About a month before Stephen Curry’s NBA debut, Upper Deck released the final iteration of Exquisite Collection before Panini’s exclusive NBA trading card license took effect. Twenty-eight rookies landed on the “Exquisite Rookie Autograph” portion of the checklist, including nine players with two cards. Upper Deck secured hard-signed signatures from the draftees but pictured them in their college uniforms on a design that paid homage to the first edition of Exquisite.
With Curry coming up the court in his Davidson Wildcats jersey, collectors get a high-end reminder of his tremendous college career. Curry led Davidson to NCAA Tournament runs as a freshman and sophomore and led the NCAA in scoring as a junior. Those electrifying performances put the tiny North Carolina university in the national spotlight and bolstered his profile with NBA scouts. The Warriors took the sharp-shooting guard in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft.
From there, Chef Steph has become arguably the greatest shooter in the game's history, transforming how basketball is played and capturing a cabinet's worth of personal and team hardware. This is a scarcer version of Curry’s Exquisite Rookie Autograph in the form of this /30 parallel.
This Gem Mint 9.5 is a pop 8 in the BGS registry with none ranking higher. Its subgrades include 9.5s for Edges, Centering and Surface. The autograph has been assessed as a 10.
The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 12/23/2025.
