Fast Five: Kobe Bryant basketball cards you should start with

This one is a quick idea for a new department here on The Buzz ... Fast Five -- a quick list under a simple topic that might offer a basic starting point for a themed collection. It's a basic list of five items that could be fun for a starting collector or a new way to add to a stash that might already seemingly include everything when it comes to cardboard. For some of you, it's probably common sense. For others of you out there, it's something to think about.

This time? Five Kobe Bryant cardboard basics to own.

A ROOKIE CARD
It's clear that a lot of people who aren't seven-day-a-week collectors have been picking up Kobe Bryant basketball cards since his death in late-January, and the easy starting point for someone -- regardless of budget -- is a Rookie Card. His best Rookie Cards are from major manufacturers and most of them show him in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform or at least use Lakers logos. He has a ton of draft picks and early cards, too, but his 16 Rookie Cards all from the 1996-97 season are the ones to consider first. Here's a rundown of the brands -- Bowman's Best, Collector's Choice, E-X 2000, Fleer, Fleer Metal, Flair Showcase, Fleer Ultra, NBA Hoops, SP, Topps, Topps Chrome, Topps Finest, Upper Deck, UD3 and Z-Force. They're all in demand but they have always been relatively findable and vary in price. Topps Chrome, Topps Finest, Bowman's Best and SP are arguably the better ones, so they'll cost more, while Collector's Choice and Hoops will be on the cheaper side. There are parallel versions for the Chrome and Finest cards, too, and there are also fakes for some of the basic cards here to be weary of. I'd grab one that's been graded by BGS, PSA or SGC only. My Favorite? Probably Finest (above) as I was actually able to find one in a pack long, long ago ... I also once had a Chrome ... but traded it. (Story for another day.)

Keep reading for four more basic cards to consider for Kobe Bryant.

A GAME-USED CARD
Game-used memorabilia cards -- cards with a slice of a jersey or other piece of memorabilia used by the player embedded into them -- were just getting going when Bryant arrived back in 1996, but there are plenty of cards like these out there also in big demand by fans of this NBA legend. He's got more than 4,000 different memorabilia cards and they can range from tiny-swatchs up to elaborate jumbo patches and other cards (with and without autographs) that can command serious cash. He's got cards by himself, cards alongside others -- LeBron James, Michael Jordan, etc. -- that also can demand big bucks. For simplicity's sake, I think the best route to go is to find one with a gold jersey swatch. They just look better than most other possibilities. This card -- not all that rare at 99 copies made but from a premium-priced brand -- recently sold for $84 and that's a lot more than it would have been in past years. I'd keep it simple if starting out as cards with patches that are too nice to believe might be fakes where somebody cut up a replica jersey and put a patch into a card. (That happens way too often.)

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A HORNETS CARD
Bryant's first NBA team -- the one that drafted him -- was the Charlotte Hornets but it took a long, long time for anything showing him (sorta) in Hornets gear to appear on cardboard. He's got maybe a dozen cards where he's seen wearing his Hornets cap on draft day. As best I can tell, just a few (three or four of those) were certified autos. One of his earliest appears to be in the 2009-10 Topps Draft Snapshot insert set (though it uses a Lakers logo as part of the design), while his earliest Hornets cards from Panini appear to be in a pair of 2010-11 Panini releases' insert sets -- 2010-11 Playoff Contenders Patches Place in History and in 2010-11 Panini Gold Standard 24K. His most-plentiful one might be in the 2012-13 Panini Kobe Anthology set (above). None of them should cost too much for the basic versions but some do have rarer parallel versions.

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SOMETHING SHARED WITH SHAQ
They both appear on a ton of basketball cards but if you want a card with Kobe Bryant together with Shaquille O'Neal, well, there aren't as many options. (Don't get me wrong, you can find them.) There are cameo cards like this 2000-2001 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion parallel out there that can make you do some looking closely at all cards but there are upwards of 300 cards where both of these Hall of Famers are prominently noted on the cards in various inserts and subsets as well as autographs and memorabilia cards. There aren't a ton of cards put there for ink but they are found together on nearly 200 memorabilia cards so that's the place you might find a combo card first. (You can thank parallels for a good chunk of that.) This type of card can cost you very little or it can cost you a ton -- it just depends on what type you want.

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AN AUTOGRAPH
This is the toughest one cost-wise but arguably the most-important one of the bunch. Bryant appears on more than 3,500 different certified autographs from throughout his career and also into retirement as Panini America had been his home for signing. For example, you can find on-card ink on cards shared with Zion Williamson in 2019-20 NBA Hoops hobby boxes. They're not easy pulls but they are legendary pieces of cardboard. Bryant signed two-thirds of his autos in just the Panini years (a number expanded by parallels) but he also signed for Upper Deck, Fleer, Topps and other companies. There are a ton of fake -- and not good fakes, either -- autographs out there now on cards with paper certs that are as bad as the sigs on the cards. I'd stick with certified autos where the info is all noted on the cards and I'd also probably stick to the newer stuff as the earliest autos can be suspect at times. (Not all are bad, of course -- buy authenticated slabs if you go there.) Bryant's autographs have always been limited and pricier and the demand now is at an all-time high. That's why I presented this one last ... it's the biggest one and always will be.

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What would you want to see in a future Fast Five? Let Buzz know on Twitter or email.

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