General Forum

I was wondering if anyone would have any input regarding NBA refractors/parallel cards.  I am mainly looking for opinions of these related to how I store my collection.  I currently have all inserts and rookies of all stars in toploaders in a box on their own.  I have my parallel cards and refractors in just penny sleeves in a normal box.  I am starting to wonder if some of the refractors/parallels are special enough to be put in a toploader with the inserts and star rookies.

Two in particular are a 1993-1994 Finest Kevin Johnson refractor, and a 1996 Topps Stars Kevin McHale Atomic Refractor.  Are either of these two cards really all that special or pretty basic?

Also, for modern sets I tend to get a lot of shiny or prizm parallel cards.  Are any of Panini's Prizm sets or Hoops known for having valuable parallels, or is it just mainly down to having a serial number now?

I know it's just personal preference, but still trying to determine whether or not any of the parallels I have are worthy of a toploader and being with inserts and star rookies.  

Appreciate any and all input!

Yes, putting the refactors in top loaders would be a good idea. From the research I did here at the site, refractors in that set can go for 5x the value of the regular card. The pricing onsite suggests the regular issue Kevin Johnson goes for about .75, while the refractor runs about $5. Of course you get more pricing information doing a search on ebay or beckett marketplace.

 

I should also mention that prices on this site may not be accurate, as sometimes the information was submitted a long time ago.

If there aren't enough user submitted prices or the info is too old then my go to is always the internet.

Thanks for the response back! Yeah, I think I'm gonna go ahead and move all my parallels into toploaders. I know some are kinda silly, (like all my silver bordered 15-16 Panini Complete cards) but at least that way I will have it uniform and not miss out on protecting the good ones.

I would suggest not storing any cards, especially Finest cards, in plastic, unless absolutely nessicary. I put my Patrick Ewing Gold Refractor from 1996-97 Finest into a penny sleeve in 1996, and the sleeve kind of started to stick to it over the years; I've also purchased cards and had the foil stick to the sleeve and off the card. It will almost surely leave marks of the pattern of air in the sleeve.

All of my cards are in the white boxes that are fairly common, I don't use pages or toploaders.