundred submissions to Beckett, this is one of only two Black Labels, but even that number doesn't begin to express the outrageous odds this card overcame to reach the top of the world. Consider that an unopened box averaged just one of these high-tech, ultra-delicate parallel cards, and that they were made for each of the 220 subjects in 1996-97 Topps Chrome Basketball. Today, those unopened boxes sell for about $20,000.

So even if enough sealed boxes survived to go on a hunting expedition for a Kobe Chrome Refractor, it would likely cost a few million dollars before you'd even find one. Then you'd face odds lower than one percent in achieving Black Label status.

But certainly anybody in the market for this Black Label Black Mamba is well aware of the staggering improbability, and the heightened significance that comes from this issue's status as the first to present parallel refractors. It's the same sort of convergence of talent and product debut that made the 1952 Topps Mantle a hobby icon. But there are three PSA 10's for the Mick, and only two of these.