2000 Bowman Chrome Refractor Tom Brady ROOKIE #236 BGS 9 MINT

Though Tom Brady came into the NFL as a sixth-round draft pick, trading card manufacturers still included him in about two-thirds of their 2000 sets. After prying away New England’s starting quarterback role and winning the Super Bowl championship a year later, interest in Brady’s cards rose, and the demand has yet to wane now that Brady has retired. Brady has more rookie parallels (63) than base rookie cards (44), one of which has long stood out—the 2000 Bowman Chrome Refractor. Topps produced more than 300 Brady Refractors in Topps Chrome, Finest, and Bowman Chrome products from 2002 until 2015, but the first Refractor sets the standard among Brady collectors. Topps produced 12 sets in 2000 but only included Brady in Bowman and Bowman Chrome—meaning he has only a single rookie Refractor. Among the 105 rookies on the Bowman Chrome checklist, Topps serial-numbered base cards of 20 top prospects to /99. That left Brady and 84 other draftees as unnumbered short prints, whose Refractors fell once every 281 packs. It took an average of nearly 24,000 packs to uncover a Brady, leaving this card as one of his toughest unnumbered rookie cards to pull. Brady retired following the 2022 season with a lengthy list of regular-season, playoff, and Super Bowl accomplishments throughout his 23-year career. When combining his regular-season and postseason totals, Brady passed for 102,614 yards and 737 touchdowns and recorded 286 victories—including 35 in the playoffs (seven of which are Super Bowl titles). Brady also made 15 Pro Bowls, became the oldest NFL MVP (age 40), threw touchdowns to 98 different receivers, and became the fourth quarterback in history to defeat all 32 teams after knocking off the Patriots on October 3, 2021. Those record totals will likely remain the bar against which experts measure future quarterbacks, so Brady’s legacy could reach further heights as historians continue to put his career into context for decades to come. And considering Refractors have helped define the trading card industry since 1993, the shine from Brady’s card makes it a top pick for many collectors. The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 2/20/2024.