PSA will start grading STAR BASKETBALL CARDS again. You can drop off at the National.

BPorter26

at the 30-minute mark is when they start talk about grading STAR. This is huge for Star Basketball collectors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNugxU4DwTg

erikthredd

I've got a BGS 4.5 #101 that I would love to crossover into a PSA slab but having it come back as-is while being out about 1K in Fees/SH/INs would definitely hurt. I may just wait until we start to see some collectors post their results first. I honestly wouldn't care to much about the grade or reselling it after. I'd also think about doing the same with his #195 OLY,#288 ROY & 5x7 #26 Court Kings too.

Nathaniel1960

Holy crap.

NGS428

What is the real Jordan rookie again?

CardGeek

Hey, just like Beckett.

mintonlypls

Does Star Basketball still produce basketball cards or was it just a one year production?

Ahmanfan

This is massive news.

mintonlypls

Even though Star Basketball Card Company produced the first Michael Jordan card in 1984...the 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan is a more iconic card with a flying dunk...it truly defines Air Jordan in the photo.

It is like the 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle vs the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. His 1952 Topps is iconic, more desirable and more valuable.

coolstanley

My favorite Jordan rookie is the 1985 Nike promo card.

ArtVandelay

amazing to hear! I have been holding on to my Star collection for like 10 years hoping this would happen.

Cakes

@mintonlypls said:
Even though Star Basketball Card Company produced the first Michael Jordan card in 1984...the 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan is a more iconic card with a flying dunk...it truly defines Air Jordan in the photo.

It is like the 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle vs the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle. His 1952 Topps is iconic, more desirable and more valuable.

It will be interesting to see if that holds true. I will check back on 7/1/23.

frankhardy

I wonder if the Fleer card/sticker will see a drop in value?

rtimmer

@mintonlypls said:
Even though Star Basketball Card Company produced the first Michael Jordan card in 1984...the 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan is a more iconic card with a flying dunk...it truly defines Air Jordan in the photo.

I think this move by PSA will bring a lot of attention and education to the hobby for people who think like this today when they see the 1984-85 Jordan Court King and Slam dunk cards in a PSA holder. The Jordan 101 is certainly nothing visually stunning to look at but the Court Kings are from his first year and awesome looking and the whole Slam dunk set is so historically significant plus awesome looking. Certainly equal to more impressive looking than the 86 Fleer Jordan when you have all 3 in hand. Plus you can’t see the Jordan 1s in a Fleer card!

If one day collectors recognize these as the first year cards and the Fleer as the 3rd year cards it will be interesting to see what prices do:

mintonlypls

Did PSA grade Star Basketball cards at one time….OP title implies PSA did? If so…how did collectors/investors embrace/receive this company’s short-lived production? Were prices less, equal to or more than the Fleer basketball cards…specifically the 1986 Jordan?

I agree that PSA grading Star Basketball cards will increase the value of the 1984 Jordan…but my personal opinion is that the 1986 Fleer Jordan will be the card to own and more pricey than the Star Basketball Jordan.

Fly-by-the-night companies like Star Basketball do not hold as much significance/weight as a company like Fleer building a reputation over the years of being a viable company.

rtimmer

@mintonlypls said:
Did PSA grade Star Basketball cards at one time….OP title implies PSA did? If so…how did collectors/investors embrace this company’s short-lived production? We’re prices less, equal or more than the Fleer basketball cards…specifically the 1986 Jordan?

I agree that PSA grading Star Basketball cards will increase value in the 1984 Jordan…but my personal opinion is that the 1986 Fleer Jordan will be the card to own and more pricey than the Star Basketball Jordan.

Fly-by-the-night companies like Star Basketball do not hold as much significance as a company like Fleer building reputation over the years.

Yes PSA graded the Star cards in the 1990’s but stopped when some specific Star sheets were found to be created and printed in the 90’s with 1980’s dating. Since it’s been so long not sure we can draw an accurate price comparison.

I would disagree and my personal opinion is that a Star 101 Jordan PSA 10 would be worth more than a Fleer Jordan PSA 10 probably a lot more as a matter of supply and demand economics alone.

Obviously Star went out of business and their CEO in 1997 started reprinting some Jordan Olympic sets and selling them on the Shop at Home channel as 1985 cards so not a great history but for 3 years they did hold the official NBA license and produced some of the rarest most important basketball cards the hobby has ever seen. I think PSA getting back into the game is going to change the Star vs Fleer investment dynamics greatly.

mintonlypls

We agree to disagree…

How can a collector/investor determine if a Jordan was from a sheet printed in the 1990s but with a 1980s date. As a collector/ investor that would be very concerning that it is an original printing from the 1980s.

Thanks for that information about the history of Star Basketball cards and reprinting…

Cs223406

I am not even sure a PSA 10 Jordan exists -- these cards, unlike the Fleer, were produced in such short supply (and those that do exist are usually not great quality with miscuts, centering, surface and print issues alongside delicate corners. Not saying that Fleer didn't have issues and sometimes you don't even get a gradeable card from a pack -- the boundless supply of 1986-87 Fleer ensures a quantity of PSA10s and abundance of PSA8/9s.

Then comes the registry. The Star sets are all larger than the 132 card Fleer set. I can imagine many BGS 8-9s ending up as PSA6-7s.. it will be extremely difficult. Also, given the current cost to grade 1 card, are you really going to pay 50$ to grade a Ben Poquette? The 1986-87 Fleer Registry is one of the strongest, if not the strongest in all of Basketball registries.

Next, how many cards will PSA actually grade? How will they determine Type IIs? I imagine several will be sent back to collectors without a grade. I do think the controversies are overblown and I am certain there are probably more fake 86 Fleers lurking these days.

Many questions remain.

With that said, these sets (as Ryan mentioned above) cover some of the most important years in basketball history. They have incredible photography and team color-matching. I am a huge fan. If a PSA10 Jordan exists, it will be a million dollar card at least.

mintonlypls

This is a very interesting topic! I appreciate all the responses since I knew nothing about Star Basketball cards. It seems authenticity of the year of printing remains the biggest obstacle for grading and confidence of shelling out the money that a 1986 Fleer Jordan brings. Reprinting the issue in the 1990s hurts the reputation of the Star Basketball company. Also…production quality of Star Basketball cards from the above thread apparently was poor.

rtimmer

@Cs223406 said:
I am not even sure a PSA 10 Jordan exists -- these cards, unlike the Fleer, were produced in such short supply (and those that do exist are usually not great quality with miscuts, centering, surface and print issues alongside delicate corners. Not saying that Fleer didn't have issues and sometimes you don't even get a gradeable card from a pack -- the boundless supply of 1986-87 Fleer ensures a quantity of PSA10s and abundance of PSA8/9s..

Next, how many cards will PSA actually grade? How will they determine Type IIs? I imagine several will be sent back to collectors without a grade. I do think the controversies are overblown and I am certain there are probably more fake 86 Fleers lurking these days.

With that said, these sets (as Ryan mentioned above) cover some of the most important years in basketball history. They have incredible photography and team color-matching. I am a huge fan. If a PSA10 Jordan exists, it will be a million dollar card at least.

Correct a PSA 10 doesn’t exist yet and that’s why I took the Jordan 101 Star PSA 10 being more valuable than an 86 Fleer PSA 10 with mintonlypls. I think the first Star PSA 10 Jordan to sell will crush the highest ever PSA 10 Fleer sale.

The direct comparison we can make though is with BGS and today there are 3 Star- 9.5 BGS graded cards versus roughly 550 86 Fleer 9.5 Jordan cards. The Star card is inherently ridiculously rare compared to the Fleer. I even think a BGS 9.5 Star Jordan would sell for more than a Fleer PSA 10 card today so taking the side of the PSA 10 Star card against mintonlypls PSA 10 Fleer seems like a slam dunk😉

True there is a lot of fear around “fakes” created partly by PSA pulling out of the Star grading in the 1990’s that affects values. The good news though is that Type II’s have clear print defects that a competent eye can detect and the scarier 1997 reprint cards have known incorrect color borders making them very easy to tell apart. Even though the reprinter had some original plates they could not source the original 1980’s paper in 1997 and the NBA quickly sued and shut down this shop at home scam.

The other fact that most folks aren't aware of is that the Jordan 101, and Court kings or Slam dunk sets were never reprinted from original plates so those cards are “safe” from these issues.

erikthredd

@mintonlypls said:
This is a very interesting topic! I appreciate all the responses since I knew nothing about Star Basketball cards.

Here's a decent site that provides a good amount of info on Star cards, its definitely worth checking out,imo.
https://www.basketballgold.com/index.php

Browns1981

We’re these originally released in packs or in full sets?

BPorter26

@Browns1981 said:
We’re these originally released in packs or in full sets?

They were distributed in a team bag set of all 23 NBA teams as well as the subsets. You had to order these by mail and pick the teams you wanted. Here's a few of mine that I still have in bags.

Ahmanfan

@BPorter26 said:

@Browns1981 said:
We’re these originally released in packs or in full sets?

They were distributed in a team bag set of all 23 NBA teams as well as the subsets. You had to order these by mail and pick the teams you wanted. Here's a few of mine that I still have in bags.

Awesome

basketballcollector

Where are you Jordan collectors, where are you ?

Nathaniel1960

Nathaniel1960

erikthredd

Tibor

Didn't they at one time grade STAR cards? Then they quit. Now after a hiatus,
they are starting again. What new nugget(s) of info have they come across that
they would start again? Weren't some of the earlier attempts found to be fakes?
Didn't STAR also produce baseball cards as well?

BPorter26

@Tibor said:
Didn't they at one time grade STAR cards? Then they quit. Now after a hiatus,
they are starting again. What new nugget(s) of info have they come across that
they would start again? Weren't some of the earlier attempts found to be fakes?
Didn't STAR also produce baseball cards as well?

PSA in their early stages graded Star and I think from not being educated enough on the differences between real and reproductions of Star cards decided to stop grading them. I believe Nat Turner has put the right people in place that are educated on Star cards to resume grading again. I think this is a game changer for Star cards. PSA to start will only grade the 1984-85 set and then hopefully move forward. The first set Star produced was 83-84 will not be graded as of yet. That set has Dominique, Isiah, Drexler and Tom Chamber RC's. Of Course, the 84-85 set has the big 4 MJ, Charles, Olajuwan and Stockton.

BPorter26

@basketballcollector said:
Where are you Jordan collectors, where are you?

I sold my MJ set as well as my All-NBA Rookie Bag Set and this is all I have left.

rtimmer

@Tibor said:
Didn't they at one time grade STAR cards? Then they quit. Now after a hiatus,
they are starting again. What new nugget(s) of info have they come across that
they would start again? Weren't some of the earlier attempts found to be fakes?
Didn't STAR also produce baseball cards as well?

Yes there was a 1997 Shop at home scam that used a couple original printing plates to reprint some 1980’s card sets mostly Olympic related but they could not locate the same paper so they are pretty easy to tell apart and neither the Jordan 101 or Court Kings or Slam dunk sets were ever reprinted.

Yes some of the Star baseball cards are pretty cool I love these early signage Clemens:

steel75

There seems to be a lot of "looking down" at Star NBA cards as somehow "inferior" to the 86 Fleer. Production quality was bad, but 86 Fleer cards are centering nightmares.
The whole reprint/scam argument is ironic when threads and websites are dedicated to identify fake 86 Fleer Jordan cards. It does remind me of the Mantle debate of 51 Bowman vs 52 Topps though.
I do think some of what is driving this is 86 Fleer Jordan's are more plentiful the Star Jordan's, thus collector's who don't have a Star "RC" Jordan don't want to give it any credence.

steel75

Before the PSA news: These are not legit RC's....PSA won't even grade them so that tells you something right there

After the PSA news: Well......umm....The 86 Fleer is iconic (AKA as I don't have a Star RC)

Gansetttime

Star Basketball was only available from authorized dealers or in trade magazine ads. It was not a mainstream issue, like the '86 Fleer. I purchased my Star products in the 80s from an authorized dealer who set up at shows, and he couldn't give the stuff away then. Sets were cheap to purchase, and there was no interest as Star wasn't a known big company like Topps.
'86 Fleer was a mainstream issue, a reasonable set count of 132, met with little interest, and much more production. When the basketball card hobby exploded, this set became the go to release as it was easier to find, from a big company, and little question about the authenticity of the release.

Star sets was a sleeper investment if PSA ever decided to go back to grading them. I expect demand to pick up on these cards as they open up more options on other Star sets and player registries expand to include them. The short supply of authentic high grade examples will eventually drive demand and interest in my opinion.

This topic reminds me of the 80s debate of traded sets vs mainstream sets for rookie cards. The Star is Jordan's first card, but his first mainstream card is the Fleer. Both will be valuable and in demand in different ways. If I had a preference, it'd be the Star, because it was the first release, but happy having the Fleer as a consolation prize nonetheless!

hyperchipper09

Long overdue. No Jordans here, no plan to add any but I can rustle up some Drexlers, Worthy's, Toneys, Ewing's and Eddie Johnson's when the time comes

erikthredd

Nat Turner recently posted on twitter about these two freshly graded Star cards and I gotta say that these MJ 101's are going to look great in a PSA slab. (Not sure if these are his cards or someone else's)

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXFMAhGXEAAit10?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FXFMCokXwAMK2C4?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

rtimmer

All right I took my chances and sent some star basketball cards off the PSA to cross over. I wonder how long it’ll be before they start grading the 1985 cards?

Cakes

WOW! Those are some nice round mounds.

TsavoriteSam

I have a complete set of sealed bags. What are these worth now? I’m going to bring them with me Thursday to AC

hookem

I sold this around 8 years ago for $2K to fund a Vegas trip. Horrible decision!

basketballcollector

@hookem said:

I sold this around 8 years ago for $2K to fund a Vegas trip. Horrible decision!

Oh no. You would be a very wealthy man if you sold it nowadays.

azvike

I just sent in a sub that had 3 Star cards in it...it just went into Grading, where they send you the email to review the order...and my 3 cards are labelled "no grade, no charge"...are they grading them or not?...do I need to push back? (they are not Jordans BTW...not sure if that makes a difference)

erikthredd

@azvike said:
I just sent in a sub that had 3 Star cards in it...it just went into Grading, where they send you the email to review the order...and my 3 cards are labelled "no grade, no charge"...are they grading them or not?...do I need to push back? (they are not Jordans BTW...not sure if that makes a difference)

Are the 3 cards from the 1984-85 Star set? I could be wrong but I thought I read somewhere that they were starting with just that one year before adding the others.

azvike

2 are 84 Star and 1 is 85 Star - Gatorade...

erikthredd

@azvike said:
2 are 84 Star and 1 is 85 Star - Gatorade...

You might want to try calling them. Good luck.

azvike

I'll call tomorrow...

rtimmer

@azvike said:
2 are 84 Star and 1 is 85 Star - Gatorade...

Pretty sure they aren’t grading the Gatorade yet, Which 2 84 star?

azvike

11 Isiah Thomas and #D8 James Worthy.

azvike

I just received the greatest non-answer in history...LOL

(Collectors Universe)

Jul 29, 2022, 17:00 PDT

Hello ,

Thank you for contacting PSA customer care!

Unfortunately, the order cannot be adjusted at this time. The items will be returned as initially advised. However, you can resubmit them once received for services.

Let us know if you have any additional questions!

Best Regards,

PSA Customer Service

mcadams

@hookem said:

I sold this around 8 years ago for $2K to fund a Vegas trip. Horrible decision!

Ouch. Sorry hookem.

rtimmer

@azvike said:

11 Isiah Thomas and #D8 James Worthy.

Yeah makes sense that Isiah is an 83 not 84 and the Worthy is from the Arena set and not the normal 84 set. I think at this time they are only grading the 84 regular set. But I do hope they move to 1985 Court kings and Slam Dunk and Gatorade sets and maybe someday your 2 cards sets will be added too.