Nuttin' But The Hits:1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants Basketball

The late 90's. Is there truly any better time in the hobby?

The variety, the brands, the innovations, the value.

It's all in there.

For me there is also a bonus, the memories. This was and always will be my best time in the hobby. Nothing will ever change that.

So when I pulled off my last trade with Project Pedro blog I got the opportunity to take a trip back down memory lane with some packs/box breaks from my past. I loved every aspect of our trade, but these breaks were truly what hit me the hardest and what I enjoyed the most. With every pack I busted a smile can be seen for miles across my face and the next chance to open the next pack brought me joy like no other.

There will be multiple breaks coming up on here with mostly football, but today's I decided to kick it off with some NBA. My only NBA break from the trade.

When Shane told me he found some discounted packs at his LCS of 1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants basketball, I told him to jump on it all and I would work out a trade for them. He happily obliged. Like I said, this guy is pretty awesome and I am very fortunate to know him.

Overall he managed to score sixteen packs overall and a box normally has 24 so was almost a full box break. There are five cards per pack.  My biggest hope was to find some top rookies from the break but even more important is finding some gold. Those gold parallels have really held their value over the years.

Let's get to ripping these packs!

There are 25 Rookies to find in the product that fall 1:2 packs. I miss days rookies were randomly inserted like that. Drives up value. Key Rookies to find are Dirk Nowitzki, Mike Bibby, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, Jason Willams, Paul Pierce, Rashard Lewis, Peja Stojakovic!

Here are the ones I found in the break. Biggy and Antawn were nice finds. Lue is now a coach so that's a little weird.

But this was the highlight of the group. I was really hoping to find a Dirk. But, can't complain about some Vinsanity! Dude was a highlight reel in his prime.

I didn't find any gold in my break, but found plenty of blue parallels. These fall Veteran 1:3 packs, and Rookies 1:6 packs. Shaq was the best find of the group. Some of the rookie parallels have some good value when you pull the top ones.

I also ended up finding an insert in Shining Stars that fell 1:20 packs. It has a Finest type protectant over the top. Mine was a tad peeled back.

 

Overall, I was pretty happy with the break. Pulled some good rookies, lots of parallels and an insert. Can't ask for much more in sixteen packs. I remember busting a few packs of this when it came out and I didn't do as well as this. Of course my grandmothers neighbor who collected NBA pulled some nice cards from these back in the day but more on that for another time.