1996-97 Topps Chrome Kobe Bryant #138 RC

Topps goes chrome

Topps first brought its Refractor technology to basketball in 1993, laying a rainbow reflective coating across its 220-card Finest set. In 1996 it carried Refractors into two new products, Bowman's Best and Topps Chrome. The 1996-97 season was the first year of Topps Chrome basketball.

The set has 220 standard-size cards and mirrors that season's regular Topps release, card for card, with a chromium finish. The Refractor parallel exists for every player and was the only parallel in the product, falling about one in every 12 packs. Inserts included Season's Best (25 cards, about 1 in 6 packs), ProFiles (20 cards, 1 in 8) and YouthQuake (15 cards, 1 in 12), and Kobe Bryant also appears in YouthQuake as YQ15.

Sources disagree on how the product was sold. One collector guide calls 1996-97 Topps Chrome a retail-only release, while another describes a hobby box of 20 packs with four cards per pack. What they agree on is the checklist: one of the strongest rookie classes in NBA history, with Bryant, Allen Iverson, Steve Nash and Ray Allen all in their first cards.

From Lower Merion to Los Angeles

Kobe Bean Bryant was born August 23, 1978, in Philadelphia, the son of former NBA player Joe Bryant, and spent part of his childhood in Italy. At Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, he averaged 30.8 points, 12 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 4 steals and 3.8 blocks as a senior, led the school to its first state title in 53 years and finished as Southeastern Pennsylvania's all-time leading scorer with 2,883 points, ahead of Wilt Chamberlain. He was the 1996 Naismith High School Player of the Year.

He skipped college and entered the 1996 NBA draft, the first guard ever to go straight from high school. The day before the draft the Charlotte Hornets agreed to trade the 13th pick to the Lakers for center Vlade Divac; the Hornets took Bryant at No. 13 on the Lakers' instructions and sent him to Los Angeles.

He made his NBA debut on November 3, 1996, at 18 years and 72 days, then the second-youngest player ever to appear in an NBA game, and later became the youngest starter in league history. Coming off the bench behind Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel, he averaged 7.6 points in 15.5 minutes over 71 games, made the All-Rookie Second Team and won the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest at 18, the youngest champion in its history.

The league in 1996

Bryant arrived in an NBA still ruled by Michael Jordan. On April 16, 1996, Jordan's Chicago Bulls won their 70th game, a new record for wins in a season, and on June 16 they beat the Seattle SuperSonics in six games for their fourth title. Collectors chasing the next star had plenty of candidates, and the 1996 class with Bryant, Iverson, Nash and Allen gave them several at once.

The summer of 1996 also brought the Olympic Games to Atlanta, opening July 19, where Michael Johnson set a 200-meter world record of 19.32 seconds on August 1. In November Bill Clinton won a second term as president. A chrome card of an untested 18-year-old came out into that world as one rookie among many.

Twenty years, one team

Bryant played all 20 of his NBA seasons for the Lakers. In his second year his scoring doubled to 15.4 points a game and fans voted him the league's youngest All-Star starter. With Shaquille O'Neal he won three straight championships from 2000 to 2002, and at 23 he became the youngest player to win three titles.

On January 22, 2006, he scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second-highest total in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100. He led the league in scoring in 2005-06 and 2006-07, switched his jersey number from 8 to 24, won the 2008 MVP award and led the Lakers to titles again in 2009 and 2010, taking Finals MVP both times. He also won Olympic gold in 2008 and 2012.

He retired after the 2015-16 season, scoring 60 points in his final game, a win over the Utah Jazz. The Lakers retired both of his numbers, 8 and 24, on December 18, 2017, and his short film Dear Basketball won the Academy Award for best animated short. On January 26, 2020, Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in April 2020.

Base, Refractor and the grading gauntlet

This entry is the base #138, not the Refractor. Both share a number and a photograph, but the Refractor shows a rainbow sheen across the card and was seeded at roughly one per 12 packs, so it is a separate and much scarcer card that trades far higher.

Chrome is hard on condition. The grading company's own description warns that the high-gloss surface is very susceptible to scratching and wear, and sellers of high-grade copies routinely advertise that a card shows 'no greening,' a discoloration buyers watch for on chrome cards of this era.

As of the latest monthly census, PSA had graded 6,944 copies of the base card. Only 840 were PSA 10, while 4,230 received a 9 and 1,376 an 8. In August and September 2026, completed sales of PSA 9 copies ran from $3,150 to $7,599, while PSA 10s ran from $13,200 to $27,500.

What PSA 10 copies bring

In 2020 and 2021 the top end ran hard. Copies graded BGS 10 sold online for $32,000 in August 2020 and for $67,000 in February 2021 and $62,100 in April 2021, before falling to $35,600 by June 2021 and $15,100 by February 2022.

PSA 10 copies have traded in a narrower band. A December 2025 report noted one had recently sold for $11,211. Completed sales in summer 2026 ran from $11,450 in early June to $21,100 in early September, with one copy whose listing touted no greening bringing $27,500 the same day. Prices for the Refractor in the same grade are in a different league entirely and are not included here.

The numbers

1996-97 season (card year)

71 G, 6 GS, 15.5 MPG, 7.6 PPG (539 points), 1.9 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.7 SPG, .417 FG%, .375 3P% (51 of 136), .819 FT%

1996-97 honors

NBA All-Rookie Second Team; 1997 Slam Dunk Contest champion at 18

1997 playoffs

9 G, 74 points, .382 FG%

1997-98 season

79 G, 15.4 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 2.5 APG; All-Star; Sixth Man of the Year runner-up

Career (1996-2016)

1,346 G, 33,643 points, 25.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 4.7 APG, 1.4 SPG, .447 FG%, .837 FT%

Career highlights

5 NBA titles (2000-02, 2009-10), 2 Finals MVPs, 2008 MVP, 18 All-Star selections, 2 scoring titles, 15 All-NBA and 12 All-Defensive teams, 81-point game

Hall of Fame

Elected in April 2020

Timeline

1. Aug 23, 1978

   Kobe Bryant is born in Philadelphia.

2. 1993

   Topps introduces Refractor technology to basketball cards in its Finest set.

3. 1996

   Bryant is named Naismith High School Player of the Year and declares for the NBA draft out of Lower Merion High School.

4. 1996

   Charlotte drafts Bryant 13th overall and sends him to the Lakers for Vlade Divac.

5. 1996

   Topps issues its first Topps Chrome basketball set, 220 cards, with Bryant at #138.

6. Nov 3, 1996

   Bryant makes his NBA debut at 18 years, 72 days.

7. 1997

   Bryant wins the Slam Dunk Contest and makes the All-Rookie Second Team.

8. 2002

   The Lakers complete three straight championships; Bryant is the youngest to win three titles.

9. Jan 22, 2006

   Bryant scores 81 points against Toronto.

10. 2008

    Bryant is named NBA Most Valuable Player.

11. 2010

    Bryant wins his fifth title and second straight Finals MVP.

12. Apr 13, 2016

    Bryant scores 60 points in his final game.

13. Dec 18, 2017

    The Lakers retire both of his numbers, 8 and 24.

14. Jan 26, 2020

    Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others die in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.

15. Apr 2020

    Bryant is elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

16. Feb 17, 2021

    A BGS 10 Pristine copy of the base card sells online for $67,000.

17. Sep 4, 2026

    A PSA 10 copy sells for $21,100; another, advertised as showing no greening, brings $27,500.

The world in 1996

• Apr 16, 1996

  The Chicago Bulls win their 70th game, a new NBA record for a season.

• Jun 16, 1996

  The Bulls beat Seattle for their fourth championship.

• Jul 17, 1996

  TWA Flight 800 explodes off Long Island, killing all 230 aboard.

• Jul 19, 1996

  The Summer Olympics open in Atlanta.

• Aug 1, 1996

  Michael Johnson sets a 200-meter world record of 19.32 seconds in Atlanta.

• Sep 13, 1996

  Rapper Tupac Shakur dies six days after a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.

• Nov 5, 1996

  Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole to win a second term as president.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this card every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

No completed sale at PSA 10 is on record yet. The same card at other grades:

Every grade and recorded sale for this card

Price record

A realized private sale is a completed transaction outside an auction room. The amount is what changed hands on the date shown. Private sales are reported less consistently than auction results, so a single comparable carries less weight than a run of them.

By reference price, 1996-97 Topps Chrome Kobe Bryant #138 RC is number 59 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (42 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• 1996-97 was the first year of Topps Chrome basketball, and the Refractor was its only parallel.
• Charlotte drafted Bryant only because the Lakers had already agreed to trade for the pick, sending Vlade Divac the other way.
• Bryant was the first guard ever to enter the NBA draft straight from high school.
• He won the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest at 18, the youngest champion in its history.
• He wore 143 at a summer camp and picked No. 8 by adding the digits; he later switched to 24, his first high school number.
• Of 6,944 copies of the base card graded by PSA, only 840 have earned a 10.
• Bryant appears twice in the set's world: on base card #138 and on YouthQuake insert YQ15.