Throughout the early 1990s, Fleer/SkyBox made its biggest impact on the trading card industry by featuring strong photography and designs across its many insert sets. However, the company lagged on the idea of parallels. That started to change in the middle of the decade with the debut of the Gold Medallion parallel in 1995-96 Fleer Ultra Basketball. Fleer brought the concept back in 1996-97, while also adding even more rare Platinum Medallion parallels.
This coincided with the stellar 1996 NBA Draft class and Kobe Bryant's rookie season.
Landing 1:180 Series 1 packs, simply landing a Platinum Medallion parallel of any player was tough. Factor in the 148 possible cards and the odds of finding any particular card, such as a Platinum Medallion version of Bryant's rookie, was 1:26,640 packs. Although not serial numbered, these odds make a case for this being one of Kobe's rarest first-year basketball cards.
This is one of just four copies to land a Mint PSA 9 grade with just eight copies ranking higher in the company's registry.
The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 06/17/2026.
