Art Work: WorthPoint.com
First off if you don't know what this card is, it's the 1999 Bowman Chrome Josh Hamilton Gold Refractor Rookie. This card is serial numbered to just 25! Which means its very limited, and extremely hard to find.
In the last two years, I've done well in depth research on this card. It's been estimated that about five people that owned one of the twenty-five possible Hamilton's sent there's in to get Professionally Graded by PSA. Also an additional three more people that owned one of the possible twenty-five, sent there's in to get graded Professionally by Beckett. So that's a total of eight that have been graded. In all likelihood there's still a possibility that out of the twenty-five possible to own, there may be still two or three in packs. The only way you can obtain this card out of a pack is from the 1999 Bowman Chrome Series 2 Hobby Box with (Chavez) on the cover. Lastly there's a possibility that they may be a few of these ungraded, like the scan above, that I am able to obtain.
According to my research there's been a total of nine Gold Refractor Hamilton's listed on eBay in the last four years. The most recent being A PSA 9 that sold for six-hundred and fifty dollars, only after two hours of being listed (Source WorthPoint.com). The estimated value of this card is well over one-thousand dollars.
I've looked everywhere to find out information about this card, multiple card forums, eBay, completed listings, I even found out that in Hamilton's hometown Raleigh, NC a sports card store owner has this card in his card shop, which many people have asked about but I've been told that isn't for sale. The one chance I had to buy this card on eBay somebody bought it before I could. Hopefully I get another chance to buy this card someday.
I'm probably the biggest Josh Hamilton fan in the world, I've seen a lot of big Hamilton fans, but I know for a fact that I'm one of the biggest fans of his. Adding this card to my collection would certainly be great, because Josh Hamilton is a true inspiration to me in many ways.
I first found out about Hamilton's story in April in 07, I remeber seeing it one day on sportscenter after he hit his first career homerun, I thought to myself thats a great story. But I just never realized how good Hamilton was until I saw him in the 08 Homerun Derby in Yankee Stadium, when he put on one of the greatest shows of all time. I then began to become a true Josh Hamilton Fan, and I've been following his career since then. I own two of his jerseys, one 08 all-star jersey, and one rangers white authentic home jersey. Out of all the 99 Bowman Chrome Series rookie cards he has I'm only missing the Gold Refractor. I truely consider Josh Hamilton my hero and idol, I'm looking forward to possibly meeting him at Yankee Stadium on April 16th, 2011 when he plays the Yankees, I have seats 3rd row on the Third Baseline where he'll possibly be warming up before the game. I surely do hope so to obtain this card someday, it'll defenitly mean a lot to me to have it.
If you completed reading all of this post, if you know anywhere that I can obtain this card, please contact me.
