Basketball card manufacturers gave collectors plenty of opportunities to get their hands on cards of the vaunted 2003 NBA Draft class highlighted by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh. In addition to its flagship, Chrome, and Finest offerings, Topps also produced its 140-card Contemporary Collection for the ‘03-’04 season. Not quite reaching the ultra-high-end status of its Upper Deck contemporaries Exquisite Collection and Ultimate Collection, Contemporary Collection was distributed in boxes of six five-card packs at a suggested retail price of $50. The first 20 cards in the set were reserved for the rookie class, with King James leading things off at card #1. Topps produced two parallels of the base set. Red parallels were numbered /225 or /50 for autographs of selected entries on the checklist. But Gold versions, such as this example, were /25 or /1 for selected autographs. With LeBron only signing for Upper Deck, his #1 Gold parallel is out of 25.
The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 11/05/24
