This is a quietly excellent card that flies under the radar — and it is two things at once. The 1997–98 Topps Generations Refractor is both a die-cut and a refractor: the card is physically cut to follow the arched ‘Generations’ banner across the top, and it carries Topps’ full Chromium refractor finish, so the whole surface throws a rainbow shimmer as it moves in the light. It looks superb in hand in a way scans never quite convey.

The Generations theme bridges NBA eras — Jordan’s card reads ‘1983–1997 Generations,’ and the back notes that his contributions ‘transcend generational boundaries… a legend in his own generation and a paradigm for the next.’ It is card G2, the Refractor parallel of the base die-cut. Because it is both die-cut and refractor, it is condition-sensitive in two ways at once: the exposed die-cut points chip easily, and refractors of this era are prone to a greenish surface tinge, so clean, untoned PSA 10s are genuinely tough. The card is also thinly graded overall — only 252 copies across all grades, of which 47 are PSA 10.