Which year was it when "THE" NBA RC's became NEEDED to be auto'd?

[ThoseBackPages]

Was it when Exquisite came out? or were there SPa Releases before that that had the RCs that HAD to be auto'd, or most people didnt want to collect them, like is the case after LeBron & Co

 

[jbhofmann]

SP Authentic was auto'ed before. Yao and Amare were pretty big right before LBJ if I remember correctly.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

maybe a better question is:

Which year was the last year that there were no mainstream RC Autos? (Read: F Classic, Sig Rookeis, Tetrad, etc)

 

[kerryfan5]

Heck I will always love the Shaq redemption in UD. it was the greatest card at the time.

 

[RStadlerASU22]

98-99 I think. I don't recall Dirk , Carter , etc auto. 99-00 SPx has autos etc.

Ryan

 

[Orangejello727]

it started the year of darius miles. 00-01 was the year rookie cards became auto'd in most products. In 99-00 they were only auto'd in higher end products like SPX and SP Authentic. 00-01 was also the first year with a high end tier as well when they came out with Ultimate Collection.

Everything prior to 99-00 never came auto's. I would include 99-00 in there as well if it was up to me.