[chsheridan]

I collect kobe bryant rookie cards, i have a 97 kobe gold spx rookie that has a blue border around his name on the card, looking around i see that some of his gold SPX rookies have either blue or purple around his name....was wondering if anyone had some input on this?

[xstreaminsanity]

I could be WAY off on this, but that could be because of fading due to sunlight (bad storage) or the scanner/camera(lighting) itself. Do you have scans of two different examples? Thanks.

[jeep1991]

There are actually blue and purple versions of the card and I believe there is no significance to this.

[djohn]

From what I have seen, there is a blue variation as shown below.
BLUE VARIATION


PURPLE VARIATION


I am not sure if Beckett distinguishes between these 2 variations.

[kenarm79]

From what I have seen, there is a blue variation as shown below.
BLUE VARIATION


PURPLE VARIATION


I am not sure if Beckett distinguishes between these 2 variations.

Good find. The scraches on that PSA case make me wanna get it reslabbed, lol. I remember when someone sent me a PC card that was graded. When I got it I noticed that someone had tape all over it, but removed it. The case was soo sticky that I just cracked open the case and put it in a top loader.

[xstreaminsanity]

From those scans though, even the gold seems to be a different color. That's why I figured it might be lighting/scanner variation.

[djohn]

If you look carefully at the blue variation you will notice that Kobe's uniform has blue instead of purple (most noticeably on his shorts). I believe this was a printing flaw, however it did happen on several of the cards (just check eBay and carefully examine the colors on each of the 1997 SPx Gold Kobe cards, there are a few completed and a few still up for auction with the variation). In fact at least one of the auctions lists the card as BLUE Variation, so my guess is that it's a slightly known variation that Beckett just doesn't call out separately.

[sonic311]

I never noticed the blue on the jersey/shorts. I'll have to check my cards when I get home.
Some say the Purple Variation is more rare but I still have not found any proof to support this.