In the 1990s, Skybox was the king of cards. Their designs and flip side narratives engaged collectors and elevated the industry. In 1997, Skybox launched the hottest parallels in the market, the massively popular Precious Metal Gems. The serial numbers on the cards and the chase to find them as pack inserts set the collecting world on fire, much like the scenes on the cards themselves. The debut PMGs in 1997-98 Metal Universe Basketball come in two colors, Green and Red, and have a combined print run /100. Green make up the first 10 copies while the remaining 90 are Red.
The desire to obtain these treasured Gems still burns hot to this day, with that intensity only rising when PMGs of marquee players such as this Tracy McGrady become available.
McGrady entered the NBA straight out of high school as the ninth overall pick by the Toronto Raptors where he’d play for three seasons before joining the Orlando Magic. It was during this time that he became one of the league's best scorers, earning back-to-back scoring titles in 2003 and 2004. This represents one of the Hall of Famer's top cards from his rookie season.
The bold border-to-border foil makes chipping and edgewear common on PMGs. As a result, top condition copies are extremely scarce. This NM-MT+ 8.5 is a pop 1 in the BGS registry with none ranking higher.
The certification number on this card has been checked against the third-party grader's online database and is active as of 12/05/2025.
