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Project note
A short editorial note on why a true Exquisite encyclopedia cannot stop with the first few years, even when early releases dominate hobby conversation.
The Exquisite story is not only 2003-04. Later seasons reshape the insert vocabulary, expand multi-player premium cards, and close the run with a distinct final-year rookie format.
An archive that stops too early feels polished on the surface but thin underneath. Year-by-year completeness is what turns a shell into a reference work.
This pass expands the release-year spine and insert-family taxonomy even when only representative card pages are live. That lets the encyclopedia deepen honestly without inventing facts.
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Aldridge is one of the six rookies in the set's /99 summit, which is the cleanest way to understand 2006-07's rookie hierarchy. He gives the class a serious long-career cornerstone beyond Brandon Roy's immediate peak and Rajon Rondo's later hobby re-evaluation.
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TCDB documents Durant at card #94 in the four-card /99 summit of the 2007 rookie autograph-memorabilia structure. That matters because it gives the late-run set a true flagship rather than a generic star rookie, and Cardboard Connection's all-time Exquisite rookie ranking puts the card at #2 overall.
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Stephen Curry is the most important reason the final NBA Exquisite release cannot be dismissed as a mere epilogue. The card is not a classic NBA patch autograph, but it is a source-backed Curry autograph inside the 37-card /225 rookie spine, and that alone gives 2009-10 lasting collector gravity.
Player
LaMarcus Aldridge is part of the 2006-07 /99 rookie summit, making him one of the clearest anchor points for understanding that year's actual rookie hierarchy rather than treating the season as a generic bridge year.
rookie-class anchor
Player
Kevin Durant is the signature rookie anchor of 2007-08 Exquisite and the card that gives the late-run year its real hobby gravity. The full TCDB checklist shows him not only in the four-card /99 rookie autograph-memorabilia summit, but also across marquee 2007 insert branches like Limited Logos, Numbers, Year One Autographs, and the Kobe pairing in Dual Logoman Autographs.
rookie-class anchor
Player
Stephen Curry is the central reason 2009-10 Exquisite still matters to serious collectors. The full TCDB rookie spine places him in both the AU/RC core at #64 and the autograph-only continuation at #72, and the player-numbered Rookie Parallel branch reinforces that the final NBA release still knew how to build scarcity around a major rookie.
rookie-class anchor
