The 1996-97 Skybox E-X2000 basketball set is among the few products that encapsulate the mid-to-late-1990s to its fullest. Cards felt futuristic and brought a different “air” to the market.
Despite not being a vintage product, high grades are tough to come by. This is mainly due to the sensitive nature of the cards, which has only been amplified over time. With an intricate design comprised of a framed border, die-cut player image, and transparent sheet decorated with clouds, as their primary background; is a bit reminiscent of an older Skybox insert, the 1995-96 Hoops Skyview.
The bulk of the set is comprised of 82 base cards, 80 if you exclude the checklists. While there are some very notable base cards (such as Michael Jordan), the 1996-97 NBA rookie class is what takes the cake, including Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury rookies.
The set actually has only one base parallel, the Credentials, numbered to 499, and can be distinguished by a pearl foil border and the word "CREDENTIALS" on the top right corner of the card front.
This post will cover:
Despite the limited number of cards, the 1996-1997 Skybox E-X2000 featured high quality, cutting edge designs. As seen in the image above, the "Credentials" parallels (numbered to 499) featured die cut player images, accompanied by an off-white colored foil border, and cloud filled sky backgrounds. These cards are very rare and don't come up for sale very often, and when they do, top grades are hard to find due to the extreme condition sensitivity.
A good condition Credentials parallel however can yield very high returns.
Collecting the base set – Assuming perfect distribution, at 2 cards per pack, and 24 packs per box; you would need 2 boxes to complete the entire set of 80 base cards.
The base version of Kobe Bryant also made our list. This card is almost identical to the rare "Credentials" parallel with the only exception being the different colored border. Despite being part of the base set (having a higher encounter rate) these cards are too prone to wear and chipping along the colored edges. The fragile nature of the cards makes getting a PSA 10 extremely rare. This can easily make the card’s value skyrocket and should not be overlooked, even if it’s part of the Base Set.
The top 10 highest priced cards of the 1996 E-X2000 basketball set included:
|
Card Name |
Number of PSA 10’s Graded |
Highest Price Paid for PSA 10 |
|
1. #30 Kobe Bryant Credentials |
4 |
$78,000 (for a PSA 8) |
|
2. #30 Kobe Bryant |
24 |
$87,100 |
|
3. #9 Michael Jordan Credentials |
2 |
$21,500 (for a PSA 9) |
|
4. #9 Michael Jordan |
38 |
$4,500 |
|
5. #5 Michael Jordan – A Cut Above Insert |
1 |
$9,299 (for a PSA 9) |
|
6. #8 Michael Jordan Net Assets Insert |
38 |
$3,070 |
|
7. #3 Kobe Bryant Star Date Insert |
89 |
$70,152 |
|
8. #53 Allen Iverson Credentials |
3 |
$18,288 |
|
9. #42 Steph Marbury Credentials |
0 |
$3,000 (for a PSA 9) |
|
10. #53 Allen Iverson |
22 |
$7,250 (for a PSA 9) |
|
Average Prices for: |
Amount |
|
1996 Skybox E-X2000 Box |
$15,000 asking price |
|
1996 Skybox E-X2000 Pack |
NA |
|
Case |
Currently unknown |
| 1 Christian Laettner 2 Dikembe Mutombo 3 Steve Smith 4 Antoine Walker RC 5 David Wesley 6 Tony Delk RC 7 Anthony Mason 8 Glen Rice 9 Michael Jordan 10 Scottie Pippen 11 Dennis Rodman 12 Terrell Brandon 13 Chris Mills 14 Shawn Bradley 15 Michael Finley 16 Dale Ellis 17 Antonio McDyess 18 Joe Dumars 19 Grant Hill 20 Chris Mullin 21 Joe Smith 22 Latrell Sprewell 23 Charles Barkley 24 Clyde Drexler 25 Hakeem Olajuwon 26 Erick Dampier RC 27 Reggie Miller 28 Loy Vaught |
29 Lorenzen Wright RC 43 Kendall Gill 44 Jim Jackson 45 Kerry Kittles RC 46 Patrick Ewing 47 Larry Johnson 48 John Wallace RC 49 Nick Anderson 50 Horace Grant 51 Anfernee Hardaway 52 Derrick Coleman 53 Allen Iverson RC 54 Jerry Stackhouse 55 Cedric Ceballos 56 Kevin Johnson |
57 Jason Kidd |
| 1 Kevin Garnett 2 Anfernee Hardaway 3 Grant Hill 4 Allen Iverson |
5 Michael Jordan 6 Shawn Kemp 7 Hakeem Olajuwon 8 Shaquille O'Neal |
9 Glenn Robinson |
| 1 Ray Allen 2 Charles Barkley 3 Patrick Ewing 4 Kevin Garnett 5 Anfernee Hardaway 6 Grant Hill |
7 Allen Iverson 11 Karl Malone |
13 Shaquille O'Neal 14 Gary Payton 15 Bryant Reeves 16 David Robinson 17 Dennis Rodman |
| 1 Shareef Abdur-Rahim 2 Ray Allen 3 Kobe Bryant 4 Marcus Camby 5 Erick Dampier |
6 Juwan Howard 7 Allen Iverson 8 Jason Kidd 9 Kerry Kittles 10 Stephon Marbury |
11 Jamal Mashburn 12 Antonio McDyess 13 Joe Smith 14 Damon Stoudamire 15 Antoine Walker |
Grant Hill Emerald Autographed Basketball Redemption (1:500 packs)
Grant Hill Oversized Case Incentive #/3000
Grant Hill Sample Promo
The cards are found throughout 1996-97 Fleer/Skybox products. They are listed alphabetically as they are not numbered.
| Adam Keefe Allan Houston Alonzo Mourning Andrew DeClercq Andrew Lang Antoine Walker Antonio McDyess B.J. Armstrong Bill Wennington Billy Owens Bob Sura Bobby Phills Brent Barry Brian Grant Bryant Stith Byron Scott Charles Oakley Chris Childs Chris Mills Chris Morris Chuck Person Clyde Drexler Damon Stoudamire Dana Barros David Wesley Dell Curry Dennis Scott Don MacLean Doug West Ed O'Bannon Eddie Jones Eric Montross |
Eric Snow Kenny Anderson Kenny Smith Kerry Kittles Kevin Garnett Latrell Sprewell Lawrence Moten Lee Mayberry Loy Vaught Luc Longley Marcus Camby Mark Jackson Matt Geiger Michael Finley Monty Williams |
Muggsy Bogues Nate McMillan Nick Anderson P.J. Brown Randy Brown Ray Allen Rick Fox Rik Smits Rod Strickland Rodney Rogers Sam Mitchell Sam Perkins Samaki Walker Scottie Pippen Sharone Wright Sherman Douglas Stephon Marbury Steve Kerr Steve Nash Theo Ratliff Tim Hardaway Toni Kukoc Tony Delk Travis Best Tyrone Hill Tyus Edney Vincent Askew Voshon Lenard Walter McCarty Wesley Person Zan Tabak Zydrunas Ilgauskas |