The Dynasty Era (1998-2008)
This period covers Kobe's rise to superstardom and the Los Angeles Lakers' three-peat championship run (2000-2002). Cards from this time often document his maturing game, scoring titles, and championship success.
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There aren’t great inserts in the choice basketball set, and so the chance of hitting a StarQuest is where most of the value of these are at. But that's okay, it means that you can affordable accept the challenge of pulling a '98 Kobe card.. and that's forever going to be "cool."
Through fan voting, Bryant was named an All-Star starter at age 19, a record that still stands. In his first All-Star game, he scored a team-high 18 points. The Lakers had a strong season, finishing with a 61-21 record and tying for the Pacific Division title, ultimately losing to the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Finals.
This is a rare 1998-99 Upper Deck Choice Kobe #186 card. It is a short print, single-insert card with parallel features, and bears the card number #186. The card's theme is "Year in Review" and it is an original, not a licensed reprint.
In 1998, a 19-year-old Kobe Bryant became the youngest All-Star starter in NBA history during his second season with the Los Angeles Lakers. He primarily played off the bench for the Lakers that season but became a celebrity due to his exciting play and All-Star selection
In the 2000 NBA season, Kobe Bryant, at the age of 21, won his first NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers. He was named to the All-NBA Second Team and NBA All-Defensive First Team that season.
The 2000-01 Upper Deck product was released in late November, 2000. The product featured a 245-card base set that is broken into tiers as follows: 200 veterans (1-200), and 45 Rookies (201-245) that are seeded at one in four packs. Each pack contained 10 cards, and carried a suggested retail price of 2.99. Series two cards all say "Game Jersey Edition" below the Upper Deck logo in the top right hand corner. Popular players in the set included Kevin Garnett, Anfernee Hardaway and Shareef Abdur-Rahim.
In 1996, Topps introduced its inaugural chromium production which paralleled the arrival of the legendary Kobe Bryant. After just a few short years, both brands emerged to become some of the brightest in the business with Kobe's early Topps Chrome examples becoming some of our markets most cherished mainstream blue chips.
To this day, avid Kobe investors/collectors search high and low for these early Topps Chrome Kobe parallels, with ultra-high-grade copies always eluding them. Of the 82 cards in the 2002 Topps Chrome set, the Michael Jordan #CC8 Coast to Coast Refractor leads the trending, but Kobe is not far behind in popularity.
Inserted 1:48 packs, these memorabilia cards were rarely inserted, but featured pieces of warm-up, shooting shirt, jersey or shorts from the 2004 NBA All-Star Weekend. Played on February 15th, 2004, at the Staples Center in L.A., this was the first (and only) time in LeBron James’ career that he was not selected for the All-Star Game.
The West defeated the East 136-132, with Shaquille O’Neal winning the MVP for the second time in his career. It was the last All-Star Game in which Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were Western Conference teammates. Shaq was named the game’s MVP with 24 points, but Bryant scored 20 while shooting 75 percent from the field as the West beat the East.
The 2007 Bowman Elevation basketball checklist featured a 100-card base set with stars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Steve Nash, plus inserts like Rookie Remnants (jersey/patch cards #/99, #/199) and color variations (Blue, Red, Gold), highlighting players from the 2006-07 NBA season with rookies like Adam Morrison and Rodney Stuckey, making it a significant release for collecting stars and rookies from that era.
While the “top trending” card in 2007 Bowman Elevation (according to Sports Card Investor) is the Kevin Durant #71 Base Rookie /999, it’s hard to pass over any Kobe relic. 2007 was a phenomenal scoring year for Kobe Bryant, marked by an incredible stretch in March where he scored 65, 50, 60, and 50 points in four consecutive games, winning the NBA scoring title and establishing himself as the league's best player, even dominating against strong defenses like the Spurs.
This set was released on September 9, 2008. The base set consists of 266 cards. Cards 1-224 feature veterans, and cards 225-266 are rookies. The Legends were inserted at one in two packs and the rookies at one in 4.5.
Bryant played all 82 games of the 2007-08 regular season, leading the Lakers to a Western Conference-best 57-25 record. The mid-season acquisition of Pau Gasol transformed the team into immediate title contenders.
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