As a center who was as skilled as he was gigantic, Shaquille O'Neal was one of the great sure things in NBA history. The Orlando Magic won the rights to draft Shaq and enjoyed his play for 4 years before he went off to chase rings with the Lakers. His rookie cards were, to no one's surprise, hotly sought after. Here are some of the still collectible issues from his first year.

1992 Topps Gold 

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Topps had been the sole producer of basketball cards for decades. In 1992, though, they put out their first hoops set since its 1982 set. And the crown jewel of their latest set was the Shaquille O'Neal rookie card. Each pack contained 1 gold card with more coming in rack packs.

While there are thousands of PSA-graded Shaq Topps rookie cards, the gold foil cards are a little bit harder to come by. There are only 717 PSA 10 copies of Shaq's rookie gold card and they sell at a premium price of $1,800.

1992 Upper Deck 

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Upper Deck was pumped to produce Shaq cards but they had to wait. The center had a deal with Classic, so in their first set, UD produced a redemption card collectors could send in for his rookie card, which was embossed with the phrase trade card. The second series featured the same card.

Collectors seem to prefer the card that could be pulled directly from packs and due to its black border, it is hard to find in gem mint condition. PSA has only graded 337 of the cards as a PSA 10 and they sell for $2500.

1992 Topps Archive Gold 

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In addition to releasing their base set, Topps also released an archive set in 1992. This set was meant to make up for the rookie cards the company had missed out on during their 10-year hiatus. Using their baseball card backgrounds for each specific year, Topps dropped "rookie cards" for players like Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, and Hakeem Olajuwon. Like the base set, there were also gold variants.

Shaquille O'Neal's card couldn't be pulled from packs but was included in a gold factory set. There are far fewer copies of this card than most of his other rookies. As a result, a PSA 10 Shaq gold rookie sells for more than $800.

1992 Classic Auto 

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Prior to Shaq entering the NBA, he signed a deal with a company called Classic. Classic trading cards were well known for wrestling cards as well as minor league and college cards. Their Shaq rookies featured the hooper in his LSU uniform and the company had O'Neal sign thousands of them.

Those autographed cards are now readily available. Grading companies like PSA and BGS still take the step of authenticating the signatures and labeling the card as such on the slab. The cards, usually numbered, can vary wildly in price but are a good example of Shaq's very first rookie card.

1992 Stadium Club Beam Team 

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Inserts were all the rage during the 1990s and Stadium Club was one of the most popular card brands. Shaq has a standard rookie card within the Stadium Club base set, but he was also included in the 21-player Beam Team Set. The card is quite busy and prone to scratches, so it is hard to find in gem mint condition.

There is also the Members Only version of the card which had a lower print run. The Beam Team Members-only card sells for $13,000 in a PSA 10 but can be had for $1,000 in a PSA 9.

*Any perceived investment advice is that of the freelance blogger and does not represent advice on behalf of GoCollect.